When You Reach Me Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory

When You Reach Me is a deeply intertextual book. That means When You Reach Me often refers to other books and depends upon those other books to help it make meaning – kind of like a book having a...

Since time and time travel are important themes in When You Reach Me, we end up seeing plenty of images of watches and clocks. Time becomes three-dimensional. It's everywhere in the novel. There's...

If you were to make a list of all the keys in this novel, we bet it'd end up being a mighty long list. Talk about imagery overload. Miranda is a latchkey kid, so she's always carrying around a key...

In Chapter 6 we learn that Richard, who sailed ships when he was a kid, loves to tie sailing knots. He teaches Miranda how to do the same and even buys her a set of ropes for Christmas one year.Ric...

It's long been a joke in pop culture that television star Dick Clark never, ever ages. Louisa makes a similar observation while sitting in the studio audience of $20,00 Pyramid: "Isn't it amazing,...

The $20,000 Pyramid was a television game show that was hugely popular in America during the 1970s. In When You Reach Me, Louisa's mother is practicing for an appearance on the show. The game show...