"Why did you read the four books?" a peer asked me after revealing my summer reading list. “Well,” I said, “I thought they would punish me if I didn’t.” Was it a complete lie to get rid of someone, or was it the truth? Although it was probably a combination of the two, I decided to read for myself. I read to discover the issues I was struggling with, like time and humanity. To have feelings I've never felt and to escape. With these books, I was no longer a scared, middle-class white boy from Tennessee, and although it may sound cheesy, I was anyone, anywhere. The question of time has caught my attention since reading Siddhartha. I desperately want to understand time since it is the basis of society. We live in the present, but these words belong to the past. Sure, you could reread the words, but the first impression is of the past. So the past is all we can look at. But the past doesn't matter if it's temporary. In 1984, Orwell declared: “He who controls the past controls the future.” The verb “control” is very important here. It is in the present tense, affirming that he who can change the past owns the future. So why would the past be important if it is changeable? The year could not even be known. It could be the same day forever. Why is the past important anyway...or even the present? On a grand scale, all we know is just one incident. Einstein's Dreams offers a profound statement that indirectly emphasizes that the supernatural controls time. We won't be able to slow down at the last second, so it will last "forever". We cannot touch time; it is beyond our reach. So then, life as we know it ends when God says so. Time will continue to pass at its seemingly eternal pace until the end. It's like a river, unstoppable and always flowing. Trying to fight against the current is futile. Pain just makes you feel like time is passing slower when in fact the river is still flowing. Although personal existence may seem unimportant, Celie of The Color Purple makes an important statement: "I'm poor, I'm black, I might be ugly... But I'm here." Even though the past, future and present may seem incredibly small, it's all we have.