Time

The concept of time is explored extensively in Sexing the Cherry, and time is arguably the most important theme that the novel investigates. The novel opens with a comment of the Hopi Indians' lack of words for different tenses. The narrative begins with the first thing that Jordan remembers, the night divided. Throughout the text, the narration alternates between time periods, specifically the seventeenth and twentieth centuries; however, the fact that the primary characters in 1990 seem to emulate Jordan and the Dog-Woman serves as a commentary on the incongruity of time. Throughout the novel, flashbacks to the characters' childhoods and other various times in their pasts and futures are common and seem to speak of the subjective nature of time.

In Jordan's narrations, he indicates a connection between time and travel. The anecdote of Jordan meeting Fortunata emphasizes his uncertainty as to whether it occurs in the past...