The Ministry of Time

Usually referred to only as the Ministry, the Ministry of Time is the body of the British government overseeing time-travel experiments, specifically the expatriation project. It symbolizes colonial powers, the Nazi regime in World War II, and the idea of bullies. As early as the interview stage for the narrator’s job at the Ministry, the interviewer refers to her mother being a refugee from Cambodia, which was part of the French colonial system. This establishes a link between the Ministry and the novel’s examination of colonialism. Just as the narrator’s grandfather wanted her mother to evolve to Cambodia’s French system, Adela eventually wants to ensure the narrator’s loyalty to the Ministry. In fact, she came back in time to make sure the Ministry rises to power so that Britain can maintain the geopolitical advantage it has in her timeline. She notes that the British Empire saw other people’s countries as “useful or negligible but rarely conceived of as autonomous” (26). The Ministry treats people the same way in its unethical experiments. When Arthur—and Maggie in Adela’s timeline—proves less useful than other expats, the Ministry kills him. Like imperialist powers, the Ministry forces its will and dominion on others without regard for their innate rights.