Jim, inherently romantic, feels that his adult life is lacking and yearns for lasting significance in his past. He aims to celebrate the particular era of American history in which he was raised. In doing so, he attempts to romanticize unsettling or unpleasant memories, while seeking to imbue joyful ones with a sense of permanence. However, the very structure of his narrative, which chronicles the progression of time, inevitably distances him from his past. It starkly emphasizes the disappearance of the pioneer era and his own journey from youth to adulthood. This tension between his desire to "preserve" the past in imagination and memory and the acknowledgment of time's relentless march is evident throughout the novel.