George's Dining Room

George's dining room has been turned into George's bedroom and hospital room. George is lying in a hospital bed that is in the dining room. It is while dying in his dining room that George has all of the memories that tell the stories of his life, his father's life and his grandfather's life, as the novel unfolds.

Clocks

George's house, especially his workshop, is filled with clocks. After George retired, he started fixing clocks for a living. Throughout the novel, George talks about the inner workings of clocks. George also compares the inner working of clocks to the human body.

Journal

George thinks that his grandson, Charlie, is reading Howard Crosby's journal. Charlie says it is a notebook in George and Howard's handwriting. At the end of the novel, however, it turns out that Charlie is not reading his grandfather anything, so it seems...