Tinkers

Tinkers begins with George lying on his deathbed, and his imminent death at once sets the tone for the novel. George has come to terms with the fact that he is dying. In the last few hours of his life, his family gathers around him and begins mourning in earnest. George, who is often tucked away in dreams and hallucinations during these final moments, barely registers their grief but he understands that they are attempting to comfort him. However, George does not care about his physical comfort, since he knows this cannot change the outcome. He thinks that “physical comfort...[is] as meaningless to him now as it would have been to one of his clocks, […] its broken springs wound down or its lead weights lowered for the last, irreparable time” (194). George associates himself with an “irreparable” clock—he knows that death is moments away and that no amount of comfort and love can alter its course. George’s attitude of acceptance shows that death is inevitable and final. Since the novel begins with George dying, it also shows how the awareness of death shapes George’s understanding of his life, as he attempts to find meaning and human connection in the face of death.