The Bone Clocks

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Parts 1-2

Parts 3-4

Part 5

Part 6

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Large-Scale World Events

Real-life events are a recurring motif in The Bone Clocks, often appearing as part of the novel’s settings. They play several functions: grounding the novel’s fantastical elements in the genre of historical fiction and drawing parallels with the ongoing war between Horology and the Anchorites. In 1984, Holly overhears two people talking about the miners’ strike and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a topic that is brought up again when Holly meets Ian and Heidi. In 2004, Ed is covering the occupation of Iraq as a correspondent.

Mitchell then projects his novel into the future, using the same technique to develop a speculative vision of geopolitical unrest and environmental degradation. In 2043, the world is affected by a cataclysmic event called the Endarkenment and tensions arise around the involvement of the Chinese military in Ireland—events that are portrayed in the same realistic mode as real events.

In each case, adding world-wide situations to the novel underscores the relative helplessness of individuals to influence outcomes of events they are greatly affected by. This parallels the way the Atemporal war affects Holly and many of the people in her life. Holly solution is to join to the Horologists’ efforts anyway; the novel suggests that the only reasonable reaction to powerlessness is persevering to act.

The Script

Several characters in the novel refer to the Script—a description of future events in minute detail. For those who act according to the Script, this exhaustive premonition of the future is both a source of comfort in the midst of chaos and a motivational tool. The Script seemingly explains the roles characters play in events and their outcomes: Rhîmes claims that the Script had failed Horology, Great-Aunt Eilísh references the Script while describing her gift of precognition to Ed, and Soleil Moore references Crispin’s inclusion in the Script when she implores him to read her first book of poems and later when she murders him.

The Script is symbolic of destiny, suggesting that the fates of the novel’s characters are pre-determined. Paradoxically, the idea of the script soothes characters who otherwise feel powerless against the greater forces of the world, giving them the sense that some greater force has foreseen and preapproved their choices.

Bone Clocks

The title of the novel is derived from a derogatory nickname given to humankind by the Anchorites, who look down upon humanity as a lesser species. From their perspective, mortals are only counting time and amount to nothing more than the bones that hold them up. The image of clocks also symbolizes the cyclical nature of history, as the world passes from one generation to the next, and one era to the next, only to repeat previous mistakes. This description highlights human frailty and ephemeral nature in the wide scope of time. Individuals may try to change the world, but their lives are short and soon relegated to history. Humans are capable of perceiving this mismatch as well. In Iceland, Crispin comes to understand that he is no longer considered the future or the present of literature, but its most recent past.

Mazes

In The Bone Clocks, mazes are symbols of memory, possibility, and safe space. The first maze in the narrative is the labyrinth Jacko’s gives to Holly, imploring her to memorize it. Holly wears the labyrinth throughout her life as a memento of her brother. Toward the end of the novel, Holly realizes that Jacko’s present is a map of the escape route from the Anchorites’ chapel—Jacko transformed into the maze after the failure of the First Mission. Her love for and memory of her brother save Holly from being consumed by the Dusk.

Another maze is the winding path of Holly’s memories that Marinus must navigate while searching for Esther Little. Holly’s memory is the perfect asylum for Esther because its immensity and peculiarities make it hard for others to penetrate. Holly’s memory of her life and the reader’s memory of the novel merge as Marinus sifts through previous episodes of the story to find Esther at the beginning of the novel. Esther provides Marinus with specific clues to find her, using details in the scene of Esther and Holly’s first meeting as directions for traversing the maze. The last direction requires Marinus’s own memory to be added to the maze, freeing Esther via her true name, which only Marinus knows.