What is an example of repetition in the novel, The Years?

Examples of repetition can be found in the way Kitty hears an anvil struck during an opera — "Hammer, hammer, hammer" (175) — and then Sara hearing the same "hammer, hammer, hammer" in the streets outside her home (181); Sara twice being awoken from drunken sleep with the phrases "It's time," "Time, is it?" (235, 410); Martin twice thinks that conversation with Sara in crowded places "was impossible" (219, 222); and several times in the novel Sara is described as being on the edge of her chair, "swinging her foot up and down" (164, 284, 307). There are many, many other examples of exactly repeated phrases, between different characters and contexts, and across the years that make up the novel.