The piano piece that Jason practices and plays for Mrs. Breckenridge is "Wilder Reiter," from "Album for the Young, Op. 68" by Robert Schumann. Composed in 1848 for his three daughters, the album consists of a collection of 43 short works, suitable to be played by children or beginners.
The classical music pieces Mrs. Breckenridge plays for Jason are the first movement of Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" and the end of the first movement of Mendelssohn's "String Octet in E Flat Major, Opus 20."
The pictures John-Boy has hanging on the wall of his bedroom are of American poet, essayist and journalist Walt Whitman (1819-1892) and English poet John Keats (1795-1821).