The premiere theme of the novel is personal loss. Arthur, whose acceptance of loss bears more than a passing resemblance to the biblical character of Job, is central to this theme. Arthur loses his father, most of his friends, his brother, his mother, and his son. Through all of these losses, Arthur soldiers on, though the novel has plenty of examples of people who do not.

Ted Hatchett, for example, who suffers perhaps the greatest personal loss of anyone in the book, returns from war badly disfigured and ultimately makes the choice to kill himself. Jake, unable to deal with his own losses, flees Struan twice, the later time apparently for good.

Ian loses his mother and struggles through this loss, ultimately admitting that he can never forgive her and move beyond the loss. This is symbolized by Ian never opening a single letter that his mother sends him, despite the fact that she sends him over 100 letters.

Another theme running through the novel is the tension between fate and freewill in the characters’ lives. Arthur represents one side of the scale; he is seemingly content to take what fate hands him and is usually not proactive in the situations presented to him.