The theme of growing up is the most prevalent theme. Both John and Lorraine are products of dysfunctional families and, like all of us, find it easy to point to their parents as the source of their problems. However, as they create this relationship with Mr. Pignati, they begin to mature and recognize that, in spite of the temptation to blames others, in the end, life is what each of us makes of it and we are the only ones we can blame when it goes wrong.
The theme of fate or destiny is a relatively dominant idea in this novel. The question the author, Paul Zindel, seems to be posing is: How much of life is coincidental, forcing each of us to deal with it as it unfolds and how much of our lives can be blamed upon our active or passive involvement in what goes on around us? Lorraine’s character, for example, is obsessed with all the omens foretelling unhappiness, coming problems, or even death that she missed. She believes that if she had only recognized them as they occurred much of the tragedy she and John experienced would have been avoided. John, on the other hand, is the first to accept the reality that they have created their own heartbreak and now they must deal with the consequences the best they know how. Lorraine eventually understands the truth about destiny as well: we are our own destinies.
The theme of the generation gap is a more subtle undercurrent
as the story unfolds and then is boldly declared in the end. John and Lorraine
enter the world of the elderly and Mr. Pignati enters a world he already lived
in his youth when they befriend each other. John is angry in the end, because he
feels Mr. Pignati trespassed into their world where he really couldn’t go and
didn’t belong. Then, it occurs to him that he and Lorraine trespassed, too, and
now must accept the consequences of trying to befriend a man who was desperate
for anyone to ease his loneliness. Also, the vast gap between these two and
their parents is part of the theme, because in a bid for acceptance and
recognition, John and Lorraine see that their parents will never understand how
they feel. In turn, they will never truly understand how their parents feel
either until they grow up and become parents themselves.