If there is one unifying theme which groups together the characters, it is the difficulty of parenthood. Whether it is Bernard, who cannot live up to the expectations placed upon him by his mother and father, or the young Claire, who discovers that her father is about to perform a huge sacrifice and decides to run away, the difficulty of the choices and actions concerning all aspects of parenthood define large swathes of the novel.

Bernard’s parents are not given a narrative point of view in the text, though their position seems one of the most complicated. Stuck in a slum, they face a moral dilemma: indulge the presence of their town’s nascent gangs, whose money allows them to give their son a better life, or refuse to be a part of the wider criminal problem but remain incredibly poor for the rest of their lives. At the heart of the decision is their son, Bernard. They make the decision to allow the gangs, essentially perpetuating the problem by giving men like Tiye somewhere to meet and relax. They take the gang-members’ money with a complete understanding of where it came from.