The most prominent theme of Allan’s 101-year meanderings is the idea that anger in every form ultimately leads to futility, or to undesirable consequences for those who act in anger. The narrative conveys this concept in many ways: from an individual’s action—such as Allan’s father striking a railway customer, resulting in his termination—to a head of state launching a war—such as the presidents of North and South Korea starting a conflict that resulted in 4 million deaths and brought about no geographical or governmental change.

The author uses multiple examples to demonstrate the futility and negative results of anger: Allan’s father, whose outrage leads Russian Bolsheviks to shoot and kill him; the police chief in Tehran, whose contemptuous fury inadvertently destroys an entire police station; the Never Again Gang, whose bellicose hostility and enraged actions result in the deaths of all but one of them. The final, ironic instance occurs when Allan, for the first time acting in rage, seeks vengeance for his cat, Molotov, and decides to blow up the fox who killed the cat. In doing so, he inadvertently ignites his entire cache of explosives, destroying his house, and must move into a nursing home.