What is central theme of the story, Deliverance?

The overarching theme that loom liked an enormous shadow over every other aspect of Deliverance is the idea of what is the ideal of masculinity. Lewis is immediately situated as the ideal of masculinity in contemporary society. He is what most people’s idea of an athletic, outdoorsman who would be able to survive the apocalypse looks like: tall, muscular, good-looking and seemingly capable of handling any natural emergency that may arise. Once the four city dwellers make their way into the real outdoors represented by backwoods Georgia hillbillies who are called upon to actually survive under what are considered “extreme” conditions on a daily basis, however, everything changes. The other men in the party who would not necessarily be targeted as particularly effeminate and lacking any substantial masculinity become feminized in the eyes of the hillbillies, thus losing all claims to traditional notions of masculinity as they are essentially transformed onto women for the purpose of providing sexual pleasure at the hands of men who—ironically—also do not reflect any of the conventional standard ideals of perfect masculinity. Toothless, wild-eyed and not especially muscular, the backwoods men intent on raping the city men also challenge ideals of masculinity. That it is Lewis who manages to save the men at least from perhaps the worst that might have happened while also becoming virtually useless as a result of the consequences of the encounter is perhaps the film’s greatest irony on the subject of masculinity.