Family and identity
This novel falls in a category of artwork with such thematic and symbolic richness so as to be nearly sublime. The plot involves first and foremost the theme of family and identity. Here are a few of the important reasons to suspect this theme: the boy learns that the man he thought was his father is not his real father. He is cast away as a bastard and discovers his real father dead. He is accused of killing that man, but changes his name and gets away with the crime. Later, when he is imprisoned for his alleged involvement in an act of mutiny, it is his cousin (whose name is French for 'brother') who runs the prison. He struggles to understand who he is because his bedrock for understanding has been removed.
Guilt and innocence
As mentioned, this man, now going by Dawes, is indicted for an act of mutiny by someone who just threw his name out during interrogation, but with no evidence. Remember, Dawes has already had a close encounter with the law; the police found him with the dead body of his true father and took him as the murderer, but since they had no concrete evidence, released him. Dawes is now imprisoned for life although he isn't guilty. In the end, he earns his freedom by sacrificing his innocence to commit a true act of mutiny. The theme points to the injustice of the world, that he should have to condemn himself to be free from false condemnations.
Freedom and fate
The jail time raises important thematic questions about free will and fate. For instance, was it fated that he should be caught? He is constantly in trouble with the police, even when he is innocent; is that an act of fate? The fateful revelation that he isn't who he thought he was, and his father's death, the loss of his inheritance, his subsequent troubles as a poor man—what do all these struggles mean? If fate has chosen this for him, then why? His battle against circumstance is designed to reveal his character to the reader, as if his suffering were a portrait of his soul.
