Concentration camp imagery
The novel is about a young Jewish boy who was raised in concentration camps in Nazi Germany. He doesn't know anything about life outside the camps, and he doesn't fully understand religion or Judaism, nor does he have a frame of reference for antisemitism—all he knows is the tangible reality of his life in the camps. He knows cages and locked doors, and he knows armed guards, horror, abuse, and he grows up with a real sense of dread and horror, because he knows that people are dying. As he ages, he understands more and more about the horror of the camps.
Escape and life outside
When David escapes, he sees the world of freedom for the first time. Before, he was told where to go and what to do under threat of torture and death. Now, he sees what life is like outside. No one tells him where to go or what to do. The escape came as a surprise to him, so suddenly, he has to adapt to the future, and he tries to get a frame of reference, but he doesn't know anything about this world. His experience of European wilderness is properly chaotic for him. This imagery is similar in kind to the wilderness imagery of Jewish folklore, making the concentration camp a kind of Egyptian slavery.
People and society
David goes from seeing the world through his life in concentration camps to seeing the world for its natural qualities, traveling alone through European wilderness. Then, he starts encountering various people who color his experience and shape his adventure, sometimes helping him, sometimes instructing him, or perhaps most poignantly, there is the woman named Sophie who paints him. Through the painter, he finds his mother, because he can't help but recognize her in one of the portraits. This imagery is demonstrating how strangers can assist David, whereas before, strangers only afflicted him.
The imagery of home
When David finds his mother's home in Copenhagen, the implication is that he has been guided by fate back into the arms of his mother. His experience of finding home after his life of truly horrific mistreatment and loneliness and fear—it is a religious experience. The tangible imagery here is the imagery of Denmark, the streets, the sleepy villas, and the house. The abstract imagery is religious euphoria and extreme catharsis.
