The epoch (Allegory)
The period depicted in the story is the 1960s. This is a time when the understanding of many concepts has changed and it was easier for people to do want they wanted to and what was inappropriate or even unacceptable earlier, we can see that in the story when the author illustrates Edward’s opinion about “self-pleasuring”: “He was born too late in the century, in 1940, to believe that he was abusing his body, that his sight would be impaired, or that God watched with stern incredulity as he bent daily to the task. Or even that everyone knew about it from his pale and inward look”. It was the time of relatively free moral values when the youth didn’t see anything bad or immoral in such intimate things, it was just a common deed and “goal was release—from the urgent, thought-confining desire for what could not be immediately had”.
Love and Sex (Motif)
The motif of interconnection between love and sex is the main one in the story. There are two opposite opinions in the novel: from the one hand we see beautiful and pure Florence, who believes that love is something pristine and ambrosial, and sex is an ugly and disgusting and love can and should exist without sex; on the other hand we see Edward, who loves Florence and wants to have both her soul and body, he is passionate and sex for him is one of the vital aspects of love. This contradiction is the main conflict of the novel and it affects not only their relationship but the life of the characters.
Fear (Motif)
The fear paralyzes both our body and mind; it makes us weak and naked in the face of life's challenges. When one is afraid of something , one tries to avoid the source of one's fear, as Florence tried. She was afraid to have sex with Edward, it was the most disgusting and abusing thing in the whole world for her, so when the moment came, she run away, couldn’t stand her fear any longer. This fear was quite reasonable for young girl, who doesn’t know what the sex is and just read from books that it is a kind of “entering ” and “penetration”. She thought that she will cope with it, but she couldn’t, the fear of being abused was too strong to bear it.
Social immaturity (Motif)
The motif of social immaturity is prominent in the story. Two people, who are too young for adult life, face the sad realities of social judgment and prejudices which lead to the conflict and further separation. It happens because they are not mature enough to meet all these problems and cope with them, they are blind and naïve, and they don’t understand each other, their infantilism ruined their happiness.