Youthful Dreams
As Pascal grows older, he is rudely slapped in the face with the truth of the world - not everything goes the way you planned it. When he was younger, he believed that he would marry the wife of his dreams, who also happened to have a small fortune. This, however, is far from what actually happened. Pascal marries a woman he does not love, has two of his daughters die, and runs away from home. Pascal still has youthful spirit in him yet, but this immaturity is what usually gets him into trouble.
Adaptation to Loss
By the end of the novel, after Pascal found out that his family pronounced him dead, he decides to go back home. Perhaps, he believes, he can tell everyone that he wasn't dead after all and go back to the old way of things. However, he finds instead a community that has adapted to life without him - in other words, he is no longer needed. Feeling as though no ones wants him, he remains an outcast for the rest of his life because of the decision he made years ago to run away from home.
Coping With Hard Times
Everyone experiences varying levels of difficulties during their life at one point or another. What really defines you as a person is how you handle those tough situations. Typically, those who take the "harder" way out - that is, coping with the problem and finding a solution, despite the possibility that that solution may involve compromises, are usually seen as more respectable.
Instead of dealing with the death of his two daughters and his mother, Pascal runs away to a casino city. There, he (luckily for his wallet but not luckily for his emotional health) wins a small fortune and goes to Rome. He finds out that he has been declared dead by his home community, and takes a false identity. Once again, instead of coming out and explaining the predicament to law enforcement, he decides to live himself a lie, which is not a healthy thing to do.
