Time
At the novel's conclusion, Treacle Walker expresses a desire to live outside of time in order to enter a state of "oblivion," detached from an awareness of time's passing. This theme is further supported by the novel's epigraph, a quote from Carlo Rovelli that states, "Time is ignorance." Just as Treacle Walker pushes Joe—along with the reader—to let go of his expectations surrounding the perception of reality, it also proposes that time, too, deserves to be approached with similar skepticism. The novel uses no dates or markers of time passing; its form reflects Treacle Walker's own desire to live outside of time, since the reader must let go of their expectation of understanding or being able to ground the novel in a chronological sense.
British Landscapes
The landscapes that Garner describes are distinctly British; the bogs and meadows recall the British countryside, while each of the trees that he mentions—such as alders—are commonly found in Britain as well. This strong sense of setting, along with the British slang and colloquialisms that are scattered throughout the text, contributes to its overall ability to convey not only a story, but also a sense of a country, culture, and identity. Treacle Walker's white pony, for example, is also an allusion to the Uffington White Horse, a prehistoric hill figure located in the English parish of Uffington and made up of deep trenches that were filled with chalk. The donkey stone alludes to a scouring block used in Northern English mill towns until the mid-20th century.
Sight and Perception
Treacle Walker repeatedly tells Joe that he must not conflate sight and perception: that to see and to perceive, or see and have sight, are two different things. This distinction emphasizes the difference between the mere act of seeing something and the act of truly, mentally understanding that thing. As Joe develops his second sight, he realizes that his prior "ordinary" vision did not see all that there was in the world, such as Thin Amren in the bog. At first, Joe wants to reject the reversal of his good eye into one that possesses the "glamourie." He even switches from calling it his "good eye" to calling it his "wonky eye," referencing the alternate reality that he now sees with it. While Joe at first resists his new sight, he later learns to use it and embrace it.
Wordplay
Throughout Treacle Walker, both Thin Amren and Treacle Walker use wordplay every time they speak to Joe. They employ riddles, jokes, nonsensical words, made-up compound words, British slang, and even antiquated words or Scottish words, creating a form of speech that starts to border on unintelligible. While this speech is sometimes humorous, it also allows the novel to explore the abilities of language to either convey or obscure meaning. It also parallels Garner's fascination with British colloquial and regional culture.
British Culture of the 20th Century
Many of the objects and references within the novel are related to 20th-century British culture, and the novel draws especially on the lifeworld of British children around the middle of the century. The marbles and Knockout comics are part of Garner's continued focus on British culture, and also relate the novel to his own childhood, as Garner himself was born in 1934 and grew up during the 1940s. The ointment that Treacle Walker uses, "Poor Man's Friend," was an ointment developed in the late 19th century and used throughout Britain well into the 20th century.
Folktale Elements
Treacle Walker features many folktale elements. Treacle Walker giving Joe a green ointment to smear on his eye, for example, reflects the story of the Fairy Midwife and the Magic Ointment, a tale that originated in the town of Clitheroe, located in Lancashire, England. Treacle Walker also fits the common folk tale character type of "the helper," a type that Vladimir Propp identifies in his scholarly work on folk tales and their formal structure. Magical objects, such as the stone, are also a common element in folk tales and fairytales.
Precision and Generalization
Although Garner incorporates many precise references to British history, culture, geography, and slang, he also utilizes imprecise and generalized terms, especially within describing Joe's home and his day-to-day life. Joe's house is fairly nondescript and the surroundings are referred to only as the "Big Meadow," "Pool Field," and "Barn Croft"—all imprecise and generalized places that have no exact location. Other details remain entirely unexplained; Joe's parents or family are absent and we never learn more about where they may be. In incorporating these vaguer details about the characters and setting, Garner pushes the reader to once more reconsider how much precision or accuracy they desire in a text. The precision, counterintuitively, also serves a similar purpose; very few readers will be able to understand every single reference, and so, while reading, the reader must let go of the constant need to understand the text's every invocation.
