Brain damage
This novel is focused around one central plot detail that many stories fail to explain. By drawing attention to brain damage, Martin Amis asks his readers to reconsider their perception of physical violence. Because the cost of brain damage is so high, it is especially important to reconsider using violence ever. This issue is treated from many points of view, and when Clint Smoker commits a murder in his own wrath, the reader should notice that his behavior contradicts his opinion about Xan's situation—he wrongly suspects more violence will help somehow.
Gang life destroys families and lives
Xan thinks his father is Mick Meo, but actually, his true father is the guy who he hates most, Joseph Andrews, a person he hates so much that he offends Andrews gang and is brutally beaten. This is a symbolic picture of how violence distorts a person. Because Xan witnessed violence in the gang surrounding of his youth, and because that gang life happened in his own home, he literally hates his own father and his father hates him back, it seems. His father's people hurt Xan's ability to perceive reality by harming his brain, which is a symbolic picture of how his father's involvement in gang life hurt his perception.
Horror and trauma
This novel treats the difficult problem of trauma. Literally, the novel is about a brain trauma, but also, there is situational trauma, encounters with malice and evil at the hands of others, and encounters with the malice and evil of one's self. The latter idea can be seen clearly in the person of Clint Smoker, who once he realized what brain damage actually caused in Xan's life, he is so disturbed by the truth that he himself has a panic attack where he murders Andrews, but Andrews's death is only the consequence of Smoker's trauma, and it isn't like it undoes Xan's brain damage. The reality of this situation is horrific for all involved, but panic only hurts the cast of characters overall.
