What are the motifs in A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin?

Love is a recurring idea in this novel. So much of this novel is about love in all its forms - familial, spousal, companionable, patriotic, and natural. Alessandro is clearly a cultivated man who values love; he carries his love for Ariane and his son with himself into battle and is fortunate enough to find at the end of that his lost wife has never stopped loving him. Alessandro's ability to love gradually expands to include all of nature, all people, and himself. Somehow, the author manages to deal with the question of love in a way that is not sappy or sentimental. He explores this terrific force in human affairs just as any other aspect of human nature, such as ambition, greed, lust or power. In that sense, the reader is able to understand love in a balanced fashion as a fundamental part of life.