What are the motifs in The Accident by Elie Wiesel?

The connection between suffering and sainthood is a recurring idea in the story. When Kathleen meets Eliezer, she tells him that Shimon thinks he is a saint. Eliezer is appalled at the idea. He tells Kathleen that the only ones who are saints from suffering are those who died. Those who live through suffering of the kind to which he was exposed are not saints. This is because the brutality to which they have been subjected is so extreme that it renders them desperate, and they become brutes.