What are the motifs in Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card?

There is a lot of loss in this novel. For Novinha alone, she loses the man she thought of as her father, Pipo, and the man she had chosen as her lover, Libo. In the loss of these two men, Novinha shuts herself off from the community around her, including her children, and allows herself to be beaten by the man she took as a husband on a nearly daily basis. Not only this, but Novinha loses her parents as a small child due to an illness she dedicated her life to study. This study leads to the death of Pipo, causing Novinha to give up her life's work and the man she loves.