What is the theme in Suttree by Cormac McCarthy?

Life as cyclical is another theme in the book. In each stage of Suttree's life in McAnally Flats, he is moving toward the next. After a time in the workhouse, then living again on the houseboat, selling his fish and carousing with his friends, Suttree shifts into a stage of pure survival when he almost dies in the woods. Returning to his former life he meets Joyce and spends a period of time with her, living a falsely constructed life of being part of a couple who pretends to be normal. That cycle ends and Suttree returns to his boat, only to end up with Reese upriver and the loss of his love, Wanda. He returns to Knoxville and becomes deathly ill with typhoid, spending many days being nursed back to health. One can assume that he is moving on to another phase in his life when he walks away from Knoxville.