What are the motifs in The Beautiful Room Is Empty by Edmund White?

Being an outsider is a recurring idea. A particularly potent obstacle to the narrator's achieving a full and balanced sense of self-identity is his experience of being an outsider, not only in terms of his sexuality but in terms of how he relates to the world as writer, observer, and chronicler. As he portrays himself, he is in many ways defined and driven by a desire to fit in, to be accepted, to be approved of. The two aspects of his personality are clearly in conflict, and it is a conflict that the narrative never entirely resolves.