What are the motifs in The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk?

Coming of age is a reoccurring idea. Willie Keith "had risen from his fumbling, incompetent beginnings as Midshipman Keith to the command of a United States warship." The boy who became Captain of the USS Caine is certainly different from the one who played "If you knew what the Gnu knew" and entered the wardroom with an "unfortunate sign of immaturity," sucking his thumb.