What is the theme in The Canal by Richard Yates?

Memory is an important theme. Yates dramatizes in this story how individuals remember shared experiences (perhaps especially of war) in separate ways and how those different ways of remembering determine or express the person's sense of self. Tom Brace selects from all his military experience in order to shape his story. Soldiers have many experiences in military service, but only some of them offer material for good stories in later civilian life.