What are the motifs in The First Man by Albert Camus?

Loss of Innocence. Jacques slowly loses his innocence throughout the novel. Though he has a young spirit during most of his childhood, his innocence is stripped away by his life circumstances. Jacques grows up in poverty, and he does not experience a middle class or upper middle childhood, like his classmates at lycee. He has no traditions to learn from or family stories. His family is illiterate, so they cannot read bedtime stories to him. His father died before he turned one year of age, so Jacques has experienced this loss of innocence since he was a baby. He never has had the genuine, familial experience of a mother, father and children. While living in poverty, he does not have family vacations or luxuries either. It is work all the time for the grandmother, mother and uncle. Jacques lives the life of a poor, almost latch-key kid, or a child who must take care of himself.