What is the unifying theme in the novel, The Hole Man?

The unifying theme of this complicated story is one likely to be familiar to anyone who has been forced into a close relationship with strangers who have their own interests and problems and who are unlikely to be sympathetic to those who are shy.

In other words, the theme applies to people who have gone to school, worked in an office, or served in the military. Ridicule.

Relentless abuse for faults that cannot be helped; relentless abuse for being unusual; relentless abuse when the abuse is undeserved. Lear is abused even when he is right, even when his work is productive and important. "All right, show me! Show it to me or admit it isn't there!" demands Childrey. To have the tormentor destroyed by his own refusal to believe his victim, by the very thing he denies exists, gives the theme a visceral punch that stems from the bully getting what he thematically deserves.