What is the theme in The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks?

The book explores how grief is approached when a community is presented with a large-scale tragedy like the school bus accident. Immediate families are affected, of course, but the collective group of Sam Dent citizens is impacted and as a result, the area will never be the same. Billy Ansel explains that “a town that loses its children loses its meaning” and Sam Dent indeed becomes a different place – one many try to escape by moving away or abusing alcohol. Sam Dent becomes a community of two eras: the town before the accident and the town struggling to find new meaning after the tragedy.