What are the motifs in Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell?

Unfulfilled Expectations is a recurring idea in the story. Jeeter hears that one of his sons has a successful business in a nearby town. Jeeter plots to go visit this son and ask him for money. Jeeter figures the least this son could do is give his father a little money for all the work he put into raising him. However, the reader can see that Jeeter rarely puts a great deal of work into anything. The son refuses to support his father and soon after Jeeter and his wife die when he actually attempts to prepare the fields for planting by lighting them on fire. Unfortunately, Jeeter goes to bed while the fires are still raging and they turn, burning down his house around him.