As in all of Elie Wiesel's books, the primary social concern is the suffering of Holocaust victims, even decades after the conclusion of World War II.

Wiesel demonstrates how the effects of the suffering are incessant, and that they do not cease or even diminish over time.

The protagonist informs an Englishman whom he encounters that he is "now just a messenger of the dead among the living." Although the Holocaust survivor has endured, Wiesel implies, he only remains partly alive. Part of the survivor dies with the victims whose deaths he observes, and he only remains alive so that he may provide testimony of the atrocities that he has witnessed. The testimony of the Holocaust survivor is important, and that is one of the reasons why Kathleen is attracted to him.

Because the survivor is only partly alive, he might have a yearning for death...