Coming of age. When you are a child of some things that are real, they look like imaginary (like death) and some things that are imaginary, they seem to be real (like a monster). The process of growing up has a lot to do with discovering what is real and what is not. Growing up teaches us life lessons that make us grow up to become good people who care for their family.
The family. The Watsons go through all together. They are family and they are fighting the world as a unit. They love each other, hate each other, irritate each other and try to understand each other.
Friendship. Much affects us. They can be good influences (such as Rufus) or bad influences (such as Buphead), but in any case, who we choose for friends and how we act, has to do with what people we become.
Race. The story is held during the Civil Rights Movement. There were changes in how society treats Afroamericans, and many people who were not happy with these changes responded with hatred and violence. All this makes us think about race.
Mortality. It's a tough lesson for anyone. Especially for 10-year-olds. But that all happened around Watsons. The first dove dies, and then Keny almost drowns, then a bomb in the church kills four little girls. Every time something similar happens, we think about death. And it pushes us, especially Byron and Kenny, to learn some pretty adult lessons about how much death is certain and how fragile the life is.
Guilty. The guilt is quite one of the worst and most powerful feelings. Some of the guilt he experiences is legitimate (as when he hurts Rufus' feelings), but sometimes guilty feelings are related to something we can not control, for things that Kenny can not control (as happened in the church). So the feeling of guilt is not always related to our mistake.
