For those of you that have read "The Illustrated Man", I need a theme, fast! for The Rocket man, which is about a father who neglects (kind of) his family for a job that risks his life (for 3 months) and visits his family for barely 3 days.

The mother's mindset is that he is already dead, just so she doesn't have to be hurt when she gets the news... I need a theme!!! XD

Negative signatures tend to discourage me from replying. Who needs to compound life's problems?

I think, as you hint, there are many themes. I think one is the conflict in life between what we have and what we want (or what we think we want). I find it interesting that when he is in space, he longs for home and family; but when he is home, he longs for space travel. So this would be a kind of general theme.

He also finds a kind of powerful connection when he has his hands in the garden (it's been awhile since I read this story), and I wonder what that says about man's need for "groundedness". Even though he loves space travel, he needs a concrete, physical connection with the earth itself. Can man live without that kind of grounding?

Anyway, two quick thoughts.