The hero's development is the major theme of Hamill's novel. Bobby moves from a blind, confused state of adolescent self sabotage to a more considered, self-aware vantage point. From here, he, although putatively defeated, is able to triumph over the dark forces of his father and the Darwinian world of the fight game. He becomes the type of Celtic warrior embodied most fully in the story of the hero Cuchulainn, the Hound of Ulster, with his legendary thirst for battle, fame, and fits of anger, in which he literally "sees red," destroying whatever blocks his path.

Bobby's struggle is an emblem not only of his own solitary quest, but also that of all immigrants—the dispossessed newcomers in every land who must fight to establish their dominance in the streets and in society at large. Bobby, whose green fighter's robe is emblazoned with a shamrock, inspires Irish pride among the working-class fans who cheer him on in the ring and in the street fights. His mother Kate, a Native American, is one whose presence and demeanor suggests another lost world of valor and doomed beauty. The fight itself, the boxing motif which informs the novel, reinforces the theme of struggle and combat, in which fighters compete with one another for dominance and with themselves for perfection, both in technique and in their ability to control their own fears and weaknesses.

The struggle to control and comprehend one's own sense of dispossession, loss, and alienation by training, testing, and triumph in the ring transforms the initiate into a sort of urban gladiator, struggling constantly against the forces, both personal and environmental, which threaten to overwhelm him. The theme of mother-son incest heightens the sense of darkness and fated mystery that permeates the novel. Both Kate and Bobby are drawn into a convoluted world of coercion where the hidden yet always powerful figure of Jack Fallon is able to control and manipulate the fight game and the personal destiny of both Kate and Bobby. This continues until Bobby is at last able to know and free himself from his godlike father who requires the son's struggle, suffering, and ultimate defeat. Religious symbolism of sacrifice, communion, and transformation in an archetypal search for the absent yet potent father is present in the title and also in the structure of Hamill's novel.