Youth and innocence
Else's story is one that takes her from the ritzy glamour of a fancy European spa hotel, through lengthy stream-of-consciousness considerations, into a somewhat unraveled state of mind, clearly showing her fall from innocence. She is young, but she is becoming old enough to have overtly sexual desires and thoughts, and as she realizes that there might be a way to use her sexuality to gain money, she must decide for herself what she thinks. She is removed from innocence by a quest to save her parents, a common literary motif for coming-of-age stories.
Prejudice and social pressure
Right out of the gates, Else realizes that there are some obstacles standing between her and her goal. It isn't as easy as just finding help and saving the day. She is not taken seriously, because she is a girl, because she is young, and because she is Jewish. The social brokenness of her world makes her paranoid and frustrated, and the cost on her mental health becomes clear as she starts to crack under the pressure of judgment from others.
Family and self
She just wants to make her parents happy, but Else cannot help but resent them for putting her in a no-win situation with a thin margin for hope. She has to please them, she feels, but she is chronically lonely, and those who seem willing to help make her feel very unsafe, as if they might be exploiting her. She must arrange within herself plans and strategies for her journey, but without being properly educated about life's misery, her journey quickly devolves into an untangling of self.
