Loneliness
Often, young children create their own friends in their minds so as to keep them occupied. The young boy is not shown to have any friends, or even relatives, and so he is mostly bored all day. By concocting these figures, he manages to keep busy throughout the course of the story. The Hunches are not just thoughts from his brain - they are also his friends.
Power of the mind
This is the most important theme presented throughout the story. The Hunches are solely the creation of the boy’s imagination and represent his creativity. The fact that they take on different physical forms highlights how the mind perceives different things. For example, a playing outside is portrayed in a positive light and is therefore named as a Happy Hunch. As the story goes on, more and more Hunches are developed, thus highlighting the fact that the mind is boundless.
Leadership
This is secondary them running throughout the story. The boy is led by the different Hunches and cannot make up his mind. He is easily swayed by the different judgements of the hunches and therefore veers into different directions throughout the course of the story. The introduction of the Super Hunch is important because ultimately the boy has to make his own mind up and take on the role of the leader to come to a decision.
