Failure to Accept Change
The very setting of the Bardo speaks to the author's emphasis upon the necessity for acceptance. This liminal space is where people who have died reside before they submit to their death and descend into the afterlife. While here they remain ghosts. Both Hans and Roger have stayed here for sometime, failing to accept their deaths. For personal reasons they both hold onto their previous lives and choose to stay in the in-between. For his part, Willie believes that he can effect change in the material world from the Bardo, but this is another example of his youthful impetuousness showing up. He can no more interact with his father than he can undo his own death, but still Willie remains in the Bardo as long as he tries.
Imminence
The entire narrative hints toward a progression, without explaining what the imminence is leading to. For instance, Willie is determined to try and reach his father from the other side, but his time, according to Hans and Roger, is limited. He must do something before the tendrils overtake him like other visitors to the Bardo. While he's pressed for time, Willie lingers in the Bardo because he feels a profound conviction that something will happen. He doesn't believe he's stuck here forever. Similarly, Abraham Lincoln, on the other side, possesses a superstition that something strange has happened as a result of his son's death. Both Willie and Abraham are relieved and horrified to learn that Abraham's death was the object of the impending sense.
Forgetfulness
Memory plays a key role in the plot of this story, keeping Willie in the Bardo and causing Abraham to return to the cemetery. They common theme is forgetfulness. For Willie, this looks like a chasm of memory from his last day. He wakes up believing he is still alive, with no memory of his death. Perhaps this lack of memory is part of what makes him loathe to pass on into the afterlife because he didn't receive closure. In a way, he doesn't feel like he belongs to death yet. For Abraham, his memory is distraught by images of his son alive and well. He's suffering from grief, so he's wrapped up in a constant trap of memory and returns to the cemetery believing he had forgot something there. Whether or not Hans and Roger affected him is doubtful.
