Fate and tragedy
The tragedy of this novel is easy to appreciate because this is not the hubris of an evil king or something; Ezra's hubris is simply that he loves his life as a successful and powerful student. He does not really notice how much suffering happens at the bottom of the totem pole, and so he is arrogant, but that is not held against him in the book because he starts the book as an adolescent without the proper awareness of death and suffering to be "guilty" of hubris. The shape of this tragedy is imagery that points the reader to adult consciousness, a portrait of which can be found in the denouement.
Girls and self-esteem
For Ezra, girls are an important part of life, but remember that Ezra is used to competing for trophies and power. He dates like that too at the beginning of the novel, picking girls who have no interest in commitment just because they are attractive and because association with those girls will mean social authority in the hallways. Through his relationship with Cassidy, he learns to view women as people, and he detaches his self-esteem from popularity and the approval of pretty girls. She helps him in a concrete conversation that serves as the finale of this dynamic imagery.
Life as suffering
There is an old adage which gets tossed around by writers who are teaching aspiring authors, and it goes like this: Make things happen to your character that you do not want to happen to you in real life. That advice is certainly taken by this author who frames Ezra's experience of life and reality in a dynamic and painful way; through suffering and agony, Ezra is gradually enlightened to a higher power than just success in this life. Because of his close brush with death, he knows that life's various accomplishments are not worth what they seem to be worth, and he learns the unspeakable power of existential gratitude.
Ability and disability
The most thematic imagery of the book is the way Ezra's social life changes because of his changed abilities. The high school student body clearly divides itself into tiers, and Ezra is clearly an alpha male and a top dog. He is defined by his ability to climb hierarchies, but his hubris is that he believes his power is essentially his. When life takes his abilities away in a tragic car accident, he is forced to admit to himself that he is like Luke who calls him a cripple. He also feels shame associated with disability which is an ableist opinion. Instead of stopping there, he grows into a more mature point of view.
