Self-Obsession
Harrison grows up without the luxury of relying upon his parents. While his mother pursues her various affairs, she provides for her son physically but she remains emotionally unavailable and even looks to Harrison, at times, to help her feel better. Back in the States, his father ships Harrison off to a military boarding school. The message is clear: the boy is an inconvenience. As a result of this neglect, Harrison becomes consumed with his own feelings. He looks out for himself, usually at the cost of other people around him, following the model of emotional health demonstrated to him by both parents. His journals reveal this trend of self-absorption which later becomes a clear obsession.
When Harrison receives Frida's parting gift, he doesn't even open the parcel. He believes it's a painting with some abstract sentimental value. Since the gift has nothing to do with him personally, Harrison doesn't even open it for years. When he finally does, however, he's overjoyed to learn the contents are his old journals.
Extra-Marital Love
The constant shifting of the characters' romantic intentions comprises a theme. From both of his parents, Harrison learns that romance is a thing to be used strategically. His parents are divorced, his mother having pursued a series of lovers in Mexico. At one point, she and Harrison live in a home supplied by a married man while he keeps Harrison's mother as his mistress. This pattern is then repeated again when Harrison lives with Rivera and his wife. He pursues Frida and has a somewhat lengthy affair with her, which causes tension but not rejection between he and Rivera. As a result of his own sexual orientation, perhaps, Harrison believes he is not destined to marry for love since he is not allowed to marry a man. At any rate, the sexual confusion of his early years, lost to the burned diaries, surely contributes to his adult promiscuity.
Devotion
Because Harrison is so inspired and well-treated by Rivera and Frida, he remains with them on the compound even after the situation becomes dangerous. He is their loyal employee, but he becomes so much more to them over the years. He is Frida's love and Rivera's confidant. After Rivera is assassinated, Harrison is subjected to questioning by the police and forced to flee the country. Back in the U.S. he is plagued by that past time with the Rivera's because the Red Scare is sweeping the nation. Harrison's final book is boycotted because of his association with Communism, even though he does not agree with Communism personally. Eventually this rejection drives Harrison back to seclusion in Mexico, but Violet accompanies him. She remains his constant, faithful companion until his death, after which she compiles these journals in order to clear his name of this Communist association for posterity. Her devotion to him far exceeds a normal employer-employee relationship.
