What are the motifs in The Invalid's Story by Mark Twain?

I think that honouring the body after death is a motif in the story. Burials in particualr are examined when the narrators dead friend smells badly. When Thompson asks the narrator how long his friend has been dead, the narrator lies, saying "'Two or three days"'—in an attempt to explain the stench. Thompson, however, thinks the narrator is lying, and says, "'Two or three years, you mean."' At this point, the narrator notes how Thompson "gave his views at considerable length upon the unwisdom of putting off burials too long,"