Moving Beyond the Past

This is the narrative's central theme, manifesting primarily in the experiences and stories of its two central characters, Armpit and Kaira. In terms of Armpit, the story makes it clear right from Chapter 1 that Armpit is determined to put his past (i.e. his criminal history, his stay in a juvenile correction facility) behind him and live a new, positive, productive life. The story not only shows him making efforts to do so, but also portrays the reasoning behind those efforts - specifically his realization, following a frank conversation with a counselor at the correctional facility, that he has to make changes in "small steps", taking one such step at a time. What's interesting about Armpit is how he doesn't always find it easy to do so, getting caught up in Armpit's undeniably criminal scalping scheme, then in lies to cover up that scheme, then...