The function of the novel is the exploration of the human condition. Really, that's what it's all about.

Mortality defines the human condition.

It was childish to feel disappointed, but childishness comes almost as naturally to a man as to a child.

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.

What you think of others is what you know about yourself

There is a reason the word belonging has a synonym for want at its center; it is the human condition.