What are the motifs in In the Garden of the North American Martyrs by Tobias Wolff?

The recurring idea of betrayal dominates the narrative of "In the Garden of the North American Martyrs." Mary's betrayal by Louise and the rest of her department at the upstate New York college is foreshadowed by Mary's own lifetime of betraying herself. Readers learn early in th story that Mary has betrayed her own inner compass by making a habit of suppressing her true feelngs and practising dull, safe scholarship. The costs of this betrayal are physical as well as intellectual. She loses her ability to speak freely and spontaneously, wryly attributes a premature hearing loss to her tendency to hang on the words of others, and contracts a mysterious illness in her lungs.