What are the motifs in Shaking the Nickel Bush by Ralph Moody?

Kindness is a recurring iidea in the story. Kindness is a rare thing in the modern world. There are often random acts of kindness, but not as many in reality as there are in this novel. Ralph proves himself to be the kindest person of all when he takes Lonnie in and buys a car because he knows how much Lonnie likes it. Over and over again Ralph bails Lonnie out and provides him with all the money he might need to survive and to make him happy.