LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Quality
Identity
Rationality and Irrationality
Duality
Zen
Summary
Analysis
The narrator’s recurring nightmare is described in detail. A glass door separates him from his wife and sons. The narrator realizes that his wife is grieving and that the glass door is the door of his own coffin. The narrator tries to cry out to his family but is unable to do so. He is then transported away to a deserted city, which he walks through alone.
The narrator’s nightmare is a highly traumatic reminder of the way his divided personality interferes with his role as a husband and father.