The Lost Steps relies on a dichotomy between the natural world and human-created environments, emphasizing the conflict and struggle to find a balance between the two. The novel explores the impact of urbanization on the natural world and reflects on the human desire to return to a more authentic, natural state, often idealized as purer and more harmonious than the complexities and artificiality of urban life. It highlights the challenges of integrating with nature, the limitations of trying to dominate it, and the realization that nature operates on its own terms, independent of human control.

The narrator perceives modern civilization, especially in the aftermath of World War II, as a source of peril rather than progress. This is evident in his grim portrayal of urban landscapes. Describing the scene outside his window in New York, he says,  “Solid and silent, the funeral parlour with its multiple corridors seemed a replica in gray of the immense maternity hospital a synagogue and concert hall away” (14). The institutional buildings, despite their varied purposes, have a crushing sameness about them. This imagery describes the dehumanizing aspects of civilization, where spaces of mourning are indistinguishable from those of birth and celebration.