Religion
The religious theme pervades all aspects of the novel. However, critics have not agreed on whether it is "an ironic indictment of Christianity" or a "stirring vindication". Barbara Olson summarized the dispute noting that "those favoring vindication number in their ranks such notable critics as Albert Gerard, Donald Gibson, and Shirley Allen" while "those favoring the indictment position include Robert Bone, Michael Fabre, Nathan Scott, Howard Harper, Stanley Macebuh, David Foster and Trudier Harris."[13]
Holiness versus worldliness
Many scholars have reflected on the tension between holiness and worldliness in the novel.[14] The strict Pentecostal religion of the Temple of the Fire Baptized, enforced by John's father, demands that believers live separately from much of the world around them. Much of Part One is taken up with John's thoughts on how he fits in or fails to fit in both with the "holy" people of his father's church and also with the "worldly" people he knows from the neighborhood and school. Charles Scruggs writes that the novel juxtaposes "the earthly and the heavenly, and together they help focus the novel's various themes."[12]
Religious allusion
The novel is rich with biblical and religious allusions and references.[15][16] The title of the novel is taken from a spiritual of the same name and "each of the three parts has a title and two epigraphs referring to the Bible or Christian hymns, and each of the prayers in Part Two begins with a quotation from a hymn." The title of Part One "The Seventh Day" is a clear reference to the biblical sabbath, the day on which the Lord rested after he created the heavens and the earth.[17] Allen argues this is both the day John is done being "created", i.e. when he comes into his own, but God also made the Sabbath holy, and it is the day John will become holy.[15] Similarly, Part Three "The Threshing-Floor" is an allusion to Matthew 3:12, in which John the Baptist states that on the threshing floor Jesus will separate the wheat (saved) from the chaff (unsaved).
Baldwin includes excerpts from many spirituals throughout the novel but especially as John is undergoing his religious vision and the "saints" of the church sing around him, each of which highlights a particular aspect of the narrative. In addition many of the characters' names refer directly to biblical characters. Critics have compared John both to John the Baptist[15] and John of Patmos[12] who experienced a religious vision in the Book of Revelation. John the Baptist's mother Elizabeth, the archangel Gabriel, the prophetess Deborah, and the Jewish Queen Esther also provide names of significant characters.
Baldwin frequently makes use of direct references including the story of Ham, the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, and the story of Lot's wife who looked backward and was turned into a pillar of salt. Other passages, such John's wrestling with Elisha evoke biblical referents, like the story of Jacob wrestling with a mysterious supernatural being in Genesis.
Language
The rhythm and language of the story draw heavily on the language of the Bible, particularly of the King James Version. Many of the passages use the patterns of repetition identified by scholars such as Robert Alter and others as being characteristic of Biblical poetry.[18] In addition, much of the characters' speech is laced with biblical quotations and references, which both provides a note of verisimilitude in the dialogue but also a layer of religious symbolism.[15]
Race
Most critics and scholars have agreed that while race is not the core of the book, it remains an important theme. Shirley Allen wrote, "obviously Baldwin weaves the black-versus-white theme into the central conflict as inextricably as it is woven into the daily consciousness of the characters; but the major conflict of this novel ... is not black against white, but the more universal problem of youth achieving maturity."[15] Reviewer Orville Prescott said in his contemporary review that though the novel is not primarily about race, "Mr. Baldwin is as bitter about race discrimination in a few passing references as many authors are in whole books."[19]
Race comes to the fore for each character in different ways. John questions his father's visceral animosity towards white people, while at the same time feeling acutely aware of his blackness as he leaves Harlem and walks through other parts of the city. Already feeling alienated from the secular culture of Harlem (which has sucked in Roy, who at the same time has gone to pick a fight with white boys in another neighborhood), and from the religious culture represented by his father ("His father said that all white people were wicked, and the God was going to bring them low"). Without ever being quite comfortable, he wonders about the promise of other opportunities in these white-dominated spaces, such as the New York Public Library, which he does not enter (but not, he tells himself, because he is black) and the movie theater, which he finds, despite his momentary trepidation, admits him without comment on his race.
Deborah's rape as an adolescent at the hands of a group of white men, and later a brutal lynching and castration of a black soldier highlight the violence of racism in the South for both Florence and Gabriel. It is noteworthy that Florence's prayer features a rape, reinforcing the status of black women, already highlighted by their mother's favoritism toward Gabriel as the son. Gabriel's prayer features castration, just as he encounters his unacknowledged son and feels acutely his inability to protect him from danger and his biological son's estrangement from him. Elizabeth's prayer reinforces that African Americans have not escaped racism by coming north; the brutal treatment of Richard at the hands of the police and the justice system causes his suicide.
Sexuality
Sex and sexuality are important throughout the novel, particularly for John and Gabriel. The novel engages heavily with traditional religious views of sexuality as something sinful that is to be avoided. The church's stigmas surrounding sexuality impressed on him by his father, have severely impacted John's perspective on sexuality.[20] Several critics have viewed John's religious rebirth in terms of him coming to terms with his sexuality, both as a gay man[21] and as a black man.[22]
Critics have noted the "constant repetition of such phrases as 'the natural man' and 'the old Adam'" in condemnation of man's sexual desire.[23] This conflict is central for John, who at the start of the novel is reflecting on his own "sin" (masturbation) and his burgeoning sexuality. Many scholars read John's conversion as a rejection of his father's strict sexual mores. Angelo Robinson argues that because the novel "alters the traditional Pentecostal conversion experience in that John is not 'cured,' 'healed,' or 'delivered' from his sexual desire during his rebirth" but is "'restored' to confront the reality of his sexual desires while at the same time claiming the promise of salvation" and is ultimately "freed from Gabriel's faith with its severe sexual ethic".[14] Furthermore, Baldwin often used sexual language and imagery in describing religious zeal.[24] This is particularly noticeable when Elisha is called before the congregation to be chastised for his nascent relationship with a girl, Ella Mae, he is described with his "head thrown back, eyes closed, sweat standing on his brow", "stiffened and trembles", "cried out Jesus, Jesus, oh Lord Jesus!", "face congested", and "his body could not contain this passion".
John's homosexuality is also at issue in the novel, though John himself spends less time concerned directly with the kind of his sexual desire than he does with its existence at all. Nevertheless, given the autobiographical details in the novel, scholars have interrogated how John's experience reflects Baldwin's search for an identity as a gay man and perhaps his reflections on his own homosexuality after many years of being out.[25] Because the issue is not addressed directly, scholars have evaluated John's homosexuality through the lens of other themes in the book. "John's struggles with his homosexuality provide the window through which to understand the complexity of his struggles with his spirituality."[14] John's conversation with Elisha and Elisha's kiss led Stanley Macebuh to argue that John's salvation is through homosexual love[24] though others have argued that goes too far.[26] Yet Mason Stokes perhaps goes even further, arguing that both John's struggle against his father and his religious conversion reflect his struggle against "a heterosexuality that terrorizes" him, which is reflected in the conflict between Gabriel's obsession with descendants and his strict religious sexual code. The novel's depictions of heterosexuality (rape, prostitution, adultery, loveless marriages) is contrasted with John's love for Elisha, which "somehow purer, more loving, than the novel's often perverse heterosexual expressions".[21]
Other critics have examined the ties between race and sexuality in the novel. Andrew Connolly draws a connection between Gabriel's guilt over his sexuality and the "persistent racial stereotypes surrounding black male sexuality and the thread of violence that accompanies those stereotypes" and argues that John's conversion represents "the unrealized potential that black men can resist systemic pressures and embrace their sexuality without confirming racist stereotypes."[22] This connection is highlighted as Gabriel recalls the body of a black soldier who has been castrated and lynched.
Family
John's religious struggle is also parallel to his struggle with his father. At the end of the novel, in his moment of "salvation", John is knocked to the ground by the Holy Ghost. He then hears a voice that says, "Get up, John, Get up boy. Don't let him keep you there. You got everything your Daddy got". In this way, his religious revelation, while representing an acceptance of his father's religion, also reflects his rejection of his father's authority and the burgeoning of his own individuality, rather than merely accepting the role his father has created for him within the family.[27]
Other relationships throughout the novel also cast light on the notion of family including Gabriel's emotionally and physically sterile marriage to Deborah, Elizabeth's adoption by her aunt and abandonment by her father, Florence's resentment toward her mother, Gabriel's lack of relationship with his biological son Royal, Elizabeth's relationship with John's biological father Richard, Florence's marriage to the unreliable Frank, and Florence and Gabriel's mother's reflections on her lovers and children while still a slave.[26]
Guilt
An early reviewer noted that "Guilt, guilt, guilt chimes through the book. Gabriel is guilty. His first wife Deborah is guilty though she was the victim of rape. His second wife Elizabeth is guilty, though she loved much. Guilt is visited on his children."[28] The novel opens with John feeling guilty about his masturbation and sexual desires. This is mirrored in the young Gabriel's guilt over his own sexual transgressions which ultimately lead to his conversion. However, Gabriel's guilt over his later inability to live up to his own conversion ideals haunts him and is ultimately the cause of his conflict with John: "John becomes a focal point for [Gabriel's] sense of guilt, encapsulating all the other people who make Gabriel feel guilty" such as Deborah, Esther, Royal, Roy, and Elizabeth;[22] "Gabriel's hatred of John is rooted in his guilt over and his denial of his failures as a father."[29] Meanwhile Elizabeth accepts Gabriel's abuse and tyranny partly as a form of divine punishment on both her and John for her guilt, guilt both for not repenting her love for Richard and for her failure to save him from his suicide.[29]
Women
Though the novel is primarily focused on John and his conflict with Gabriel, female characters play an important role in the novel and explore women's role in society. Florence's prayer in particular articulates a nascent feminism. Although Florence is five years older than her brother Gabriel, he was given the education and respect that Florence desired. Although raised by a single mother, the patriarchal environment meant that Gabriel's future matters more than Florence's. Mason Stokes notes that Florence rejects "the regulatory regimes of the heteropatriarchal household"; not only does she reject the men who lusted after her beauty "not wishing to exchange her mother's cabin for theirs and to raise their children", her final act is to undermine Gabriel's authority by promising to reveal his prior infidelity and abandonment of his son Royal to Elizabeth and the church community.[21]
