scholars such as Robert Alter and others as being characteristic of Biblical poetry. 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. 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." 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." 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.