Michael Storey’s article points out that Salzman is like the goat god Pan

because he comes and goes “as if on the wings of the wind” (Malamud, #).

As Michael Story points out,

As Michael Story argues in his article

As Tackach writes in his article, [“the Biblical Foundation,”] Baldwin’s story

relates to two biblical stories: Cain and Abel and the Prodigal Son.

Tackach points out that Baldwin uses the Biblical idea of The Fall to describe

the narrator’s relationship to his brother (114). Before he leaves for the army,

the narrator’s mother tells him: “hold on to your brother…and don’t let him

fall” (Baldwin, #).

Tackach writes that the scotch and milk that “glowed and shook” above

Sonny’s head

Tackach writes that the scotch and milk that “glowed and shook above

[Sonny’s] head like the very cup of trembling” (Baldwin, 516) is a symbol of

“the special protection that the narrator will now extend to Sonny as Sonny

struggles to confront the darkness surrounding him” (Tackach, 117).

At the end of the story, the narrator orders a scotch and milk for Sonny,

which “glowed and shook above [Sonny’s] head like the very cup of

trembling” (Baldwin, 516). Tackach writes that the cup is a symbol of “the

special protection that the narrator will now extend to Sonny as Sonny

struggles to confront the darkness surrounding him” (117).