What are the motifs in The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson?

The cleansing power of tears is a recurring idea. Throughout the narrative, but perhaps most dramatically in Chapters 8 and 9, tears are portrayed as vivid external manifestations of a powerful internal change - specifically, the handing over of a life and/or a heart to the guidance and control of Christ and the Holy Spirit (see "Quotes", p.90). The author makes the clear point that from his perspective, crying is one of the first and clearest manifestations that someone has been touched by Spirit. "When finally we let the Holy Spirit into our innermost sanctuary," he writes, "the reaction is to cry.