Identity

In O'Neill's masterpiece, Long Day's Journey into Night, Mary Tyrone insists, "None of us can help the things life has done to us. They're done before you realize it, and... they make you do other things until at last everything comes between you and what you'd like to be, and you've lost your true self forever." Like Long Day's Journey into Night, The Great God Brown focuses on the search for identity and the devastating consequences for those who are unable to discover a true sense of self.

Betrayal

Dion loses his sense of self at a young age when his best friend, Billy Brown, betrays him. He explains that when he was four, Billy "sneaked up behind when I was drawing a picture in the sand he couldn't draw and hit me ... and laughed when I cried." Consequently, his trust in his friend and humanity was shaken...