"Goodbye, My Brother" records the apparently final reunion of the upper-middle class Pommeroy family at their collectively owned Massachusetts sea-side property.
[6][7][8] Literary critic Lynne Waldeland observes that "Cheever is seldom listed among the major innovators in fiction in the twentieth century and seems at first glance to be quite traditional in form."
"[9] The subject of family relationships, and more specifically the conflicts between two male siblings, is the single most common theme in Cheever's novels, and appears in many of his short stories.
[10][11] The story is an examination of the irreconcilable conflict between the "bleak, dogmatic severity" of the Pommeroy's youngest son, Lawrence, and the enlightened humanism exhibited by the rest of the family, especially its women.
"[21] Literary critic Patrick Meanor notes the mythological references in the passage, notably, the goddesses Diana and Helen of Troy: "The Dionysians and their celebration of the physical body are Cheever's response to the dark denial and shame of the Puritan ethos that his story clearly condemns.