Very often places, where people live, tell us a lot about its’ inhabitants. In small towns and villages people are more conservative, nevertheless, every person is individual and his or her behavior is differing in many respects.
Most actions in Light in August are set in the towns, villages, and countryside of the early 1930s Deep South. In those times it was a land of racial prejudice and stern religion. Community ties are still strong: an outsider is really identifiable, and people gossip about their neighbors. So in Light in August, the city of Jefferson shuns Joanna Burden because, almost seven decades after the end of the Civil War, the town sees her as one of the hated invaders.
In this part of the country, the past lives on, even physically. For example, the cabin in which Joe Christmas stays and in which Lena Grove gives birth is a slave cabin dating back to before the Civil War. …
