to plague the community. Some seem to accept it as if it were their due, while others fight against it. All, however, are damaged by it however unconsciously. The novel is set in a period around the turn of the century, not that long after the period of slavery and the Reconstruction era during which blacks were not given the "40 acres and a mule" they had been promised. The males seem to be fighting back at the only target they have any control over, their women. Though slavery was outlawed at the end of the Civil War, the social reality was that blacks in the South were still considered second-class citizens and were not given the same opportunities as whites. Their movements were also circumscribed to a great extent, and the law was on the side of the whites and not the blacks. The social attitudes that developed during the period of slavery, with one race of people elevated over another, continue in the time of this book. The black characters are living in a different kind of slavery, and this slavery derives from the fact that their opportunities are fewer when compared with the whites in the same community. Black-white tensions are not central in this novel, though they are seen in the attitudes and actions of the Mayor, but racial tensions are a subtext of the events just the same.
Walker creates realistic characters in a realistic setting. The film, on the other hand, differentiates male and fem
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