Small town’s makeup about 10% of the United States population. Wuthnow once said, “The nation's 15,000 small towns are sometimes portrayed as idyllic places that are "the real America" and sometimes as dying communities to be escaped at the first opportunity” (Michael, Hotchkiss. Par. 2). Wuthnow is a Professor of Social Sciences and was a professor of sociology What he said is completely true because a small town can be conveyed as a wonderful and happy place but it can also be a place of terror, filled with drama and a place where people just want to get away from. A small town can be defined as 25,000 people or less. In a small town if an individual does something bad, everyone knows about it. Compared to a city gossip and rumors get around a lot more slowly than they do in a small town. In a small town, everybody knows everybody. Not only is gossip a problem in a small town but so is crime. Also, compared to a city, most small town people are low or minimum wage workers, such as factory workers or someone who works in a convenient store. In a small town, many people have money problems and cannot live off of the minimum wage they get. Many people have to get …show more content…
This is about a young girl who was involved in two murders and was found guilty. This novel reflects with the small town problems theme because when this young girl was in trial she was falsely accused by a boy who went against her in trial who she later ended up marrying. He falsely accused her because of what he thought was the real story. This proves that rumors and stories can be twisted in so many way because every time the story is told from one person to another the story changes. The setting of this story is extremely important because it took place in the eighteen hundreds. When at trial in this time judges and the public did not pay attention to the false accusations that could be made towards someone who is on