What is the setting of The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor?

Flannery O'Connor sets her novel "The Violent Bear It Away" in the state of Tennessee, but in a fictional region and city, which serve to be metaphorical. Tennessee is a part of the regional American South, rural and deeply religious. Such a place proves perfect for the story O'Connor tells, about religious destiny, and makes possible characters as diverse as the fiery and devout Marion, and the atheist Rayber. The fictional backwoods, family land, and city used in the story are themselves fictitious, but used to metaphorical effect.