Conroy's novel fits firmly within the Southern writing tradition. It varies in the aspect of its realism, presented within the romance which is the South.

Conroy demythologizes the South by adequately portraying the source of its self-dissatisfaction.

He employs the technique of using characters to represent various aspects of Southern attitudes, similar to the technique employed by other contemporary Southern fiction writers, such as Carson McCullers and Eudora Welty.

However, the reader may not be quite as charmed with Conroy's characters, knowing that they and the story remain, for the most part, factual.