While the book is about Charlie, it’s also about how Charlie and his family navigate life during the Great Depression, and about how he responds to the transition from the old South to the new South. In this way, the book is a character study that is shaped by the changing socioeconomic landscape.

The Great Depression hits shortly after Charlie and Ava are married. While they had always lived in poverty, they experience a brief glimmer of wealth when Charlie lands a job at a steel mill shortly after WWI. At this time, everyone is banking on steel, and it seems like an industry that was built to last. Charlie and Ava move out of the woods and closer to town. However, shortly after Charlie gets this job, he is laid off. In fact, most of the workers at the steel mill are laid off, and the Depression begins. Charlie and Ava move back to the woods, and Bragg points out that life in the woods during the Depression was in some ways easier than life in the city: People in the woods were used to hunting and fishing for sustenance, so they didn’t have to beg for food like people in the city.