Good literature either indirectly or directly will always necessarily reflect the mores and values from the community from which it was produced.
Another way to consider this would be to state that it would implausible for literature to reflect the values and experience (indirectly or directly) of a community other than that of the author. When an author writes about a community other than their own, they do so through the lens of the community from which they have developed their perceptions and sentiments about the world around them as well as the desire to communicate those perceptions through literature.
It was Southern traditional values, developed and nurtured in rural Mississippi, that created the dramatic tension in Faulkner’s “The Rose for Emily”, (DiYanni, 2007 pg. 78). Traditional ‘Southern values’ were still evident in the town of Jefferson, the setting of the story. He illustrates the conflict between values in Jefferson at the time that were not shared by Miss Emily.
“At first we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest, because the ladies all said, “Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer.” But there were still others, older people, who said that even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige – without calling it noblesse oblige” (DiYanni, 2007 pg. 82).
Here we see Faulkner addressing the stratified social perimeters of his day (read; community) in his use of the term noblese oblige, referring to the social station of Miss Emily and community held belief that regardless of the circumstance, it was unconventional at that time for “ladies” to operate outside of their given social station. Faulkner’s illustration of the towns resistance to change, and Miss Emily’s desire not to change very likely reflect directly Faulkner’s views of his own community, be they sympathetically or empathetically. Miss Emily’s actions clearly demonstrated the incongruence...