American Research Journal of English and Literature

 In small-town literature, small town is sometimes symbolized as a trap, or metaphorized as an iron house or a madhouse, imprisoning the characters in it. In turn, all those characters endeavor to resist or rebell against such a capture or fetter in various ways. Their ways of deviance can be represented by imagination or fantasy, body or sex, escape or leave and reformation or revolution, which can be narrated as a conflict between the individual and community of small towns. From the conflict, we can read between the lines hero ‘s or heroine ‘s aspirations in small-town society.