Gaines’ novel links individuals to their social context with the explicit purpose of combating the alienation of capitalist and racist society. The system that prosecutes him is nearly erased from the novel as Gaines shifts the sense of agency to Jefferson, Grant and Paul, Jefferson’s poor white jailer. In restoring Jefferson’s status as a worthy member of society, Gaines focuses in particular upon the importance of male role models in the family and community. Accompanying Gaines’s realist ideology is the transparency of his style.