Revisiting a Controversial Classic: A Review of Erskine Caldwell’s God’s Little Acre

A Novel That Pushed Buttons and Boundaries

Erskine Caldwell’s 1933 novel God’s Little Acre instantly shot to fame and notoriety upon its release. Within the first year, the book sold over 10 million copies, an astronomical number proving its widespread popularity. However, not all readers reacted positively. In fact, the novel stirred immense controversy across America.

Why did this simple tale of a Southern farmer obsessively searching for gold on his land provoke such passionate responses from the public? What exactly made God’s Little Acre so scandalous in its heyday?

As we’ll explore in this informal review, the novel’s frank portrayal of sexuality challenged repressive societal norms in 1930s America. Modern readers may find it hard to see what all the early fuss was about. But understanding a bit of context helps shed light on why Caldwell’s story pushed so many buttons.

First, let’s set the stage by peering into the lives of the main characters…

You can find God’s Little Acre by author Erskine Caldwell on your favorite bookstore, including Amazon.com and Amazon UK.

About author Erskine Caldwell

Erskine Caldwell was a prolific American author best known for his novels and short stories set in the rural American South during the early 20th century. Many of his works explored challenging themes like poverty, racism, and sexuality with an unflinching realism that both shocked and resonated strongly with contemporary readers.

Born in 1903 in Moreland, Georgia, Caldwell came of age witnessing firsthand the economic struggles of poor white tenant farmers and itinerant mill workers. After briefly attending Erskine College and the University of Virginia, he began his writing career as a newspaper reporter in the South. From this vantage point he gathered details and dialogue that brought incredible authenticity to his fiction.

His first novel, Tobacco Road published in 1932, was a smash hit that remained on bestseller lists for years. The gritty account of the Lesters, a rural Georgia family locked in dire poverty and ignorance, outraged some critics with its graphic sexuality and unsavory characters. But audiences could not get enough of Caldwell’s take on the harsh realities of life in the rural South during the Great Depression.

Building on this success, Caldwell continued portraying marginalized, often denigrated poor whites in novels like God’s Little Acre (1933) and Trouble in July (1940). One critic labeled his characters “the inarticulate beasts of the field” conveying how Caldwell gave voice to disempowered people typically ignored in literature. While shocking for their time, these books brought the desperation of the rural underclass to national awareness.

Caldwell was often associated with the Southern gothic tradition and authors like William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor who also examined the complexities of the South. Yet Caldwell’s straight-forward prose contrasts sharply with the stylized, dense narratives of many of his Southern contemporaries. Caldwell pushed the boundaries of how poverty, injustice, and vulgarity could be frankly portrayed, pioneering a grittier kind of realism that profoundly impacted American literature.

Later in life, Caldwell continued publishing novels set in different locales like the rural North and even Mexico to mixed critical success before returning to Southern themes in his later works. And while none matched the monumental accomplishment of Tobacco Road, that book’s enormous influence continues today as one of the most essential depictions of the 1930s rural South and cementing Caldwell’s legacy in the American literary canon.

Meet the Tyrones – Dysfunction in the Red Clay Hills

The Tyrones aren’t exactly poster children for domestic bliss. We’re introduced to this dirt-poor family scratching out a living on their worn-out farm set in the red clay hills of Georgia.

Can you picture an old, weather-beaten house leaning on its foundations? And a handful of scrawny kids with vacant bellies and tattered overalls?

That’s the Tyrones’ world. The family struggles with backbreaking poverty, and frankly, they aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed.

Headstrong patriarch Ty Ty tyrannically rules over his wife and numerous children. Consumed by “gold fever,” he spends every waking minute digging random holes across his land, desperately seeking elusive riches.

Ty Ty’s obsession intensifies after visiting a traveling minister sells him a vague treasure map. He bullies his sons into digging by day and night, destroying crops and property in the process. The man is on a crazed mission, pulling everyone else along in his destructive wake.

His wife Griselda patiently tolerates his abusive behavior…until she snaps. Near the story’s end, she bashes Ty Ty over the head to escape the relationship.

Clearly, marital bliss is in short supply on God’s Little Acre! The novel presents a sad portrait of deformative family dynamics. Poverty and ignorance propagate abuse handed down through generations.

Why All the Hullabaloo?

Today, this kind of domestic dysfunction and abuse sadly doesn’t shock too many readers. We’ve grown accustomed to darker themes in books and film.

But Caldwell’s novel was among the first to spotlight raw, ugly themes like incest, misogyny, domestic violence, and extreme poverty in rural America.

Especially for middle class readers in the 1930s, the Tyrones’ world felt shocking and foreign. The straightforward way Caldwell captured their difficulties was unheard of in popular literature.

While poverty was rampant during the Great Depression, it remained tucked out of sight for many. This book ripped off the cultural blinders.

However, it wasn’t just hardscrabble violence shocking early readers. A closer look at shifting sexual norms reveals why God’s Little Acre made such big waves…

Shaking Up Sexual Standards

During the novel’s opening pages, readers instantly confront sexuality. We meet the Tyrones’ 15 year-old daughter, Dude, sunbathing nude on the front yard.

In 1933, this casually sensual portrayal of a young girl was utterly taboo. Female sexuality was strictly closeted away.

While Caldwell doesn’t describe Dude provocatively, her comfort basking nude conveys shifting social standards. Roaring 1920s liberation was trickling down, emboldening a younger generation.

The dialogue is also surprisingly racy for the era. Characters openly discuss sex, incest, homosexuality, female desire, prostitution and more. This frank presentation of “private” topics rattled prim and proper readers.

God’s Little Acre voyeuristically exposes what books “shouldn’t” discuss, especially in the morally conservative South. Caldwell tears back the curtain on regional dysfunction in terms impossible to ignore.

While the author doesn’t moralize or judge his characters, the stark focus on sexuality and immorality sparked controversy. Many deemed the book “vulgar” and “profane.”

In 1933 America, Caldwell’s rough-hewn, working-class characters defied acceptable literary convention. Some felt these “degraded” hillbillies promoted detrimental stereotypes. Highfalutin critics attacked Caldwell as obscene for focus on illicit sex and violence.

For example, the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice (whew – what a mouthful!) aggressively condemned God’s Little Acre as dangerously indecent. Boston’s Watch and Ward Society jumped on this pearl-clutching bandwagon.

They deemed Caldwell’s book so shockingly salacious, it should be banned altogether. In 1957, the state of Massachusetts made God’s Little Acre the first book to be seized and banned for obscenity since Ulysses.

This reaction seems hard to fathom today. But in precariously strict early 20th century society, Caldwell’s gritty story went further than most in challenging moral propriety.

God’s Little Acre gave voices to marginalized characters living outside acceptable bounds of society. And it tackled sexuality head-on when American culture scarcely recognized intimate topics.

What Resonates Today?

While sexual standards have (thankfully) loosened today, reading God’s Little Acre still provides cultural perspective.

We gain intimate access into destitute Depression-era Southern life, including universal themes of family struggle. The Tyrones epitomize dysfunction in a way modern readers recognize.

For example, the cyclical effects of abuse still plague many families today. We relate to how characters cope with economic hardship, marital stresses, generational differences, and emotional survival.

The story also underscores how easily obsession can corrode relationships – Ty Ty’s crazed gold quest destroys his home life. His warped values fail his family.

These resonating themes help explain the novel’s enduring legacy beyond scandalous sensationalism. At its heart, God’s Little Acre is a tragedy laying dysfunction bare at a pivotal cultural moment.

Grappling with its controversial reception reveals much about America’s drastic 20th century societal shifts.

Today, literature has grown grittier, shaken free of rigid moral agendas on “appropriate” content. Caldwell’s once scandalous novel now seems tame compared to what we regularly consume in film and on Netflix.

But in openly addressing sexuality and poverty, God’s Little Acre pushed the envelope in its era. Its boundary-pushing courage paved the way for freer artistic expression.

The book highlighted marginalized Americans, conveying universal human struggles. Isn’t that what the best art always does?

Should You Read This Southern Classic?

If you pick up God’s Little Acre, don’t expect flowery prose or sympathetic characters. Do expect to be moved by raw desperation in depressed 1930s America.

Expect a courageous story that dared expose dark realities long hidden. This book laid Southern dysfunction bare at a pivotal cultural moment.

Expect to get mad at characters’ ugly behaviors…then feel your heart twinge recognizing their all-too-human flaws. Expect to learn, remember, reflect. Expect your conceptions challenged.

Great literature holds up a mirror, asking us to look closer at harsh realities. Caldwell had the guts to share an unbleached reflection of suffering during national hardship.

God’s Little Acre proved enormously influential, and remains on American literature syllabi today.

So walk a mile in the Tyrones’ worn-out boots. Join their difficult 1930’s world for a bit, and don’t rush past what resonates. Gain perspective on America’s past…and maybe about its present, too.

This controversial classic still has powerful lessons left to share.

More Southern Gothic Grit: Recommended Reads

If you appreciated God’s Little Acre’s distinct Southern Gothic perspective and controversial legacy, try these similarly gritty page-turners:

• Flowers in the Attic by author V.C. Andrews. A captivating novel which immerses readers in a world of family secrets. Set against the backdrop of a grand mansion, the story unfolds as four siblings are confined to the attic, hidden away from society and burdened with the weight of a dark family history.
• Sanctuary by William Faulkner. This 1931 novel also shocked readers with graphic violence and unabashed sexuality centering on a poor farming family in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi.
• Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell. The author’s trademark unflinching style spotlights harsh rural poverty in Georgia during the Great Depression. The book sparked outcry similar to God’s Little Acre.
• Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor. O’Connor brings her famously biting wit and moral gravity to this 1952 novel about a troubled war vet claiming to be an evangelical preacher.
• Child of God by Cormac McCarthy. This 1973 book features gritty violence, teasing out themes of isolation and morality against a ruthless Southern backdrop.
• The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. Peopled with lonely misfits and wanderers, this 1940 novel highlights small-town Southern alienation and the pain of marginalization.

FAQs

What is God’s Little Acre about?

God’s Little Acre is a novel by Erskine Caldwell that explores economic hardship in a small southern town during the Great Depression. The story focuses on Ty Ty Walden, a cotton farmer who is obsessed with finding gold on his land, which he believes is God’s little acre. This obsession impacts his ability to make a living through farming and strains his relationship with his large family. The novel examines themes of poverty, inequality, family dynamics and the plight of tenant farmers during the 1930s.

When was God’s Little Acre published?

God’s Little Acre was first published in 1933. The novel brought fame to its young author, Erskine Caldwell, gaining significant literary acclaim at the time. Some critics praised its unflinching look at rural poverty in the South while others felt it gave offensive depictions of sexuality and violence. Nonetheless, God’s Little Acre established Caldwell as a major new voice in American literature in the 1930s.

What is the setting of God’s Little Acre?

God’s Little Acre is set on Ty Ty Walden’s cotton farm in a small rural town in Georgia during the early 1930s at the height of the Great Depression. The novel vividly captures the economic devastation in this struggling southern town, where nearly all residents live in poverty with little opportunity to improve their lot. The setting underscores the obsession and desperation of the characters as they struggle for survival.

Who are the main characters in God’s Little Acre?

The main characters are Ty Ty Walden, the widowed patriarch obsessed with finding gold on his land, and his children – Buck, Shaw, and Darling Jill. Other key characters are Ty Ty’s second wife Griselda and his son-in-law Will Thompson. Caldwell creates a memorable cast of characters representing different responses to hardship and poverty in tight-knit family and community dynamics.

Why was God’s Little Acre so controversial?

Published in 1933, God’s Little Acre featured explicit sexuality and violence that was groundbreaking for its time. Critics accused Caldwell of promoting pornography and exploiting immorality. The novel was banned in Boston and Canada and led to obscenity charges that impacted sales and Caldwell’s reputation, despite critical praise. The controversy demonstrated changing social values regarding appropriate content during the early 20th century.

What literary genre is God’s Little Acre?

God’s Little Acre is classified as Southern Gothic fiction, distinguished by its blend of Gothic literary elements within a distinctly Southern setting and culture. Key features of Southern Gothic writing evident in the novel include deeper examination of poverty, physical deprivation, social marginalization, and a sense of social decay. The genre also includes an element of the grotesque. Caldwell’s vivid yet dark depictions of the rural South in God’s Little Acre exemplify these aspects of Southern Gothic tradition.

How did God’s Little Acre influence literature?

The commercial success of Erskine Caldwell’s God’s Little Acre established a mainstream readership for grittier, more authentic depictions of the rural South in Depression-era literature. Its unromantic portrayal of poverty and sexuality broke new ground in stripping away sentimentality around the region. The novel opened doorways for authors like William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor and others to examine darker regional themes without glamorization. Caldwell demonstrated market viability of the Southern Gothic aesthetic that would influence subsequent generations of writers.

What is the significance of the title God’s Little Acre?

The title God’s Little Acre holds deep symbolic meaning in the novel. First, it refers literally to the small plot of land that patriarch Ty Ty Walden is convinced contains hidden gold, which drives his obsessive digging efforts. More broadly, “God’s Little Acre” signifies the central role of land and farming in these characters’ lives and identities, centered on Ty Ty’s modest cotton farm. Spiritually, the title reflects a faith that higher meaning exists even amid their hardship and suffering. These layers of meaning around God’s promise in the land underscore the title’s significance.

Why should people today read God’s Little Acre?

Modern readers should still read God’s Little Acre because its themes around poverty, injustice and economic inequality remain painfully relevant. Erskine Caldwell gave an early voice to deeply embedded class divisions and the universal struggle for human dignity and survival during hardship. The raw emotions of the novel strip away idealism about past eras. Caldwell captured the fruitlessness of obsession, severity of loss, and complex family dynamics in desperate times in a way that still resonates today. The beautiful prose and emotional immediacy make God’s Little Acre a lasting, timely portrait of hardship.