Another distinctive characteristic of this novel is the richness of its detail. Domestic life on this southern Depression-era farm is rendered sensuously: Readers witness Big Ma ironing (with a second iron always heating in the fireplace); see Cassie churning, picking cotton, and lying under her patchwork quilt; feel the red Mississippi mud oozing through the children’s toes on their way to school; and get hungry at the descriptions of food at the family get-togethers.