What is the theme in Lie Down in Darkness by William Styron?

The South is a major theme in the story. Styron's novel is set in Virginia in the 1940s. All throughout the narrative are references to the Confederacy and a way of life which ended with the American Civil War. LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS paints the South as a place of which its inhabitants are fiercely proud and yet somewhat humbled by the knowledge that times are changing. Relationships between blacks and whites in the novel very closely resemble the relationships between masters and slaves. The only difference is that in 1943, blacks are paid wages for attending to the needs of their white employers.