Southern Gothic literature uses grotesque characters, decaying settings, and dark secrets to examine the social and moral fabric of the American South. Authors like William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor employed these elements to highlight tensions beneath Southern respectability, often drawing attention to psychological strain, social inequality, and moral contradiction. This genre frequently engages with themes of religious authority, social hierarchy, and concealed violence, shaped by the region’s history of slavery, economic hardship, and patriarchy. Characters are often situated within tightly controlled social environments where public image carries significant weight, while private realities remain obscured.

Citchens’s Dominion reflects these conventions through its focus on a prominent family whose social standing is closely tied to religious authority. The novel presents a community in which public piety coexists with private misconduct, aligning with the genre’s interest in hidden transgressions and moral tension. The narrative also highlights psychological strain within its characters, particularly where identity, reputation, and power intersect. Through these elements, the novel draws on Southern Gothic traditions to situate personal behavior within broader patterns of social control and expectation.