“Much of American literature is a consideration of our ability to go to the frontier, to reinvent ourselves, to create a shining city on a hill, to be humanity's last hope, free ourselves from the chains of the past, from the tragic fate of being born in a particular place... you get the idea. It is framed through our attitudes about class, politics, the immigrant experience, and much more” (Hardy). Society has always had an impact on American literature and how a story is accepted and admired or rejected and despised. American authors faced scrutiny before the United States became an independent nation and it continues today. Cultural and social rules and values ​​determine the popularity of a work as much today as when the works of William Faulkner and Henry James were published. The rigid beliefs of Europeans in 1878 caused readers of Henry James's Daisy Miller: A Study to consider “the tension between individual self-realization and social restriction” (Barnett 1) ​​and how it “focuses on the way society shapes particularly the behavior of women” (Barnett 1). The Southerner's apparent lack of principles led readers of William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily to question the title character's actions. Regardless of the time period in which a story was written or the plot and theme of the story, readers will be able to learn about the rules and values ​​of society by evaluating the actions of the main characters and the treatment they receive from other characters in the story. .The title characters in both Daisy Miller: A Study by Henry James and A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner were young women who were scrutinized by society due to their lack of understanding and experience. Emily Grierson was raised with her fat… middle of paper… not as worthy or trustworthy as others they might have spent time with. Societal rules and cultural regulations have a major impact on how American authors portrayed characters, developed themes, and devised story plots. William Faulkner and Henry James both found ways to use these literary devices to influence social classes and the structure of society. The use of Emily's inability to deal with her father's death and the townspeople's reluctance to interact with her leads readers to question their acceptance of people who have mental issues. Daisy Miller's reluctance to bend to society's rules and restrictions requires readers to consider the fairness of those social restrictions. Whether readers realize it or not, society has always had an impact on literature, and literature has had an equally significant impact on social issues.