The title, “Cold Sassy Tree” is very significant in the plot and setting for it explains the background information of the founding of the city, as well as comically tying back to the overall attitude of the characters from the town. Founded in the mid 1800’s, the small town was established off of a large grove of sassafras trees which was commonly referred to as “thet cold sassyfrass grove” and “them cold sassy trees”. Eventually, these phrases slurred together to form the much shorter and popular version, “Cold Sassy”, thus becoming the official name of the city. However, it is not so much the background that makes this title so significant, but perhaps the connection it has with the people that have settled in the area of Cold Sassy. Analyzing the text, it is made evident that the people of Cold Sassy are extremely “proud” of what there town has to offer, considering the fact their thriving cotton mill made them an economic powerhouse amidst an area of poor mill towns. Since wealth is stereotypically perceived as the key to happiness and success, Cold Sassy developed the image of a perfect place with perfect people, however behind the scenes one can notice that Cold Sassy is far from “perfect”. The people of the community in actuality are plastic, gossipy, rude and scandalous, making life within Cold Sassy miserable if a certain image is not attained. Obviously, the actions of the people greatly contradict the positive perception of the town and damage its reputation, just as the name “Cold Sassy Tree” does, for it adds to the negative connotations of the town. The “Cold” represents how cold blooded the towns people can be when gossiping and spreading rumors, the “Sassy” represents the horrible attitudes and self-absorbed persona of the townspeople, and naturally the “Tree” represents how the town hides these negative happenings to the outside eye by making the town seem perfect and being extremely shady.