Do the residents of Salas have to hate the male protagonist? Maybe so, you escaped the town yourself, lived a better life, had more knowledge, a more "advanced" aesthetic, and relied on the story of the town (even if only selected material) to achieve achievements. And what about the people who stay in town forever? The production of a Nobel Prize winner here does not bring them any benefit, but instead creates a stereotype of the land from the outside world. How should they understand their own lives?
From the perspective of the male protagonist, the way the people in his hometown welcomed him (fire truck, beauty pageant champion, ppt) made him feel somewhat ashamed. The Salas he depicts simply borrows people and things he observed before he was 20 years old to convey his own values and understanding of beauty. Just like in painting competitions, you must always defend your works that you think are good, even if they are not accepted by the public.
There are already irresolvable conflicts between him and the residents of Salas, and there is almost no possibility of dialogue, and dialogue will also lead to new conflicts (sleeping with a friend's daughter), so is all this really something he didn't foresee? not necessarily.
After returning, he wrote "Outstanding Citizen" after he had not published a new book for several years.
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