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A Thousand Acres

            Shakespeare's plays over the past years have been used as models for other books such as "A Thousand Acres" and , authors of these books use his plays as guides and alter them to become more up to date stories with certain apparent messages for the new generation. Jane Smiley, the author of "A Thousand Acres" used the same theme of the play "King Lear", however she changed some portions of the story that made it more realistic to our time. She incorporated scenes of child abuse and rape changing the message of family betrayal the play "king Lear" had. The changes transformed the story into one where the victims of the abuse were the daughters and not the father since their father abused them in disturbing ways. Jane Smiley changed the story to capture the reader while showing her opinion and concern on such issues that she thought were worth incorporating to the story. The sexual abuse of Ginny and Rose by their father Larry Cook and the affects of such harsh happenings were key aspects Jane emphasized on displaying extensive events showing certain reactions consequences of the abuse. Ginny the oldest daughter who plays the part of Goneril in "A Thousand Acres" is displayed to be completely different from how Goneril is in "King Lear" where she is not a nice person with many psychological problems. The character transformation of Goneril in .
             the book is a key point, because it shows the changes her character had since she was abused.
             As the book begins Ginny describes her daily chores. "I was cooking for three households-for my father, who insisted on living alone in our old farmhouse, for Rose and her husband, in their house across the street from daddy and also for my husband my morning at the stove started before five and didn't end until eight-thirty". The character of Ginny as seen in this quote is very helpful and giving. She says how she cooked for three households without complaining even though the amount of work was unbearable as she worked from early hours in the morning till night.


Essays Related to A Thousand Acres

1. a thousand acres and king lear

... when something shatters the respect and trust within the father-daughter relationship? What happens if the father hurts the daughter or vice versa? William Shakespeare's King Lear and Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres delve into the subject of father-daughter relationships. Both works of literature carefully examine the father-daughter theme, but, in King Lear, Lear receives the sympathy and not his sinister ... , evil daughters, Goneril and Regan, while in A Thousand Acres Larry Cook emerges as the villain, the daughters, Ginny and Rose, emerge as the heroines. In every family resides the ...

  • Word Count: 1107
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Comparison - A Thousand Acres and King Lear

Throughout the novels A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley and King Lear by William Shakespeare, the two antiheroes experience similar conflicts. These two heads of family, secret holding, narcissistic elders seek to separate their most prized ... my sisters have husbands, if they say they love you all?" Such disrespect causes King Lear to become outrageously upset and disown her. In A Thousand Acres, Larry Cook is an elderly farmer in Iowa who is distributing all one thousand acres to his two favorite daughters; Ginny and Rose, although he has a third by the name of Caroline. Caroline ran away f...

  • Word Count: 506
  • Approx Pages: 2

3. A Thousand Acres - Chapter Four Analysis

Jane Smiley's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, "A Thousand Acres," takes on many provocative themes as a late twentieth century version of Shakespeare's King Lear set in rural Iowa. Instead of dividing up England, Smiley's King Lear, an elderly farmer named ... . I chose Kyle in part because he grew up without a father for much of his life. His understanding of a daughter who's father was too intrusive was fascinating. My attempt to teach "A Thousand Acres" through chapter 4 provided me with a new understanding of how the family dynamics, the obsessions with materialistic values, and the distres...

  • Word Count: 1985
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Grade Level: High School

4. a thousand acre

... Jane Smiley, is consist of scenes that contribute to the content of the book. A Thousand Acres portrays a family that is broken a part by their fathers inconsiderate decisions and actions. The unknown secrets that was kept hidden and forgotten are finally unraveled to the reader. The reader ... will realize pain and suffering that Ginny and Rose had experience while they were growing up on a thousand acre farm in Zebulon County, Iowa. Each character trying to live their an ordinary country farming life, but life would never be the same when family members turn their back ... ...

  • Word Count: 685
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

5. 1000 Acres

... may be sibling rivalry just because they want all attention on themselves and none for the other sibling. This seems true in both "King Lear" by William Shakespeare and in A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. King Lear's daughters Regan, Goneril, and Cordelia seemed to want all of their father's love but that wasn't necessarily the case. The same seemed to be true ... of Larry's three daughters, Ginny, Rose and Caroline, in A Thousand Acres. ~Cordelia not telling her father how much she loved him. P.42 quote ~"Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter, dearer than eyesight, space...

  • Word Count: 310
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

6. King Lear

... daughter, and Caroline Cook, his youngest daughter. In "King Lear" Goneril and Regan show their father love and affection, just as in "A Thousand Acres", where Ginny and Rose perform all the duties of a housewife since their mother's death. The problem begins with the youngest daughter in both ... together to keep the family's wealth intact. Another example of the similarities and differences between the characters in "King Lear" and in "A Thousand Acres" becomes apparent through comparison of Ginny and Goneril. These two are the two oldest daughters in each story. Goneril is Lear's old...

  • Word Count: 1104
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Inate Evil

... weakness prevails and despite the love of his children, he wants his power back just like Larry. In both King Lear and A Thousand Acres, everyone contains the seeds of morality and immortality in varying degrees; however, corruption prevails in threatening situations because of human weakness. Often ... love to do so. Their greed stifles any good intentions because of uncontrollable ambition. Larry, who has built up the farm to one thousand acres, exemplifies someone who wants to p rosper at all costs. Ginny describes how he sacrificed his family for this success when she states, ... v...

  • Word Count: 2950
  • Approx Pages: 12
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Trail of Tears

... the treaty, safe conveyance to our new homes. (You cannot forget that in this treaty, the Choctaw traded 10.3 million acres of land east of the Mississippi for 10.3 acres in Oklahoma and Arkansas that we already owned under previous treaties.) Further, it included provisions and monetary annuities, to assist the ... had removed nearly all of the Indians. The Mississippi Band of the Choctaw had escaped being removed, but had their land stripped down to 500 acres, and in five years none of that land was in Indian hands. Americans moved into Arkansas They ignored the treaties. The Indians w...

  • Word Count: 2915
  • Approx Pages: 12
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

9. The Vietnam War and Ecocide

... Agent Orange, The United States depleted a huge amount of South Vietnam's forest. "More than five million acres of forests were sprayed at least once and at least ten percent of the trees died in a single spray."(Dwernychuk) Therefore more than five hundred thousand acres of forest was destroyed after one blast of the herbicide leaving the land exposed to high heat ... and torrential rain. Overall, Vietnam incurred damage to over ninety million acres of forests (www.worldwatch.org) including that which died after a single spray. Some progress has been ... and no roots to hold the soil ...

  • Word Count: 725
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Has Bibliography

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