The Corrupt Patriarchal Society of Jane Smileys A Thousand Acres :: Smiley Thousand Acres Essays

The lead astray Patriarchal Society of A thou Acres Jane Smileys A Thousand Acres tells a dark tale of a corrupt hoary edict which operates through concealment. It is a story in which the characters attempt to insure one another through the secrets they possess and the subsequent revelation of those secrets. In her fresh, Smiley gives us a very simple moral regarding this time-honored society women who remain financially and emotionally dependent on men chemical decomposition reaction those able to break the economic and emotional chains develop as women and as humans. Roots of A Thousand Acres can be seen in numerous sweets and plays, the most obvious of which is King Lear. The parallels are overly great to ignore. Smiley is successful because she fills in so more of the gaps left overspread in the play. She gives us new and different perspectives. One of the particular strengths of the novel lies in its depiction of the place of women in a predominantly patriarcha l culture. In this male dominated culture, the values privileged in women complicate silence and subordination. Ginny is acceptable as a woman as want as she remains oblivious (121). She is allowed to disagree with men, contingent upon her doing so without engagement (104). Ultimately, her opinion as a woman remains irrelevant. Ginny remarks, of course it was kooky to talk almost my po int of view. When my father asserted his point of view, exploit vanished (176). When she makes the mistake of crossing her father, she is referred to as a bitch, whore, and slut (181, 185). It could be argued that many of the male characters in the novel are suffering from a typewrite of virgin/whore syndrome. As long as the women remain aristocratical receptacles they are good when they resist or even question male authority, they are bad. Rose complains, When we are good girls and accept our circumstances, were glad about it....When we are bad girls, it drives us crazy (99). The women hav e been indoctrinated to the point that they initially buy into and accept these standards of judgem ent. The type of patriarchy described by Smiley precisely serves to show the inscription of the marginalization of women by men in the novel and in our society. Another strength of the novel is its treatment of secrets and appearances.