Conflict In A Thousand Acres

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A Fine Balance, written by Rohinton Mistry’s, illustrates the path to wisdom and humility before a calamitous end. The novel, A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley parallels a lot of similar themes and ideas depicted in A Fine Balance. As the story develops, a connection forms between the improbable household in both books and they generate an unbelievably uneven dysfunctional family, to either protect or torment one another through the experiences they encounter. Both novels develop the themes of, concern and compromise through the use of characters, conflict through appearance versus reality, and the position of a woman in a male-controlled society.
The Prime Minister in A Fine Balance and Larry in A Thousand Acres are characterized in a variety …show more content…

In a Thousand Acres, appearance versus reality is a recurrent conflict throughout the book. Caroline is disowned when she disrupts Larry’s pronouncement to split the farm amongst his daughters. Larry from is presented as a prosperous farmer and a respected man within his community. In reality he is deceiving and ill-advised person who sexually molested Ginny and Rose. Caroline is ignorant of her father’s sins and is not in favour of Ginny and Rose. Ginny says to Caroline: “We did everything for you! We saved you from Daddy” (Smiley, 245), Caroline replies with, “Did I really have to be saved from Daddy? From my own father?” (Smiley, 245). Obviously, Ginny and Rose retain the presence that everything is satisfactory to defend Caroline from the anonymous harms of Larry. Smiley progresses the conflict of appearance versus reality through Caroline’s character. In comparison to the book A Fine Balance. The Prime Minister is perceived as a holy and spiritual man whom wants the best for the people of his country. When in reality he has psychotic tendencies, similar to Larry from the book a thousand acres. “Perfection lacks here with these undesirables in our nation” (Mistry, 345) this signifies his discrimination amongst the ‘chamaar’ untouchable’s class and Muslims in a private conversation with the deputy chief Sanjot Premi. When for the media, the prime minister is quick to spread false remorse and guilt amongst the deaths that took place in Gujarat, India of his planned genocide. The Prime Minister is pathetically deceiving and disgusting, people in society are prone to the way he dictates because it is deemed as the norm. “To gain a successful nation, we must let the undesired ones roam off to hell”. No one is prone to the discrimination and the extreme mindset of the Prime Minister other than the people that are close to him. In

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