Conflict In A Thousand Acres

1354 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The role of woman in literature

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

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of The Painted Door By Sinclair Ross

    255 Words  | 1 Pages

    The protagonist is Ann who has lived on the farm with her husband of seven years. Her life is tedious and lonely. Her nearest neighbor is Stephen, a bachelor living on a farm about two miles away. John, Ann’s husband, has little ambition other than make his farm work. He loves Ann and is very proud that she is his wife. On the other hand, Ann finds much that she is

    Read More

  • Balancing the Individual with the Community in Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

    2143 Words  | 5 Pages

    Kingsolver develops the story of a strong young woman, named Taylor Greer, who is determined to establish her own individuality. The character learns that she must balance this individualism with a commitment to her community of friends, and in doing this, her life is immeasurably enriched. Many books speak of family, community, and individuality. I believe, however, that the idea that Barbara Kingsolver establishes in her book, The Bean Trees, of a strong sense of individualism, consciously balanced with a keen understanding of community as extended family, is a relatively new idea to the genre of the American novel.

    Read More

  • Dunstan Ramsey: A Childhood Conflicted, a Life Unlived

    2384 Words  | 5 Pages

    The novel Fifth Business by Robertson Davies does away with the stigma that Canadian literature is dull and boring. A master of his art, Davies creates a cast of vivid characters and skillfully weaves them into a story about love, guilt, myth and redemption. With the effective use of first-person narrative, Fifth Business is written as a fictional memoir of the character Dunstable Ramsey, who grows up in the small town of Deptford in Ontario, Canada. As a boy, Dunstable was unmistakably very intelligent, gifted with an uncanny ability to read others. He was raised in a Scottish household by strict Presbyterian parents, who into him hammered several religious canons and tenets. Thus, Dunstan understood the importance of respect and moral responsibility from a young age. There would seem to be no reason for such an exemplary youth, gifted with an intelligence exceeding of his small-town upbringing, to not go onto to lead a happy, satisfying life. Yet there is a single incident in Dustan’s boyhood that would define the rest his life. While in a quarrel with his friend and rival, Percy Boyd Staunton, Dustan evades a snowball in which Boyd had hidden a stone. The snowball misses Dunstan and strikes the pregnant wife of the town’s Baptist minister, Mary Dempster, causing her to give birth prematurely and subsequently slip into madness. This marks the beginning of Dustan Ramsey’s lifelong involvement with Mary Dempster, and the beginning of his lifelong struggle with guilt. As he is faced with the outcomes of his actions, Dustan’s core values are called into question. Throughout Fifth Business, Dunstan fails to understand both his true values and true self, which develops as a cons...

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Book 'Clearing The Plains'

    1229 Words  | 3 Pages

    The population of a community is vital to ensure that the needs of that community are met. A greater population allows for a larger vote in a democracy meaning a higher probability of attaining what that population wants. Indigenous communities were left hopeless when European settlers took over and slashed the numbers of their community making it impossible for them to ever overpower the Canadian government. The book “Clearing the Plains” by James Daschuk explains this critical period of time in which the population of Indigenous people dwindled based on the political, economic and ecological circumstances that were evident creating a society where Indigenous people lost their say, however Daschuk fails to mention the effects this population deflation has on society today and the racism that our society has perpetrated on Indigenous people.

    Read More

  • Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ford, Jamie. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: A Novel. New York: Ballantine, 2009. Print.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of 'The Boat, And Simple Recipes' By Alistair Macleod

    950 Words  | 2 Pages

    The reading of “The Boat” by Alistair Macleod, and “Simple Recipes” by Madeleine Thein, both display many components that draw attention to different family dynamics, as well as how each member is tested when if comes to love.

    Read More

  • A Thousand Acres

    471 Words  | 1 Pages

    This is a book report about the book A Thousand Acres. Jane Smiley wrote this book, the grade level is 7.7 and it is worth twenty-seven points. This book is about three sisters who are each trying to be given a third of the farm corporation set up by their father. The aging father is trying to set up the corporation so that the daughters won’t have to pay inheritance taxes. The youngest daughter, Caroline, who happens to be a lawyer does not like this idea. Rose and Ginny think that it is a good idea, they live on the farm. Due to this disagreement the family gets into a big fight. Some not too good memories come out of the fight. The girlsremember the fact that their father molested Ginny and Rose.

    Read More

  • People Skills versus Formal Education in Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor

    577 Words  | 2 Pages

    "Good Country People", by Flannery O’Connor, presents us with a look into the monotonous lives of three women living together on a rural farm. All three women are set in their old-fashioned ways, having experienced very little of life, out on the farm. A bible salesman named Manley Pointer, appearing like nothing more than simple, "good country people"(1), pays them a visit one day. It turns out that this simple countryboy is actually a brilliant con artist who scams the pretentious daughter, Hulga (also known as Joy) into removing her wooden leg, which he proceeds to steal. A great change in Hulga is triggered by her experience with Manley Pointer. Although it was a cruel scam, the bible salesman helps her to see the truth about her education and human nature. Hulga realizes that in addition to book smarts, people skills are also crucial in navigating the real world.

    Read More

  • Human Oppressiveness in Two Kinds and A&P

    2353 Words  | 5 Pages

    Stein, Karen F. "Amy Tan." Critical Survey of Short Fiction, Second Revised Edition (2001): 1-3. Literary Reference Center Plus. EBSCO. Web. 13 Apr. 2011.

    Read More

  • Sex, Sensuality and Religion in The Book of Margery Kempe

    1411 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kempe, Margery. "From The Book of Margery Kempe." The Norton Anthology of Literature By Women. 2nd ed. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996. 18-24.

    Read More

  • old english journies

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print

    Read More

  • The Character of Phoenix Jackson in Eudora Welty's A Worn Path

    1360 Words  | 3 Pages

    Evans, Robert C., Anne C. Little, and Barbara Wiedemann. Short Fiction: A Critical Companion. West Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill, 1997. 265-270.

    Read More

  • Comparing Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres and William Shakespeare's King Lear

    2149 Words  | 5 Pages

    Jane Smiley's novel A Thousand Acres is a modern version of William Shakespeare's King Lear.  The tragic ideas brought out by King Lear are revisited in A Thousand Acres both containing universal themes in which societies from past to present can identify with.  Tragedy is a form of drama that depicts the suffering of a heroic individual who is often overcome by the very obstacles he is struggling to remove.  The novel and play each contain distinct tragic elements that lead to the development of similar characters, plot, and images but both have distinct themes.  A Thousand Acres provides a new interpretation of Shakespeare's classic tragedy allowing the reader to create a unique twist to their opinions of the Lear family.

    Read More

  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

    1147 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition Volume1. Ed. M.H.Abrams. New York: W.W.Norton and Company, Inc., 1993.

    Read More

  • Feminism and Society in "Little Women"

    1718 Words  | 4 Pages

    A. “Reading Little Women.” Temple University Press (1984): 151-65. Rpt in Novels for Students. Ed. Elizabeth Thomason.

    Read More

More about Conflict In A Thousand Acres

Open Document