This work deals with concepts of ownership in terms of land in the novel "A Thousand Acres" written by Jane Smiley. The novel was written in 1991 and was rewarded a Pulitzer Prize. Jane Smiley rewrote the Shakespearean play King Lear by narrating the story from the eldest daughter’s point of view. However, A Thousand Acres is not only a rewriting of Shakespeare’s work, it also comments on the social and agricultural circumstances in the United States of the 1960s and 70s, where the novel is set. Her critique in this novel points towards industrialised farming and the exploitation of land and its resources.
The aim of the paper ist to find out how agriculture and farming are represented in "A Thousand Acres". How does Jane Smiley describe the results of industrialised farming? Is there any return? How do people cope with agribusiness and its consequences? What is the structure of the society that lives for agribusiness? In the course of answering these questions I will try to draw relating problems between Smiley's "A Thousand Acres" and Shakespeare's "King Lear" and will try to point out the differences between the novel and the play in matters pertaining to concepts of land-ownership.
Content
1. Introduction
2. The plot
3. Political circumstances or: the setting
4. Meaning of ownership in A Thousand Acres
5. Nature
5.1. The tiles
6. Nature versus Culture
7. Family
8. Community
9. Conclusion
Bibliographie
1. Introduction
In the following seminar paper I am going to write about concepts of ownership in terms of land in the novel A Thousand Acres written by Jane Smiley. The novel was written in 1991 and was rewarded with a Pulitzer Prize. Jane Smiley rewrote the Shakespearean play King Lear by narrating the story from the eldest daughter’s point of view. However, A Thousand Acres is not only a rewriting of Shakespeare’s work, it also comments on the social and agricultural circumstances in the United States of the 1960s and 70s, where the novel is set. Her critique in this novel points towards industrialised farming and the exploitation of land and its resources. She complains that
“Most people in the business of critiquing agriculture right now are pretty convinced Iowa is the next Alabama – that Third World way of life of tenant farms and big absentee landlords, factories with low-paying jobs in little towns, migrant workers […] that’s what’s coming, and it’s directly attributable to government policies, to industrial propaganda about how to farm and to university research that has promoted industrialized farming over anything else.”[1]
In this paper I would like to find out how agriculture and farming are represented in
A Thousand Acres. How does Jane Smiley describe the results of industrialised farming? Is there any return? How do people cope with agribusiness and its consequences? What is the structure of the society that lives for agribusiness? Is Smiley right, if she calls this way of living Third World-like? These are questions that came up when I read Smiley’s quotation. I will try to answer them in the course of my work.
2. The plot
At the beginning of my work I would like to give a short outline of the novel’s plot.
Larry Cook, a farmer, who owns a thousand acres in Zebulon County, mid-west USA, decides to divide his land among his three daughters. His decision to retire and give his land away is hasty and unplanned. Whereas Ginny and her sister Rose accept the sudden inheritance by their father, Caroline, the youngest daughter shows some doubts. Larry is disappointed that Caroline, his favourite daughter, is not as agreeable and grateful as Ginny and Rose. So, he reacts on her doubts by excluding her from his will and gives the order not to talk about her within the family any longer. This is the main event of the novel, everything else is in some way related to it.
Moreover the core of the novel is also the main reference to King Lear by William Shakespeare, in which King Lear wants to divide his country among his three daughters Goneril, Reagan and Cordelia. The latter one refuses to flatter her father with words of love whereupon Lear banishes her from his court and also from the inheritance.
While King Lear is told from Lear’s point of view, A Thousand Acres is narrated by Ginny. Around the scene of Larry’s declaration that he wanted to retire and divide the country, Ginny reconstructs the story of her family from her perspective. In the beginning she is a farmer’s wife and the daughter of the wealthiest farmer in the County. She seems to be content – although she has had five miscarriages and her sister Rose struggles with breast cancer – because she is part of a long family history and she is proud to play a role in it. This grand history is disturbed when her father turns mad after his retirement. With the help of Jess, who has returned from his exile in Canada, and her sister Rose she realizes that she had ignored some crucial facts in the family history. Jess shows her the poisoned land, which is responsible for her miscarriages and Rose’s and her mother’s cancer. Above all Rose reminds her that they were raped by their father in their childhood.
While their husbands Ty and Pete try to build up a pig farm on the inherited ground, Caroline starts to defend her father at court. She thinks that her sisters abused their father’s madness to receive the land not knowing that actually her sisters were the ones who had been abused. In the end, the family breaks up. Pete commits suicide, Larry dies of insanity and Rose dies of breast cancer. Ginny leaves the farm and her husband to start a new life in town. She adopts Rose’s daughters and works as a waitress in a diner. The farm is sold because of bankruptcy.
Jane Smiley retells Shakespeare’s King Lear from a female perspective. By giving Ginny a chance to narrate the story from her point of view, she offers an answer why Larry’s and Lear’s daughters act the way they do. One might assume that this novel is the feminist answer to Shakespeare’s misogynist way of condemning the daughter’s greed. A feminist perspective cannot be denied. However, there are more ways of interpretation, which should not be overlooked. It is necessary to know the background of the setting to understand why land and possession are so important.
3. Political circumstances or: the setting
The novel is set in Zebulon County, somewhere in Iowa in the heart of the United States of America. The events take place in the late 1970s, when agribusiness, farming on huge, highly technologised farms, producing the highest amount of crops, was on its peak. In order to get an idea of the economical and social circumstances in the novel we have to take a look at the American agricultural policy in the 1960s and 70s.
Firstly, there was an economical incident which meant an advantage for American agriculture. President Nixon loosened the dollar price in 1971. In this way the dollar orientated itself to the value of other currencies. In consequence American products became a lot cheaper in foreign markets. Furthermore there was a period of poor weather conditions in other parts of the world which caused low crop yields and created a high demand for American agricultural products. As Nixon had created good relationships with the Soviet Union a wheat and grain contract between the two countries was signed in 1972. It guaranteed the grain supply of the Soviet Union for several years and – of course – meant economical growth for American farmers. Consequently, the American agriculture Secretary wanted the American farmers to plant “fencerow to fencerow”.[2] He told them what the aim of their work should be: “get bigger, get better, or get out.”[3]
[...]
[1] Smiley, Jane
[2] Mack Faragher, John: p. 149
[3] ibid.
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