A Thousand Acres

Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres is a novel about the relationship between a man and his three daughters. Larry Cook plans on giving his three daughters a share in the farm, but his youngest daughter, Caroline, who is a lawyer, doesn’t agree to this. The two older sisters, Ginny and Rose, think that it’s a great idea. Caroline goes back to her home in the city of Des Moines, Iowa, meanwhile Ginny, Rose, and their husbands take full advantage of controlling the farm. Throughout the novel, the comparison between the city and the country is used to emphasize the theme, women who rely on men do not prosper and those who don’t will flourish as women and humans.
The city, when referred to in the novel, represents freedom and prosperity for women. When told the new plan for the farm, the other sisters agreed with their father as not to madden him, while Caroline calmly and coolly said, “I don’t know”(19). This supports the idea that Caroline gained her freedom when she...