A Thousand Acres

In Shakespeare's play, King Lear, is about Lear's demise while on his journey to wisdom and humbleness. In the novel, A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley, it retells Shakespeare's play with a modern twist about a small farm family in a small town in Iowa. Just how Lear gives up his kingdom to his three daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia, Larry plans to distribute his thousand acres betwen his three daughters, Ginny, Rose and Caroline. Although the two books are different in many ways, they are also very much alike because they both involve the themes of Lear and Larry growing and changing, appearances versus the reality of things and how they play out in both books. To begin, the theme of growth and change is present in King Lear. Lear is an arrogant and selfish man; however, he changes and learns how to humble himself throughout events that occur during the play. Lears first act of compassion is seen when talking to the fool. He says, "Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold?" (Shakespeare, 70, III.2, 68). This shows Lear actually carrying about someone other than himself, which is something that is completely out of…

King Lear and A Thousand Acres: A Comparison William Shakespeare 's tragedy King Lear, originally performed in 1606, chronicles the downfall of a king. Three hundred-eighty-five years later, Jane Smiley published the novel A Thousand Acres which parallels King Lear,with a few exceptions. Both tragedies present the tale of a father who divides what he owns amongst two of his daughters while rejecting the third, who later comes to the father’s aid. In one story the father is a king and in the…

Nature is the foundation of everything that is on our earth and beyond the limits of our universe. Without nature, we would not be able to exist in the first place, and it is through nature that we can continue to live. In “King Lear” by William Shakespeare and “A Thousand Acres” by Jane Smiley, the authors both illustrate just how important nature, in the form of a mother, really is through actions of Goneril and Ginny. Even though “A Thousand Acres” is a modern retelling of the famous “King…

Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres presents the dimensional characterization of Larry, Ginny, and Rose Cook (Brauner 664; Schiff 13 of 16), the contentious themes involving feminism and the deceptive appearance of the idealized “American Dream” (Carden 193); and the symbolically significant setting of a rural Iowa county during the presidency of Jimmy Carter ( Smiley 174 ; Holman “Setting” 120)—all of which serves to relate the impact of industry upon families living in America during such time…

Knowledge Titles play the important role of catching the readers’ attention, delivering a point, and revealing a significant meaning. In Jane Smiley’s book, A Thousand Acres, the title represents the thousand acres of land that Ginny’s dad owns. The thousand acres represents more than just land. It symbolizes their livelihood, their salvation, and helped them grow into the people they are presently. However, this land tears their family apart through dominance and discrepancy which destroys the…

William Shakespeare's King Lear and Jane Smiley’s “A Thousand Acres” are two literary works that are often popular to compare due to the fact that Smiley based her novel off of this famous play. Between character parallels and themes, there are many ways to compare the similarities and differences between these two works. Although “A Thousand Acres” is based off of King Lear, it doesn’t all match up exactly the same. While the two literary works, there are obvious character parallels. Larry…

stem from the idea of reinventing the classic to pertain to modern ideas and society. A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley does this by stemming original ideas off of the classic King Lear by William Shakespeare. Though A Thousand Acres is a recreation it does share commonalities and differences with the original in which was based such as in ways of plot lines, characters, themes, and thesis. Jane Smiley weaves her own intent into the thesis of the original and recreates the classic story to fit her…

gain more power. Likewise, Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres tells a tale molded around King Lear where the owner of a 1000-acre farm named Larry agrees to hand it down to his daughters, Rose, Ginny, and Caroline, in joint ownership but ends up keeping Caroline out of the agreement while the other two turn against him. Although the parallels are apparent between both works, there are also blatant differences…

Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres was based off of William Shakespeare's King Lear. Smiley’s work is more modern, though there are several corresponding events and characters. One such set of characters is lawyer Ken LaSalle, from A Thousand Acres, and advisor the Earl of Kent, from King Lear. The two characters share many qualities and abilities. Yet, they are not entirely identical in nature. These shared qualities and abilities include candor and loyalty. The pair shares several contrasting…

The representation of Goneril and Regan in King Lear and, Ginny and Rose in A Thousand Acres showcases a direct parallel to the image that women can not handle having a high position in the patriarchy. In King Lear their father was depicted as a powerful man who gave up all his power to his daughters. Once Lear had given them half of his lands, they start to turn their backs on their father; from refusing to shelter him to stripping away the hundred men he had left to abandoning him in the…