An Analysis Of Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres

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Ultimately, her opinion as a woman
remains irrelevant. Ginny remarks, "of course it was silly to talk about
'my po int of view.' When my father asserted his point of view, mine
vanished" (176). When she makes the "mistake" of crossing her father, she
is referred to as a "bitch," "whore," and "slut" (181, 185).
It could be argued that many of the male characters in the novel
are suffering from a type of virgin/whore syndrome. As long as the women
remain docile receptacles they are "good"; when they resist or even
question masculine authority, they are "bad." Rose complains, "When we are
good girls and accept our circumstances, we're glad about it....When we are
bad girls, it drives us crazy" (99). The women have been indoctrinated to
the point that they initially buy into and accept these standards of judgem
ent. The type of patriarchy described by Smiley simply serves to show the
inscription of the marginalization of women by men in the novel and in our
society.
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