A Thousand Acres

In the book, ‘A Thousand Acres’, when a father of three daughters decides to pass his inheritance to his daughters, Caroline, Ginny and Rose, injustice is witnessed as not only is the 1,000 acre farm divided fairly but also one of the daughters fails to get a share of the inheritance. Caroline who is the youngest daughter of Cook is left out of the inheritance as she responded in a less enthusiastic way towards her father’s generosity. This leaves her to cope up with the grimy realities of the life farm marked with a battering husband and lenders.   To Caroline this was injustice to her as she had been left without any inheritance meaning she had no hopes of getting out of that farm. Injustice is evident in the family’s division of power, authority, devotion and dynamics.   

Caroline miseries were as a result of her disapproval of his father’s idea of giving the profitable piece of land to them instead of putting it to a better commercial use to benefit the whole family. It is the pride of the father that is bruised by this stand leading to the selfish decision. Smiley states “My father’s pride, always touchy, had been injured to the quick”. Caroline faces another injustice blow from her sisters who failed to respond to their fathers’ actions. In an effort to find justice on her own way, she decides to estrange from her family. This works out to her favour as eventually she makes up with her father and the two ganged up against Rose and Ginny. The pursuit for justice was significant to the family as it was at this point that some of the family secrets were reveled. Ginny’s relationships issues with her husband were revealed as well as Rose inability to conceive children. The search for justice in “A Thousand Acres” clearly brings out the outcomes of power struggles especially in families posing a challenge to the readers.