Jane Smiley's Use Of Literary Techniques In A Thousand Acres

In Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres, Rose possesses a hatred of anyone or anything remotely related to anything about Larry Cook. Smiley uses details and syntax to show the stubbornly resentful tone Rose has towards her father. An evident series of examples showing Rose’s tone towards her father comes after he has his accident, the first being the details with Rose’s opening question. Done watching her father meander to the barn, Rose enters the house while “[Ginny] was wiping the range with the dishrag. The screen door slapped, and Rose said, ‘He’s okay, then?’” (150). Typically, someone would ask this question out of concern for the referenced person, often too with an ideal, calm setting to properly discuss the conditions of the situation

Instead, there is a tension behind her question that communicates an additional “No one is going to do anything about him, so he is off scot-free again?” type of message with it, very accusing and vengeful. Furthermore, the conditions described are not optimal for an empathetic discussion about Larry’s health. The door “slapped” shut and Ginny is trying to preoccupy herself, likely in anticipation of the inevitable fury Rose will possess in “discussion” with Ginny. Offset by a comma, Rose then asks, “He’s okay, then?” which feels like the slight pause one might feel before someone else is about to vent. The scene is set up with the perfect sense that Rose is going to do anything but empathetically inquire about her father’s accident and recovery; rather, she is about to accuse him of carelessness and curse him. Smiley continues to reveal Rose’s unwavering resentful tone towards her father through the details of her reaction to Ginny’s proposition. After a heated exchange transitions to Ginny suggesting that they try setting Larry to strict rules, “Rose walked to the front window and stood with her back to me, staring west across the fields”