Caroline in Jane Smileys A Thousand Acres :: Smiley Thousand Acres Essays

Caroline in A Thousand demesne   It is really striking that a novel in which bodies of people and bodies of unload (and, intertextually, bodies of text) are so central, creates a source that is so distinctly formless Caroline Cook. Nevertheless, it is in keeping with traditional and patriarchal interpretations of Cordelias character in King Lear a paragon of purity and transcendence.   While her sisters bodies are exhaustively describe and, not least, imbued with meaning, Caroline is evermore described in ground of her business-like take-me-seriously-or-Ill-sue-you demeanor (13), her expensive clothes and assertive actions. She is in fact described like a man, a trait first exposed when she as a child says that shes not going to be a farmwife when she grows up, precisely a farmer (61), then when Ginny has her moment of insight toward the end, and suddenly sees everybody all the way for what they are her eyes darting from one face to another, calculating, always c alculating. ... She climbs into Daddys lap, and her gaze slithers somewhat the room, looking to see if we have noticed how he prefers her. (306) She is still disembodied here, described in terms of eyes and mind. This is metaphorically a male domain in Western thought, the gaze is traditionally male, categorizing external honesty in order to have power over it by utilizing reason. Nor, of course, is it minor expense that Caroline is the educated one, emphasizing further her belonging to the male realm. Whereas Roses man-ness is base on a destructive rage, Carolines is based on cold calculation, consequently she is more successful playing by the rules of the patriarchy. It must be remembered, however, that she is qualified to use the system because she has been shielded from its negative side. Ginny and Rose have always protected her from Larrys anger, incest, and complete suppression of their own identities. While Larry signifies so many an(prenominal) things to the elder sisters, not least the horribly intimate -familiar- memories of incest, Caroline back say about him that he looks as familiar as a father should look, no more, no less. In this, as Ginny replies, she is lucky. (362) Of course, utter that Caroline is like a man signals complicity with gender-stereotypes. She is a positive character in that she is assertive and self-contained, as when she criticizes Larrys idea to divide the farm.