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

Caroline in A Thousand Acres   It is really inter-group communication that a novel in which bodies of people and bodies of land (and, intertextually, bodies of text) are so central, creates a character that is so distinctly unbodied 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 thoroughly described and, not least, imbued with meaning, Caroline is always described in terms of her business- resembling take-me-seriously-or-Ill-sue-you demeanor (13), her expensive clothes and forceful actions. She is in fact described like a man, a trait first exposed when she as a electric shaver says that shes not going to be a farmwife when she grows up, but a granger (61), then when Ginny has her moment of insight toward the end, and suddenly realizes everybody clearly for what they are her eyeball darting from one face to another , calculating, always calculating. ... She climbs into Daddys lap, and her gaze slithers around the room, looking to see if we have noticed how he prefers her. (306) She is still unbodied here, described in terms of eyes and mind. This is metaphorically a male domain in Western thought, the gaze is traditionally male, categorizing external reality in severalize to have power over it by utilizing reason. Nor, of course, is it incidental that Caroline is the enlightened one, emphasizing further her belonging to the male realm. Whereas Roses man-ness is based on a destructive rage, Carolines is based on cold calculation, therefore she is more sure-fire playing by the rules of the patriarchy. It must be remembered, however, that she is able to use the remains because she has been shielded from its negative side. Ginny and Rose have always protected her from Larrys anger, incest, and execute suppression of their own identities. While Larry signifies so many things to the elder siste rs, not least the horribly intimate -familiar- memories of incest, Caroline can say around 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, saying 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.