Dr. Ramesh Prasad Adhikary
Abstract
This research article analyzes Jane Smiley's novel “A Thousand Acres”, as the voice of rebellion against male exploitation and oppression of females in patriarchal society. In this research, theories of feminism; particularly the theories of Mary Wollstonecraft, Virginia Woolf, Simon de Beauvoir, and Elaine Showalter are taken as the methodological tool to interpret the novel. The research presents the struggle of females and their attempt to release themselves from the clutches of patriarchal discrimination. In the novel, the head of the family, Larry Cook, keeps the daughters in restrictions also exploits and abuses them in all ways. In it, Ginny, the daughter, who loses patience, turns aside from supporting him; defeats him in the court case; abandons him and even her own husband; starts working in a restaurant in the city; and lives with the fully pleasant and satisfied life freely there. As a qualitative research, by collecting evidences from the text as data, the tool of feminism is used to analyze them to fulfill the objective of the research.