Thousand acres
The narrator opens the novel by describing the farm owned by her family and her neighbors and their farms. The impression left is that the farms were extremely large and that they stretched for miles to no end, creating a sense of infinity. Ironically, everyone knows everyone in those lands because the land is owned by a few families and while they live far away from one another, they all know what happens inside his neighbor’s house. Thus, despite living at a great distance from one another, privacy is almost nonexistent.
Beating the wives
Ginny is not the only one who refuses to follow the rules: Rose for example decided to marry an outsider, someone who wasn’t raised near her, hoping that he will take care of her and be better than the farm boys around her. Ironically, her decision proved to be a disaster as her husband became an alcoholic and began beating her. Even more ironically, Rose’s father began to like his daughter’s husband only after he began beating her, thus proving that he doesn’t care about their well-being.
Favorite daughter
While it is never expressly mentioned, it is hinted that Caroline is Larry’s favorite daughter. Because of this, Larry cannot accept Caroline’s decision to disobey him and chose how she wants her life to be. This is ironic because while the other daughters who were treated harshly by Larry are more than willing to follow his commands, Caroline is bent on doing what she wants and on disregarding her father’s wishes.
Not pleased
After Larry divides his wealth among his children, Rose and Ginny start inviting him over to dinner every other night to show their gratitude and to discuss about the lands they received. But despite doing what their father expected them to do, they are still treated harshly by their father. Larry becomes even harsher as time goes by and he criticizes his daughter even more. Ironically, it seems as if the more his daughters do to please him, less content and pleased Larry is.
Not so noble
Larry is portrayed in the beginning as a noble farmer who made it his mission to feed the world through his work. Ironically, Ginny reveals that the only person Larry is interested in helping is himself and that he is a ruthless man who would not hesitate to take advantage of a poor man in need when it comes to owning more land. To support her claim, Ginny mentions a poor farmer named Mel who could not afford to pay his taxes, Larry agreed to help Mel, but Mel had to give Larry all his lands. This proves that Larry was not as selfish as he was made to appear in the beginning of the novel.
