The corrupt patriarchal society of A Thousand Acres A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley tells the dark story of a corrupt patriarchal society that operates through concealment. It is a story in which characters attempt to manipulate each other through the secrets they possess and the subsequent revelation of those secrets. In her novel, Smiley gives us a very simple moral about this patriarchal society: women who remain financially and emotionally dependent on men decay; those who are able to break the economic and emotional chains develop as women and as human beings. Thousand Acre Roots can be seen in numerous novels and plays, the most obvious of which is King Lear. The parallels are too great to ignore. Smiley succeeds because it fills many of the gaps left open in the show. It offers us new and different perspectives. One of the novel's strengths lies in its depiction of women's place in a predominantly patriarchal culture. In this male-dominated culture, values ​​favored in women include silence and subordination. Ginny is acceptable as a woman as long as he remains "oblivious" (121). She is allowed to disagree with men, as long as she does so without fighting (104). Ultimately, her opinion as a woman remains irrelevant. Ginny observes, "of course it was silly to talk about 'my point of view'." When my father stated his point of view, mine vanished” (176). When she makes the "mistake" of opposing her father, she is called a "bitch," "whore," and "slut" (181, 185). It could be argued that many of the male characters in the novel suffer from some sort of virgin/whore syndrome. As long as women remain docile receptacles they are "good"; when they resist or even question male authority, they are "bad." Rose laments, “When we are good girls and accept our circumstances, we are happy with it…When we are bad girls, it drives us crazy” (99). Women have been indoctrinated to the point that they initially believe and accept these standards of judgment. The type of patriarchy Smiley describes simply serves to show the inscription of women's marginalization by men into the novel and into our society. Another strength of the novel is the way it deals with secrets and appearances..