A Thousand Acres Summary
Jane Smiley

Everything you need to understand or teach A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley.

A Thousand Acres Summary & Study Guide
3 Student Essays
9 Literature Criticisms
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30 A Thousand Acres Lessons
20 Activities
180 Multiple Choice Questions
60 Short Essay Questions
20 Essay Questions
Pre-Made Tests and Quizzes
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A Thousand Acres Summary

Written in 1991, A Thousand Acres is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by author Jane Smiley. A film adaptation was released in 1997 starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange. The story takes place in a small farming town in 1979 Iowa and centers around the Cook family. The aging father of three daughters decides to hand his farm over to their care. However, things go wrong quickly as the father comes to believe the eldest...

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Study Pack

The A Thousand Acres Study Pack contains:

A Thousand Acres Study Guide

Plot Summary

Chapter Summaries

Characters

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Themes

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Quotes

Topics for Discussion

Jane Smiley Biographies (2)

Jane (Graves) Smiley

4,276 words, approx. 15 pages

The range and variety of Jane Smiley's work as a writer of fiction have resulted in a great deal of critical attention, a wide and committed readership, and several different perceptions of her achiev... Read more

Jane (Graves) Smiley

3,468 words, approx. 12 pages

A Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, Jane Smiley has also won acclaim for her work as an author of short fiction. In The Age of Grief: Stories and a Novella (1987), Ordinary Love and Good Will: Two Nove... Read more

Essays & Analysis (12)

Critical Essay by Mary Paniccia Carden

10,897 words, approx. 37 pages

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Critical Essay by James A. Schiff

7,995 words, approx. 27 pages

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Critical Essay by Catherine Cowen Olson

5,017 words, approx. 17 pages

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Critical Essay by Barbara Mathieson

7,345 words, approx. 25 pages

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Critical Review by Richard Eder

1,193 words, approx. 4 pages

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Critical Review by Rupert Christiansen

751 words, approx. 3 pages

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Critical Essay by Jane S. Bakerman

4,110 words, approx. 14 pages

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Critical Essay by Margaret Rozga

4,893 words, approx. 17 pages

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Critical Essay by Tim Keppel

4,993 words, approx. 17 pages

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A Thousand Acres

812 words, approx. 3 pages

People tend to cope with society by agreeing and accepting what they are receiving in life. Life can be an adventure that takes you into another world but you can always bring yourself back into your ... Read more

Change of the Relationship between the Three Sisters

1,631 words, approx. 6 pages

A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley is a story about a family living in a piece of land of 1000 acres for three generations. At one level, it tells us how the Cook's family came to the farm and how they... Read more

The Effects of a Family Breakup in "A Thousand Acres"

1,374 words, approx. 5 pages

Jane Smiley uses the characters' changing personalities and attitudes in A Thousand Acres to demonstrate the major effect the break up of a family can have on people. Many of the characters change thr... Read more

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