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ists offollowing themes: “categorization, functional differentiation, segregation, unequalaccess to material goods, differential values, and unequal power.” (21)
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B. Women’s Plight in the Marriage and Patriarchal Society
means wives are inferior to their husband and will be treated unequally in the family.With a family unit, wives are considered to rely on their husbands who areexpected to be the “breadwinners”. The idealized image of the traditional family ishusbands working full time for pay to support his family, while the wives work athome caring for the children and doing housework. Even though the wives go out towork, they should do part-time jobs or for a period when the families need themfavor. In addition, wives’ payment of labor force is generally lower than husbands’payment so that the paychecks of wives typically add less to the family income thanthe husbands’ paychecks. Consequently, it will come to a so-called conclusion that itis not “appropriate” for wives to be the financial support of the families. Just as Elliotonce said, “A husband and wife are both under God, but their positions are not thesame. A wife is to submit herself to her husband. The husband’s ‘rank’ is given tohim by God.” (Elliot 141) It conveys that wives in families are dependent or deprived,while husband remains dominant.
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Chapter Two Ginny’s Quest for Gender Identity ......... 25
A. Resistance against the Role of Obedient Daughter ........... 25
B. Being an Independent Elder Sister .... 30
C. Struggling against the Image of Submissive Wife..... 34
Chapter Three Male Characters’ Quest for Self-Identity .... 41
A. Larry: Failure to be the Dominator.... 41
B. Tyler: Endurance for Being a Successful Farmer ...... 46
C. Peter: Expression for Being Satisfactory So-in-law and Husband .... 49
D. Jess: Endeavor to Figure out Himself........ 52

Chapter Three Male Characters’ Quest for Self-Identity

As it is universally known that father plays a momentous part in family andsociety historically. However, with the progress of society and the changing of newgenerations’ attitudes for world, the circumstance of father domination has changed.In sociological terms, the new process of socialization downplays to some extent theinstitutional norms of the patriarchal family and diversifies the roles within thefamily. According to Hage and Powers, “as an outcome of such processes, newpersonalities emerges, more complex, less secure, yet more capable of adapting tochanging roles in social contests.” (68) In other words, the relationships of familymembers become more complicated, and for the purpose of establishing theirself-identity, they all try to express themselves and struggling against each other.Likewise, in A Thousand Acres, the male characters all want to construct theirself-identity by different ways. Just as Georgia Warnke writes, “In thinking about ourfuture, we think about who we are, which identities we have that we want to maintain,and which we want to revise or discard. …Our task as individuals is to develop andorganize our identities in ways that give our lives the meaning we want for them.”(225) Therefore, they strive by all means for gaining power to call out their voicesand demonstrate their selfhood so as to establish their self-identity. And violence,words abuse and discourse all presents the power.