A Thousand Acres: Motifs

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Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Water

Water takes many forms in A Thousand Acres, sometimes beneficial, sometimes threatening. In Chapter 3, Ginny expresses her reverence for the sea flowing under their feet, drained by the system her great-grandparents built. She recalls the simplicity of the old farm pond, contrasting it with the swimming pool in town and the remote quarry where she sees Pete. Ginny finds solace in swimming. It cools her body and emotions. When Larry carelessly leaves the kitchen cabinets in the rain, Rose is furious, foreshadowing Larry’s foray into the storm. As a child, Ginny played near the drainage grates, worrying her parents. When she goes back to the farm in Chapter 45, the rusty grates are bolted closed, but she can hear the eternal trickle of the water beneath the soil. The underground water represents Ginny’s memory, hidden yet always present. Her memories move the same way, waiting to rise to the surface. Diving into them ultimately saves her because they open her heart to listen to itself. In the climactic moment, Ginny washes the poisons down the drain, an action both cathartic and sacramental.

Alcohol

Alcohol plays a large role in the novel. Larry drinks every night and is gruff every morning. He is charged with a DWI after wrecking his truck. Pete is a drinker, too, and is drunk when he drowns in the quarry. Jess tells Ginny about losing his fiancée in a car accident and that afterward, he drank to avoid the pain. He nearly died of alcohol poisoning, so now he doesn’t drink at all. The Monopoly games involve drinking beers. On the night after Pete’s death, Rose gets drunk on vodka, and Ginny has some, too, fueling an honest conversation about their affairs with Jess. Alcohol loosens conversation but also leads to hurt feelings. The sisters go outside to stand under the stars as they talk about Pete and then Jess, recalling the night that the power went out and truths were exposed.

Poisons and Toxins

The novel’s pastoral setting is ironically full of poisons. Ginny describes her father’s work as an action that poisons the water and topsoil. When Marv Carson comes for breakfast, he talks about shedding toxins, which he believes create negative thoughts and worries. Jess believes the chemicals used on the farm poison the water, the likely cause of Ginny’s miscarriages. Three women—Mrs. Clark, Mrs. Cook, and Rose—die from cancer, suggesting that living on the farm has a toxic effect. Harold is blinded by anhydrous ammonia, the result of Pete’s plan to kill Larry. When Ginny decides to poison Rose, she chooses the water hemlock that grows wild on their land. When Rose learns that Ginny tried to poison her, she jokes that she didn’t have to bother because all of the toxic well water Rose drank did the job for her. The poisons represent the harmful effect that farming life has on these people. Like Marv says, thinking you can avoid them is just another symptom of the toxic overload stage.

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