A Thousand Acres Chapters 39–41 Summary & Analysis

Chapters 39–41

Summary: Chapter 39

Ginny reveals her new understanding of Larry, Caroline, Pete, Ty, and Rose. For thirty-six years, she’s been watching them swirl in murky water. Now, everything is clear, and she is exhilarated by this new way of seeing. She feels completely herself in her new knowledge. She also admits that knowing about Jess and Rose, imagining them lustfully lying together, is unbearable.

After Pete’s funeral, Rose and Jess treat Ginny kindly. Ty is in crisis. The crops have done well, but without Pete and Larry, he does not have the labor to harvest them. He wants to sell some of the breeder sows to cover the upcoming loan payment. Meanwhile, Ginny plans to poison Rose. She researches plants and lands on wild hemlock. She harvests some and uses it to can cabbage and sausage, a dish Rose loves but Jess or the girls won’t touch. Ginny is careful to dispose of all evidence. She brings a box to Rose, who thanks her and kisses her cheek. Afterward, Ginny feels satisfied, careful, and calm.

Summary: Chapter 40

Ty and Jess work hard to bring in the harvest in mid-September. Larry has moved to Des Moines, and neighbors help Harold and Loren get their crops in. Ginny waits for Rose to die but realizes that the sausages are a winter dish. The court hearing happens on October 19. Larry takes the stand and seems incoherent, ranting about Caroline being dead. As Larry is led out of the courtroom, Ginny shouts out about his confusion of the three sisters. Ginny looks at Jess and thinks about how much has changed in the last year. Caroline takes the stand but fails to make the case that the farm is being mismanaged. Marv Carson takes the stand and attests to the farm’s viability and success. The judge rules in favor of the defendants—Ginny, Ty, and Rose—and orders the plaintiffs to pay the costs for bringing a frivolous suit to court. Ginny comments that there can be no reconciliation now.

Summary: Chapter 41

Ginny and Ty return home after the hearing but speak little. Ginny prepares supper while Ty goes out to the barn. Ginny assumes that the work on the hog buildings would resume the following week. With chops in the broiler and potatoes and Brussels sprouts on the stove, Ginny comments that they could use a new oven. Ty refuses and accuses her of showing off plenty recently. Knowing that their marriage is doomed, Ginny asks Ty for $1,000. He has just that amount in his pocket from the man he rents land to, so he hands it to her. Ginny takes the money and drives away, first to Mason City and then onto St. Paul. Ty yells after her that he gave his life to the farm.

Analysis: Chapters 39–41

These final chapters of Book Five are dominated by Ginny’s startling decision to poison Rose and the hearing that seals the fate of the farm and the family. In Chapter 39, Ginny and Ty disagree about selling the breeder sows, but Ty’s opinion trumps hers. Ginny has just thought long and hard about all the people in her life, a kind of personal reckoning that culminates in her thinking honestly about Rose. Ginny now loathes her sister, and her hatred leads her to the library to methodically plan and carry out a canning operation that she hopes will lead to Rose’s death. This is a miraculous transformation for a character who began, in Book One, as timid, weak, subservient, and uninformed, a woman who lived in a daze of self-delusion and a life that sometimes felt more like a prison than a home. Ginny has become a premeditated murderer, capable of fratricide, who doesn’t feel even an iota of guilt or remorse. She admits to feeling both pleasure and pride in her planning, congratulating herself for the fact that Rose’s own appetite would lead to her death. As Ginny carries a box of canned poison to Rose, she comments to Rose that there’s a surprise inside. When Rose kisses Ginny on the cheek in gratitude, it is perfectly ironic. That Ginny has chosen sausage, a pork product, as the medium is also perfectly diabolical. She and Ty are, after all, hog farmers.

The box of canned sausages is tucked away for a winter treat, and the plot shifts to the farm: the harvest and the hearing. Readers learn more about how harvest decisions are made, with a careful eye on the calendar and the weather so as not to harvest when crops are too wet. Ty gives in to working with Jess, and they do well, getting everything in a little early and selling at the right moment, thereby avoiding any accusation of mismanagement.

The court hearing is a public display of the family’s dysfunction. Larry rants insanely. Caroline and Frank look and act like wealthy city slickers out of the place in a rural courtroom. Ginny and Rose are like a Greek chorus, speaking out of turn, commenting on what they observe. Ty smiles at Caroline, who smiles back, revealing with a single gesture his complicity against his wife. Marv Carson cares only about money and testifies that the farm is in good hands and that hogs are an excellent investment. The verdict is surprising only to Caroline. However, it leads to Ginny’s decision to leave her home and husband, also done perfectly. She leaves supper cooking on the stove and takes a pittance of cash from Ty to begin a new life in Book Six and leave her old one behind.

Many conflicts are resolved in Book Five, but the most important one remains: the animosity between Ginny and Rose. Ginny hates her sister with a burning passion, and she channels that hatred into jars of poisoned sausages, a bomb ticking in her sister’s basement. Larry is still alive, although finally emasculated and humiliated. Caroline has been defeated, at least for now. Ty is left at home yelling after his wife that he’s given his life to the farm. Ginny appears to have claimed her freedom and autonomy, although readers don’t yet know how that will work out. As readers begin Book Six, they expect some final resolutions but suspect that they won’t be easy.

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