With unexpected humor and elegance, A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley takes the reader through a family's tragedy both in a sympathetic and shocking way. As an adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear, the novel A Thousand Acres becomes a very relatable story for many. With common themes of trust, family, loyalty, and compassion the reader can easily find ways to connect to the people within this novel. By looking at important aspects of the making of this book such as, the authors biography, plot genre and literary elements we can find how the main themes tie the whole story together. In the end author Smiley is trying to show how family can be torn apart when women speak out of their gender roles and, in result to that sensitive subjects come…show more content… Soon enough though her family had moved to Missouri where she spent her adolescents. Smiley received her BA at Vassar College and then later moved to Iowa City where she earned a MA and a PhD at the University of Iowa (1975-1978). She ended up teaching at Iowa state University. Her first published book was Barn Blind in 1980. Five years later she received the O. Henry award for her short story, “Lily”. In 1992 Smiley was awarded with the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her book A Thousand Acres(The Writing University). Smiley stayed in Iowa for many years. Her time spent in Iowa greatly influenced her writing, which is represented in the continuous farm imagery within her novels. Another connection between Smiley’s personal life and her books is the ever prominent theme of family. Smiley has been married four times, and still is very fond of every man she has married. She has as well had three children. It is safe to say that family is an important part of her life. Which is also passed down into her writing style thus resulting in the main theme of family, and womanhood in the novel itself. For the fact that Smiley has been married four different times she obviously knows a thing or two about women's “roles” and…show more content… Not only did they help to validate the characters actions and emotions but it also helped to show some of the things that built up to the major conflict the girls have with their father. The major conflict of this novel would be the rejection and banishment the daughters receive from their father that happens in a great big thunderstorm. For the fact that this novel is a rendition of King Lear one kind of knows what to expect in terms of major events