Monday, September 10, 2012
The character that I am going to write about is Jess Clark. This novel has been compared to King Lear many times in class as well as most descriptions that I have read online. When this novel was compared to King Lear in class I remember someone saying that Jess Clark was the "Edmund" of this story. I believe this to an extent but also disagree with that statement. I agree that he could be Edmund in the fact that when he was away in Canada and Seattle his father "disowned" him by not talking about him with others in the community. However, I also remember that in the reading he had a party thrown in his honor by his father when he returned home. I have also seen a little bit of "Edmund" in Jess Clark in of the fact that Ginny wishes that she was with him instead of being with Tyler just like Gonnerial wanted to be with Edmund. On the other hand, Reagan was interested in Edmund too, but Rose is not interested in Jess in the novel A Thousand Acres. Another difference that I see in this novel is that there is many scenes in the novel where Jess and Ginny interact and talk while in King Lear there is not much interaction between Gonnerial and Edmund. I also think that the length of this novel makes the reader think more about the life of Jess than the life of Edmund and that way the reader will always "like" Jess more than Edmund. That is just a simple explanation Jess Clark's characteristics and how they differ from that of Edmund in King Lear.
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While it is true that Rose is not interested in Jess at this point, there is plenty of content left in the novel for the ties between the characters to become even more twisted. In my opinion, it is harder to gauge the feelings the other characters have towards Jess because this is all told from Ginny's point of view; for all we know, while Ginny was away, for example, with her father at his doctor's appointment, Jess could have been making a move on Rose. The readers would be none the wiser, should Rose choose to keep the scandal a secret from her sister, the narrator. Perhaps we get more development of Jess than we did of Edmund for this very reason: Ginny is infatuated with the man, and would certainly be well informed as to how he has lived. I do not necessarily agree nor disagree with you, as we have not finished the book yet, but I feel as if considering this shift in story telling medium is important in considering how the characters are viewed.
ReplyDeleteI think that Jess and Edmund could be quite similar in character expect we didn't ever find out much in depth of Edmund's life. Edmund as a boy could have gone away for sometime only to return and commit the foul acts that he did. Sometimes books leave scenarios like this wide open so each reader can come up with whatever background they think is suiting to the character. I also believe that Jess and Rose could still have an affair, but were not that far in the book so i guess only time will show what happens.
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