Ginny is a sterile whore in A Thousand Acres In her womb they transmit sterility, they dry up the organs of growth in her, and from her despised body never is born a child to honor her. (King Lear, I.iv. 285-288) In the logic of the novel, it is early established that Ginny understands and feels external reality through her body, and the most prominent example of this is her bodily need to have children. The sight of Rose's daughters, in contrast to her miscarriages, Ginny says, "hit me like poison. All my tissues ached when I saw them, when I saw Rose with them, as if my capillaries were carrying the acid to the farthest reaches of the world." my system" (8). The body of any subject, it can be argued, is also a social body, not only a place of signification for the subject himself, but for other people and society in general. In its desperation and jealousy after losing Jess to Rose, Ginny expresses the problematic belief that having children is somehow a universal indicator of human worth. This view of her body as both a biological and social failure; to support Jess Clark's interest, to support a pregnancy" (307), signals that she is still within the confines of a patriarchal system that sees women as property in line with animals and the earth. The system, of which Larry Cook is the King, he is able to criticize a childless woman, especially when she is "old to be a breeder" (13). It is no wonder, then, that Ginny continues to try to have children even after Ty wants selfishly stop trying because he can't handle the disappointment. It becomes a way for Ginny to regain control over her body, a secret project through which she can live a second life free from the social imperatives that ultimately originate in the transcendental signifier, Larry Cook's great "I AM" (211) . . It is significant that his reflections on his "secret world", full of "secret and passionate desires" are interrupted by a sudden reminder that his past and present life is dominated by his father's world and his father's desires (26- 27). secret world and these secret desires are thwarted, in fact it turns out that they were illusions all along because the nitrates in the water caused her infertility. A Thousand Acres continually makes connections between patriarchy and capitalism, criticizing the exploitation of women and nature even in industrial agriculture.