Giant by Edna Ferber

First published: 1952

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Regional

Time of plot: Mid-1920’s to 1950’s

Locale: Texas and Virginia

Principal characters

• Jordan “Bick” Benedict III, owner of Reata Ranch
• Leslie Lynnton Benedict, his wife
• Jordan “Jordy” Benedict IV and Luz Benedict, their children
• Jett Rink, a ranch hand who strikes oil
• Juana Benedict, Jordy’s wife

The Story:

Texas is a vast, moneyed, and contradictory place. On this day, millionaires gather before attending a party to be hosted by the arrogant, nouveau riche, former ranch hand Jett Rink. At Reata Ranch, their giant kingdom of sorts, is the Benedict family—Jordan III, Leslie, their children Luz and Jordan IV, and Jordan’s Mexican wife, Juana—neither of whom is enthusiastic about attending Rink’s party. Jordan III, called Bick, is tall, blond, and dusty as he comes out from the corral.

Soon, the Benedicts and their guests adjourn to the ranch airfield to board Bick’s private plane for the four-hundred-mile trip to Rink’s party in Hermoso. Aboard the plane, talk is of oil leases and cattle, two basic components of Texas wealth. After arriving, everyone settles at the massive new hotel built by Rink, a place, as one person calls it, “almost majestically vulgar.” The hotel is segregated: Only whites can be guests.

One guest of the Benedicts, a South American ambassador, is being refused admittance to Rink’s party because hotel staff think he is Mexican. The Benedicts quickly intervene. Then, daughter-in-law Juana is turned away from the hotel beauty parlor because it “don’t take Mexicans.” At the party, an irate Jordy, Juana’s husband, attacks Rink, but he is restrained by Rink’s bodyguards and then beaten by them. Leslie, looking at Bick, says “It’s caught up with us. It always does.”

Twenty-five years earlier, Leslie and Bick first meet. Bick, in Virginia to buy a racehorse owned by Dr. Horace Lynnton, becomes intrigued by Leslie, the second of the doctor’s three adult daughters, who is unusual, both in her dark-haired looks and in her opinions. She is outspoken and interested in politics, sociology, medicine, and literature. Unlike the Texas girls Bick has known, Leslie does not chatter about unimportant things or focus her conversation on what might be interesting to a man. At dinner, Bick is again surprised, as the women, especially Leslie, lead the conversation. Later, Leslie, who has always loved to read, gathers a number of books about Texas and reads all night. The next morning, she shows her newfound knowledge of Texas by stating “We really stole Texas, didn’t we.” Such statements are typical of Leslie, and Bick is offended.

After a whirlwind courtship, Leslie and Bick are married and travel to Texas. Without being able to speak Spanish, Leslie is at a disadvantage, but she wants to know about her new home and meet the people she will be living with. She is interested in the Mexican servants and their lives and begins to offend people, particularly her new husband, with her friendly attitude toward the servants. The Benedicts and their friends consider the servants to be nothing more than serfs.

Leslie then meets the boorish ranch hand Jett Rink, who is willing to show her aspects of Reata Ranch that others do not want her to see. Leslie has to face and learn to overcome the different wind, heat, and foods. She discovers that men talk only to other men and that the women, the wives, talk only amongst themselves. There seems to be no exchange between women and men because the men believe women could not be interested in, let alone understand, business or politics or other such topics. Ever curious, Leslie continues to visit and learn about the Mexican locals. From Rink, who becomes fascinated by Leslie, she learns that Mexicans are not regarded as white by the ranch owners.

Gradually, Leslie takes charge of her new home. When she becomes pregnant, she thrives. Energized, she works on restoring the old family home and travels through Texas. Leslie and Bick’s first child, a boy, is born, and Leslie’s name choice is rejected in favor of Jordan Benedict IV, nicknamed Jordy. One year later, Leslie gives birth to the couple’s second child, a girl they name Luz. Daughter Luz is everything Jordy is not, both with her blonde hair and with her fearless love of horseback riding.

Leslie returns to Virginia to see her family, the Lynntons, but does not fit in as she once did. Bick visits as well, full of excitement about the oil boom in Texas. Leslie happily returns to Reata, accompanied by her family, who are thrilled with the ranch and astonished by the magnitude of Texas. The more sedate Lynntons begin to adjust to the exuberant Texans. However, when Rink bursts into a family dinner, drunk and excited because he has struck oil, the situation turns ugly. Rink reaches for Leslie, touching the soft bow at her neck, provoking Bick to punch him and throw him off the ranch.

Years later, the children have grown. Texans begin to change their business focus from raising cattle to building oil derricks. Those who once lived on ranches move into the developing cities. The sound of machinery becomes louder than that of cowboys singing to cattle. Jordy learns how to run the Benedict ranch, but he does so unwillingly, for running a ranch is not what he wants to do with his life. He is determined to become a surgeon and work with a local Mexican doctor. At a wedding for one of the ranch workers, Jordy announces he has secretly married Juana.

Leslie and Luz, along with Jordy and Juana and their son, are traveling to visit a friend. They stop at a roadside diner along the way. Luz, who is blond, parks the car as the rest, who have dark hair and dark eyes, are turned away from the restaurant because its owner refuses to serve Mexicans. “It,” racism, has faced them down, just as it will many times again. They all agree not to tell Bick about the incident until after Rink’s party.

Bibliography

Baxter, Monique James. “Giant Helps America Recognize the Cost of Discrimination.” In Hollywood’s West, edited by Peter C. Rollins and John E. O’Connor. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2005. Although this chapter discusses the film version of Giant, it examines how discrimination against Mexican Americans is central to the novel. Part of a larger study of Hollywood’s representation of the American West.

Campbell, Donna. “’Written with a Hard and Ruthless Purpose.’” In MiddlebrowModerns: Popular American Women Writers of the 1920’s, edited by Lisa Botshon, Meredith Goldsmith, and Joan Rubin. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2003. Discusses Giant as a critique of racism, arguing that Texas embodies a caste system of exploitation and power. Part of a collection of essays looking at popular American women writers who were active in the 1920’s.

Gilbert, Julie Goldsmith. Ferber: Edna Ferber and Her Circle—A Biography. New York: Applause, 1999. A well-researched biography that considers Ferber a romantic realist. Notes that although she was not opposed to working with the system, she created her own unique niche within it.

McMurtry, Larry. “Men Swaggered, Women Warred, Oil Flowed.” The New York Times, September 29, 1996. Occasioned by the rerelease of the film Giant in 1996, novelist McMurtry describes Ferber’s novel as slapdash and reflects on the “glorious flamboyance” that was the Texas of rich cattlemen and oil barons.

Prescott, Orville. “Books of the Times.” Review of Giant, by Edna Ferber. The New York Times, September 30, 1952. Prescott, in a generally positive assessment of the novel, examines how Ferber satirizes Texans, Texas life, and the “cult of bigness.”

Smyth, J. E. Edna Ferber’s Hollywood: American Fictions of Gender, Race, and History. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010. A look at the artistic and business partnership between Ferber and the Hollywood studios, who adapted her often controversial work into popular films. Explores the “research, writing, marketing, reception, and production histories of Hollywood’s Ferber franchise.”

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “Jim Crow, Jett Rink, and James Dean: Reconstructing Ferber’s Giant (1952-1956).” American Studies 43, no. 3 (Fall, 2007): 5-27. Provides background on the writing of Giant, the racist attitudes of elite white Texans, and a discussion of Leslie Benedict, the novel’s protagonist.

Watts, Eileen. “Edna Ferber, Jewish American Writer: Who Knew?” In Modern Jewish Women Writers in America, edited by Evelyn Avery. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. An essay interpreting Ferber’s work from the perspective of her Jewish heritage is included in this collection devoted to the discussion of American women writers whose lives and work have been influenced by Judaism.