Daughter of Earth (1929) is an autobiographical novel by the American author and journalist Agnes Smedley.
The novel chronicles the years of Marie Rogers's tumultuous childhood, struggles in relationships with men (both physical and emotional), time working with the Socialist Party, and involvement in the Indian independence movement.
In the 1987 republication, Alice Walker states in her foreword “... it is the true story (give or take a few minor changes, deletions, or embellishments) of one woman’s life.
In his 1973 afterword, Paul Lauter discusses Smedley's life, full of struggle and hardship, as it led up to the writing of Daughter of Earth as a therapeutic exercise.
Daughter of Earth has become a standard piece of proletarian literature because of its focus on the struggles of the working class.
The family bounces back and forth between John Rogers's temporary jobs and life on the farm.
When she attends the birthday party of one of the wealthier students, Marie is made aware of class difference.
Marie leaves her second teaching job when she discovers her mother is deathly ill and goes home to be with her as she dies.
Marie receives a letter from her brother George stating that their father has sent them to work as farmhands for an abusive man.
On her way to New York, Marie stops to meet her old pen pal, Robert Hampton, and is disappointed by his appearance and strong Christian beliefs.
Not too long after, she receives a telegram from Dan informing her that George, who was released from jail because of his young age, has died in a ditch cave in.
Struggling financially, Dan decides to join the military and fight in World War I. Marie worries about him constantly.
Marie, still working vigorously as a journalist for The Call and attending school, meets an Indian named Sardar Ranjit Singh.
At the end of the book Marie has begged Anand to leave her because they will never be happy again, and she will only hold him back from his work.
Barbara Foley asserts that Marie's desire for sexual egalitarianism ties in with her struggle to create a better world.
[1] Sondra Guttman claims that the issues of gender, race, and class intermingle, impeding the progress of one another.
[2] Christie Launius, in her comparison of Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska, Daughter of Earth by Agnes Smedley, and The Great Midland by Alexander Saxton, notes issues related to gender as well.
Launius notes that Marie's aversion to marriage may largely be based on her motivation to obtain class mobility.
He contends that Marie sees education as a form of escape from the vicious cycles of marriage and family in holding women in the working class.
[4] Andrew C. Yerkes argues that Daughter of Earth stands out among other literature of the 1930s which remained sexist in its portrayals of women.
[5] Similarly, Paula Rabinowitz looks at Daughter of Earth in contrast to proletarian literature dealing with gender roles in marriage, family, and sexuality written by men.
She explains that Smedley and other female writers show women revolting against the stereotypes enhanced by marriage, family, and heterosexuality.
Rabinowitz also takes on the arguments made by Walter Rideout who claims sexuality in proletarian literature is seen as healthy.
Unlike other 1930s Leftist novels, Daughter of Earth depicted family as a negative entity which would ruin an individual's chances for a happy life.
[8] Daughter of Earth also presents images of motherhood in such a negative light that Marie Rogers vows to escape marriage and all it entails.
In “A Wake for Mother: The Maternal Deathbed in Women’s Fiction” Judith Kegan Gardiner elaborates on the role of motherhood in Daughter of Earth.
[10] Nancy Hoffman addresses the unique structure of the novel, which she also attributes to the therapeutic purpose of the writing.
Daughter of Earth takes on three forms as it progresses through her childhood and adult life: mythic, novelistic, and autobiographical.