The Good Earth Sparknotes

One of the oldest books the Epic of Gilgamesh gives us a view on how the old civilization Mesopotamia and its people were it roots back to the year 2000 B.C.E. The book starts off by the King Gilgamesh sending a temple-prostitute to tame a wild man named Enkidu who acted like an animal in the grasslands. The temple-prostitute then sexualy charms him to win Enkidu’s trust. then convinces him to go back with her to the city. She then clothes him and teaches him how to eat cooked food and brewed beer and how to bathe. By her words it shows how the mesopotamians lived.

His moral ambiguity is heavily influenced by outside forces in his life that changes his view upon the world. The most excusable action in the eyes of the readers is when he commits a crime because his family is struggling in the southern city. Other citizens stricken by poverty tell Wang Lung that the riches do not belong to the wealthy, but to the poor. This conflicts with his belief that God determines one’s fate and way in life. Wang Lung goes against his morals and commits robbery because of his influence from others and the situation he was thrust into. This action determines Wang Lung’s wealthy future, but also symbolizes overcoming an obstacle, in this case, overcoming his internal conflict with his morals. The audience begins to notice the shift in Wang Lung’s character which will continue to develop negatively as his values are no longer intact.

The beginning of the story starts with Sek-Lung remembering some moments with her. “Being the youngest, I had spent nearly all my time with her and could not imagine that we would ever be parted.” Sek-Lung making this statement shows his youth and how he did not fully understand the workings of the world. Along with that, it shows the strength of his relationship with his grandmother. Along with his memories of being with her he remembers how he idolized her, always following her example, while his other siblings were embarrassed by her and “in a scientific, logical world”. Instead of being embarrassed along with his siblings, he would always take in his Chinese culture and keep to the traditional Chinese ways.

The main character is sent by his father to stay with his grandmother. This is where you learn that the strong heart runs in the family. This is true because she is a seventy-eight year old woman and will still patch out two acres of corn and make enough bread for the winter to do what she can to keep her family feed.  In her old age she hasn’t kept the best health. Some days she is too sick to get out of the bed. The main character takes care of her he cooks all the meals for her and helps her start to feel better. Living with her he hears stories of his father and how he is an honest man. Also his grandmother tells him about his grandfather and all the great things he would do.  Living with his grandmother is a great experience for the main character because she brings him history of his family and teaches him many things on how to live a content life.

The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan Spence is an educational historical novel of northeastern China during the seventeenth century. The author's focus was to enlighten a reader on the Chinese people, culture, and traditions. Spence's use of the provoking stories of the Chinese county T'an-ch'eng, in the province of Shantung, brings the reader directly into the course of Chinese history. The use of the sources available to Spence, such as the Local History of T'an-ch'eng, the scholar-official Huang Liu-hung's handbook and stories of the writer P'u Sung-Ling convey the reader directly into the lives of poor farmers, their workers and wives. The intriguing structure of The Death of Woman Wang consists on observing these people working on

In the book each of the Poh Poh’s are seen as old and wise but as well as have a deep sense of culture they are the heart of the home. Suk-Lung and Jung-Sum both had a relatively good relationship with their grandmother as they were cared for dearly”Suk-Lung and his illness. The concept of grandmother was seen throughout all three stories demonstrating their importance in Chinese culture as well as the characters lives.

The main character of the novel, Wang Lung, was a poor young peasant who lived with his father. He worked everyday in the fields harvesting goods and he enjoyed

A theme is a unifying or dominant idea in a literary work. Steinbeck described the competition of good versus evil as the story of mankind itself. He believes that every generation to come since Adam and Eve will now be immersed with the struggle of good and evil due to Eve’s curiosity that led to sin, eventually banning both her and Adam from the Garden of Eden. In East of Eden, Steinbeck makes the contest of good versus evil apparent through his contrasting description of the setting, the characters’ opposing personalities, and society’s changing morals.

In Pearl S. Buck’s novel, The Good Earth, the protagonist, Wang Lung, starts out as a very poor farmer in China. He marries a slave named O-lan and starts a family with her. Famine soon strikes the town and there is no food to be found anywhere. Wang Lung moves his family South in hopes of finding a job there. Eventually, a group of poor people raid the homes of the rich. Wang Lung and O-lan both join in, getting away with enough gold and valuables to get back to their land in the North. Wang Lung uses this stolen money to buy more land and hire laborers. He quickly becomes one of the richest men in his town. Wang Lung, however, does not know that with great wealth comes great responsibility. His wealth corrupts him and his moral judgements become blurred. Wang

However, their fortune is short-lived when bad omens rise because of Wang Lung’s insolent behavior towards his uncle’s family. Not only is their third child born a daughter, but a drought begins, preventing the land from cultivating and spreading both poverty and starvation through the North.

“The Good Earth” book describes the life of a Chinese farmer, Wang Lung, and the struggles he goes through during his life. In the beginning of the book, he marries a young slave named Olan. She is a devoted, selfless, hardworking wife. In my mind, she is the most admirable character in the novel.

This book started with Wang Lung introducing himself and how his life is like. He lived with his father mostly because his father was really sick and Wang Lung had to take care of him. His father was a traditional and moral man. He did not approve many things that went on in the house. Later on, he went to the house of the Huang’s and got a slave to be his wife. Her name was O-Lan. O-Lan was a slave and she was treated really terribly most of her life, even when she married Wang Lung. Together they had 5 children: three boys and two girls, each with very different characteristics.

Tradition is defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary as “an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior (such as a religious practice or a social custom)”. The role of tradition plays an important part in Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth as it the characters live their life around the customs. It especially shapes Wang Lung’s life as he followed certain practices, but defied others that he did not feel were so important to him. This influenced the way he related to his father and uncle and it played a part in his daily life. He tried to stick to his family rituals of working on the land, wearing a braid, and respecting his elders. Even though he strayed away from these values as he got older, he mostly found his way back.

The life-story method gives the audience the ability to see more than just the positive value of urbanization, but the inner conflicts with the situation. The Chinese family in “Landless Landlords” began as a humble hard working family that did not have the option to have free time because of the demanding work in the farm and other jobs they had to do in order to keep food on the table on a daily basis. Through large efforts, Wang Tao and Liping were able to leave Tao’s parents residents and built a modest home. After a couple of months there was small rumors about the development project in Gan Jia Zahi’s and soon after in 1922 the construction of the High-Tech-Zone began. The government a year later bought off a portion of land by the production team Wang Tao and Liping belonged (Loyalka 124). With no alternative left, the money they received helped their financial problems greatly. Many farmers who were stuck between this problem decided to make their homes bigger and made into an investment to rent out rooms. This new way of living and at the same time their new occupation for many farmers changed their lives in both a positive and negative view. The Wang family stuck in between having the life they once had and the better life they have with the help of the construction of the High-Tech-Zone. With this method, the audience is able to see that urbanization changed many hard working farmers into people who felt had no purpose in their lives anymore, but to be force to appreciate what they have. The change the audience sees or how her daughter describes him how he once was before becoming a dramatic change. He is now a gambler and shows no appreciation to his family. Since Wang Tao is economically stable, he worries less about his family because he knows food will always

For quite some time, life on earth has been nothing but peaches and cream for several people and because of people who live a non-sustainable life, it has left others with an indistinct outlook on earth’s future. Sustainability to me is doing things that will help prevent harmful things from happening to the environment now and in the future. With the support of the sustainability and more quality ways of living, the Earth Charter is gradually introduced. Through key research I will explain what the Earth Charter is and why it was founded, describe one of its four parts along with the goals and overarching philosophy, and share the impact it has on my life now and in the future.