The Good Earth By Pearl S. Buck

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

Everywhere all over the world, we will encounter with many fascinating and different traditions. In the novel “The Good Earth” Pearl S. Buck gets us a glance of how peculiar the Chinese culture used to be. While the novel develops Pearl also tends to mention two distinct classes of people, the rich and the poor. Now one of the most important messages that can be deciphered through out the novel is: Never forget your traditional values. Living up to your traditions will definitely bring you happiness and joy, but you have to be very determined and ready for whatever that crosses your way.

O-Lan is a quiet, submissive woman, but she is largely responsible for the survival of her family. In the beginning of the novel, Wang Lung simply thinks that she is a good wife, but once he becomes wealthy-- and idle as a result of that-- he begins to think of her as a “dull and common creature” without any beauty. He feels bitter towards her, and takes in the beautiful concubine, Lotus. However, once O-Lan falls terminally ill, he begins to treat her with more respect, knowing that her death was imminent. After her death, Wang Lung finally acknowledges that O-Lan was a unique woman. Certain events trigger flashbacks of the things O-Lan did that made her special. A common tragedy in life is losing someone close, and taking their existence for granted until their death. Wang Lung’s loss of O-Lan reflects how one does not see the true value of something until it is too

The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan D. Spence, paints a vivid picture of provincial China in the seventeenth century. Manly the life in the northeastern country of T’an-ch’eng. T’an-ch’eng has been through a lot including: an endless cycle of floods, plagues, crop failures, banditry, and heavy taxation. Chinese society in Confucian terms was a patriarchal society with strict rules of conduct. The role at this time of women, however, has historically been one of repression. The traditional ideal woman was a dependent being whose behavior was governed by the "three obedience’s and four virtues". The three obedience’s were obedience to

When Wang Lung said this at the beginning of the novel it displays extreme amounts of sexism. It show sexism, because Wang Lung believes he will not have to do the women's work once he marries a slave. This quotes importance to the novel is that the female, or slave, was in charge of all the housework. Before Wang married O-lan he was in charge of the women's work in the household.

In the beginning of the novel, Wang Lung is getting ready to go to the House of Hwang to meet O-lan. He brings her to his home on the farm and they get married. Soon they find out O-lan is expecting a baby. She gives birth to a son but quickly returns to the fields to work beside her husband. On New Year’s day, O-lan presents her son to her old mistress at the House of Hwang.

Due to the fact that women weren’t viewed as equals during that time period, Wang Lung treats his wife, O-Lan, like a slave more than anything else. Regardless of this fact, O-lan endures the hardships of being a farmer’s wife and living as a poor woman in early 20th century China. That was one of the more important messages that this book was trying to convey. Pearl Buck wrote this book at the tail end of the First-Wave American Feminism movement and O-lan was a strong female character designed to support the idea that women are equals and really should be treated thusly. A prime example of this is when O-Lan is dying and cannot move from her bed, Wang Lung admits that he would sell his land to keep her healthy, even though for the majority of the book he does not treat her well.

marries O-lan, a slave owned by the Hwang family. Wang Lung severe and loving attachment to the

When Wang Lung purchased Olan he had no idea that she would help him prosper. When Olan was pregnant with the first son she was in the field working by Wang Lungs side. He noticed that she had began

The Good Earth is set in early 20th century rural China, where the Earth is a significant part of life. To Wang Lung, the protagonist of the novel, his wife, O-lan, is also a very important part of his life. O-lan, like most women in the country, works diligently to prepare the meals and clean the house. Additionally, she works out in the hot fields with Wang Lung every day. When first married, Wang Lung and O-lan struggled to provide for their family. However, in time, the family begins to prosper; O-lan and the land both help propel the Wang family into a life of security and affluence. This is only one of the ways that O-lan and the Earth are alike, there are many others. In this novel by Pearl Buck, O-lan symbolizes the earth.

The historical fiction novel, The Good Earth, was written by Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck, born on June 26, 1892 in Hillsboro, West Virginia. Because of her parents’ work as Southern Presbyterian missionaries, Pearl regularly traveled during her childhood, spending most of that time in China, soon returning after her graduation from Lynchburg, Virginia’s Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, in 1914. The following year, she met her first husband, American agricultural economist John Lossing Buck, who she married two years later. Newlywed, the two moved to the Anhwei province, the region in which Pearl found inspiration for her future novels on China, including her prize-winning book, The Good Earth.

Throughout history, and even today in some cases, certain groups of people have been referred to as inferior to others. One common example is the belief that men are superior to women and should be in charge of them. This specific idea is more prevalent in earlier times of our history especially in 19th century China, the setting of “The Good Earth” by Pearl S. Buck, a feminist, activist, and author that spent much of her childhood living in China. Interestingly, Buck’s “The Good Earth” follows the main character, Wang Lung, a poor and humble farmer, and his newly bought wife, Olan in a third person limited perspective. It is probable that the author chose this point of view in order to better characterize and explain her

A young Chinese farmer embarks on a true tale of rags to riches in Pearl Buck’s novel The Good Earth. The novel opens in the late 1800s with Wang Lung, a farmer, on his wedding day. He weds an ugly slave girl, O-lan, but doesn’t care that she is ugly, for in that time and place women were property and only used for work. The two grow closer through tedious work in the fields, growing in wealth through the crop’s yield. No good deed goes unpunished however, as severe drought hits and the family, now two children bigger, begins to starve. Reduced to eating grass, Wang Lung makes the life-changing decision to go to the South with what little money they can come by. The South treats the family harshly, for they must beg daily or, in Wang Lung’s

Almost right after the birth of Wang’s second son, O-Lan is pregnant again, but this time, with a girl. During this time, Wang Lung’s uncle is in need of money to support his family. His uncle blackmails him into giving him the silver, otherwise the name of his family will be disgraced. A while after this incident, a great famine rises throughout Wang Lung’s area. The other citizens are starving, and Wang Lung’s uncle begins to spread lies about Wang Lung and his family. These lies bring the hungry citizens into Wang Lung’s house and they begin to cause trouble, but the understanding voice of O-Lan calms them down. Wang Lung decides to head south, since the famine has destroyed his land and his home. Down south, the family finds that they each get a bowl of rice every morning, but they have to beg for their pay. Wang decides that he cannot beg and he takes the job of a ricksha driver. During one of these days, he sees army men pull poor men off the streets, and there is soon talk of war and rebellion. One night, the poor citizens are seen going through the nobles’ houses, and Wang comes across a noble trying to flee. He gets the noble to give him gold, and spares his

The Good Earth, by Pearl S Buck, is set in China during the early 20th century, near the city of Nanking on Wang Lung's’ farm. Wang Lung is, at the beginning of the novel, a traditional poor farmer who works sunup to sundown on his field. He marries and has children with a former slave of the great House of Hwang, named Olan, and has several sons and daughters. By the end of the novel, the family is rich enough to be called a “Great House” and because of this, his family is able to live in luxury and never work. This means that his children do not have to adhere to any of the traditions and religious practices that Lung followed so closely. In The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck, Wang Lung's children are raised in an atmosphere of privilege, leading them away from their family’s traditional values.