The Land Brought Food and Wealth in Pearl Buck's The Good Earth

Pearl S. Buck’s character, Wang Lung, in her novel, The Good Earth, is one who acts and thinks immorally. His morally ambiguous nature is evident through many incidents involving himself and his family, which mirrors the theme of complicated situations brees irrationality and immoral decisions.these desperate and newly found situations in Twentieth Century China allows the audience to easily sympathize with Wang Lung when in current society, many of his thoughts and actions would create an immense hatred for his complex

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.

Once the novel comes to an end, we notice clearly the way Wang Lung changed. In the beginning of the novel we learned many ancient Chinese traditions by observing Wang Lung as a simple peasant, but as he becomes a wealthy landowner his life collapses. This rapid change of social class makes it difficult for anyone who intends to keep their traditional values until their death. This fantastic novel by Pearl S. Buck reminds us that we can never forget our traditional values, because if that happens your life will collapse just the way Wang Lung unfortunately

The mist in opening scene and overall color tone of grey suggests that Wang is paddling into a world of dullness. With his houseboat- his only sanctuary- Wang travels around to make a living by performing Bianlian in return of donation from people who appreciate his art on the street. Desperation and poverty are not only accompanying people in the slave market but also Wang: his wife left him after the death of his son; his only companion is not a human but a monkey. Master Liang’s confession that “ we all have our own sorrows” reflects the folk artists fate of twists and turns and bitterness. During one performance, Wang is intimidated and oppressed by soldiers, but he can only chant woefully “The dragon in the shallows is toyed with by the shrimp”. Many proverbs like this in the film convey to audiences his hardship and helplessness. Government corruption is also disclosed in the movie when Wang is falsely charged of all kidnap cases and imprisoned. In his quest for an heir, Wang visits Buddhist temple to pray and buys a Buddha to worship in the hope that it may gift him a son. All Wang’s spiritual sustenance is on the Buddha body. This showed Wang’s inner weakness and helplessness towards his own destiny.

A strong, intelligent, independent boy is what every traditional Chinese family wants. Unfortunately, Sek-Lung is not such an ideal child. In the novel, The Jade Peony, Sek-Lung is a marginal character. He is rejected by the dominant group, first being made to feel insignificant and second to feel uncomfortably visible.

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

The historical classic, “The Good Earth”, revolves around the life of Wang Lung, introducing the average Chinese farmer on his wedding day to the slave O-lan. Together, the newly married couple care for Wang Lung’s father and farm the land, prospering from the fruits of their labor. Their early life continues to bring great fortune when they are able to purchase land from the House of Hwang, who O-lan served, and when their first two children are born sons.

“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.

The Good Earth is a novel of a family’s journey throughout the years. Although the novel may seem to focus upon the family, the author wrote the book to show the life of women at the time. Women had little to no rights and only had certain tasks to undertake. Most women were slaves sold to men and were treated very poorly. The Good Earth tells a story about a hard working but powerless woman, Olan, who resembles closely to and contradicts “The Virtuous” woman.

Wang Lung from “The Good Earth” and Okonkwo from “Things Fall Apart” are both very similar characters. They both have a similar story and beliefs, yet they are quite different in regards to how their stories play out and how they value their beliefs in the end. This paper will look at both of the characters traits and stories to examine how they compare and contrast and how it affect them.

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.

Also as his life goes on, he meets a girl named Lotus and he does things with her, and Wang Lung changes himself for her. In chapter 19, on page 184 Wang Lung buys new clothes and shaves off his hair above his forehead that he was growing out. Awhile later Wang Lung's uncle comes with his family. They find out on page 195 that Wang Lung has a thing going on with Lotus, In the book, Wang Lung’s Uncle’s wife said, “ The thing is complete, The woman who is

In the novel A Daughter of Han by Ida Pruitt, the readers are taken through a journey of one woman through her life’s highs and lows. Through the eyes of Ning Lao T'ai-t'ai, readers can truly understand the life of a working woman during this time period. Although life may not have been easy at times, Ning Lao shows the determination and passion she had for her family and for their lives to be better. The life of a working woman is never an easy life but adding in the social rules and opium addiction that effected each part of Ning Lao’s life made it much more difficult.

In this rags-to-riches novel, Wang Lung rises from an obscure farmer living in poverty to a famous landowner living in luxury. As his story begins, Wang Lung is a poverty-stricken farmer who is setting out to collect the slave, O-lan, who has been purchased to serve him as wife. He is so poor that to him drinking tea,”Is like eating silver.” (Buck 4). He was so poor that he has never been asked for money by a beggar till the day he went to

Han Kang’s use of comparison between two closely related but very different characters demonstrates society’s definition of a dutiful wife. Unable to withstand the embarrassment of having a wife he is not proud of, he leaves her. Han Kang used the sense of pressure to depict not only the public opinion, but also the force that drives Mr. Cheong’s actions.