Wang Lung Theme

Lindo’s upbringing was significant because her family was very traditional. As a result of her family abiding by tradition, Lindo was betrothed to Tyan-yu as a young girl. Lindo’s family treated her as if she was from a different family. When Lindo’s family lost everything in a flood, her father decided to move the family to Wushi. Lindo was old enough to move in with Tyan-yu’s family, so her family left her in Taiyuan with her future in-laws. When Lindo moved in with her new in-laws, Huang Taitai immediately put Lindo to work cooking, cleaning, and sewing. Lindo not only lost her family by moving in with the Huangs; she also lost her childhood innocence since she was forced to abandon playing with other children so she could be put to work. As a child, Lindo faced adversity due to her lack of American opportunities and therefore matured quickly.

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.

Older brother and younger brother relationships does not go into great details in the story, but it is mentioned briefly on page 283. In the text it stated, “ In those years, Chunyu Fen had five sons and five daughters. The sons were all given positions by means of the official hereditary benefits, the daughters all got engaged with sons related to the royal family”. This text shows the rank the family system has from sons to daughters.

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.

When talking to O-lan, Wang Lung implies that she is ugly. He exclaims, “Now anyone looking at you would say you were the wife of a common fellow and never of one who has land which he hires men to plow!” (pg.168) This statement is clearly disrespectful to O-lan and it likely stems from Wang Lung’s wealth. Wang Lung then cheats on O-lan with another woman (Lotus) from the tea shop. The narrator says, “Every day he went to the tea shop; every evening he waited until she would receive him, and every night he went into her” (pg.181). This suggests that Wang Lung now prefers another woman over O-lan. As if he hadn’t done enough damage already, Wang Lung brings Lotus into his house to stay there permanently. He says, “Tell [Lotus] she shall do no work of any kind in my house but she shall wear only silken garments and eat shark’s fins every day” (pg.192). This is very disrespectful to O-lan not only due to the fact that she is his wife, but also because while she is doing housework, Lotus is being treated like a royal guest. It is evinced that Wang Lung’s wealth causes him to disrespect

Jin Wang is embarrassed to even be apart of his family by the way he acts and how he represents their culture. He now can see how hard it is to fit in.

Okonkwo from Things Fall Apart and Wang Lung from The Good Earth have many similarities and differences between them. They both have similar morals. They believed in working hard and did not believe in being lazy. They both have gone through times of hardship. Wang had worked hard to provide for his family and so did Okonkwo.

Both worked hard and bought a great amount of land so they could increase their fortune. To manage all that wealth Wang Lung had to be smart and never forget about his traditional values. Wang Lung was held in his wants and desires as he wasted all his family’s savings to buy more land. By this time in the novel Wang Lung was being a terrible example for his kids. He would make terrible decisions economically speaking, which could lead to very complex and bad situations. Speaking about bad situations the famine in the ancient china begun. "Hunger makes thief of any man." ( Page. 122) The quote above makes it clear that becoming a wealthy man didn’t change Wang Lung completely; he still obtained very important values. With those traditional values in mind he could understand that during the famine it was hard to survive and this could lead to various

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.

The early death of Mr. Xu had created a shift for Fugui and his thoughts. Fugui's father had admitted, "The Xu family has begotten two prodigal sons," (36). Hua has used biblical allusion to emphasize the return of Fugui and Mr. Xu's past self. Mr. Xu feels bad that his son has become like him. Together, they have ended up in the same boat. Mr. Xu didn't really stop his son from gambling. He had only warned him because he too did the same thing and knew what was going

Another contributor to the conflicts in these relationships is history. Both Lindo and Suyuan had remarkably different childhoods without most the opportunities their daughters have. The circumstances in which they grew up were much different yea their children have a difficult time understanding that.

All through time, successive generations have rebelled against the values and traditions of their elders. In all countries, including China, new generations have sought to find a different path than that of their past leaders. Traditional values become outdated and are replaced with what the younger society deems as significant. Family concentrates on this very subject. In the novel, three brothers struggle against the outdated Confucian values of their elders. Alike in their dislike of the traditional Confucian system of their grandfather, yet very different in their interactions with him and others, begin to reach beyond the ancient values of Confucianism and strive for a breath of freedom. Their struggles against the old values

When Mr. Li, the village leader, learned of the release of Wang Hou’e he found out that she had a 13-year-old son (Zhang Xuping). For some unknown reason, whether its pettiness or hatred, Mr. Li had Xuping expelled from school a day before his mother was released from prison (Crime and Punishment”). Once Xuping was expelled he worked as a waiter for 2 years before he drifted into petty crime at the age of 15. He was arrested in 2005, when he acted as a look out for a group of thieves.

can get an idea for the respect most of the young people have for their elders. Tao and his sister show a great deal of respect to their mother and

Wang remains level-headed and alert in all scenes but other characters subscribe to ideals too strongly and pay the price, all stemming from the horrors of the Cultural Revolution. Liu highlights the dangers of subscribing and holding on to an idea too tightly, resulting in a lapse of judgment and definitive consequences.