Wang Lung's Struggle In The Good Earth

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.

“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.

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 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.

In The Good Earth, main character Wang Lung is bound to his uncle because of filial piety. Wang Lung’s uncle is a lazy and imposed upon Wang Lung and his family throughout the novel, continuously using Wang Lung’s duty of filial piety to silence him. This passage from the novel sums up Wang Lung’s experience with his uncle. Wang Lung's Uncle began at this time to become the trouble which Wang Lung had surmised from the beginning that he might be. This uncle was the younger brother of Wang Lung's father, and by all the claims of relationship he might depend upon Wang Lung if he had not enough for himself and his family” (59). As his father’s brother, and his elder, Wang Lung must respect his uncle and listen to his wishes. Wang Lung’s obligation to respect the older generation leads to his uncle continuously exploiting him, in his poverty and his wealth. Wang Lung’s uncle is

Wang Lung shows frugality and prudence with his money for the future along with loyalty to his father. Wang Lung, although somewhat reckless in spending for his wedding day, saved up enough money to be prepared, and uses his money sparingly, showing his thought of the future. Wang Lung is also optimistic about his future on the day he goes to pick up O-Lan by thinking of how wonderful it will be to have a wife and sons to carry on his legacy. Wang Lung cares about his future, and tries to prepare to have a good one, even when times look tough. Wang Lung also shows loyalty, with a great sense of filial piety and respect toward his father.

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

he author of “The good Earth” shows the readers that nothing can just become a reality through magic but that you have to work hard to make your dreams a reality. The author shows that nothing can just be handed to you easily out in the real world. Wang Lung and his family have to go through a lot of hard times to be able to get the the good ones. Wang Lung and his family's hard work and endless fighting would make them agree with Colin Powell who stated “A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.”

Depending on the mood of the land, Wang Lung's life fluctuates. Namely, when the land is in a good mood, Wang Lung's life is put in great prosperity. The fertile soil gives him great harvest and allows his family to live in comfort. But when the land is in a bad mood, it's an utterly different story. For example, when a great drought falls on Wang Lung's village, "... the fields, although Wang Lung cultivated them desperately, dried and cracked ... when they found nothing coming from the soil or the sky for them, ceased their growing and stood motionless..." (70). This shows that the land controls Wang Lung life because this drought causes Wang Lung and his family to move to the South. In conclusion, the land could make Wang Lung live a resplendent life or half starved. This shows that in the novel, the land is like a supreme being because it affects a man's life so severely that it is much like an immortal

At first, Wang Lung struggles to take care of him and his father. His father sets an arranged marriage with a slave girl from the House of Hwang named O-Lan, they get along fine. O-Lan doesn’t speak much, but when she

“Well, and I suppose that means you do not want to work on the land and I shall not have a son on my own land, and I with sons and to spare.’ This he said with bitterness, but the boy said nothing” This conversation between him and his son made him finally realize that they wouldn’t carry on their father’s great values, and that is because during the time he was rich he left some traditions behind. Wang lung valued his land and above all he had faith in his gods once again. Traditional values were forgotten by the result of wealthy living, the kids not caring about the farmlands and not understanding the earth gods prove that wealth destroyed ancient traditions.

What would happen if you became the person or people you were afraid of, those you despised and found despicable to their last fiber of existence and in getting there you lost sight of what you loved and who you used to be? The Good Earth starts off during pre-revolutionary China in a small village, Anhwei, where the protagonist Wang Lung a poor farmer whose father could barely even afford a kitchen servant for his own son's wife grows to become”The Great Family” after the fall of the previous one.

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

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

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang provides a thoughtful and beautifully painful chronology of three generations of women through some of China’s harshest periods in history. This book review will proceed in two parts. The first will address the significant themes present in Chang’s novel. The second will go beyond literary analysis and delve into identifying the author’s own bias, and comment on the structure and perspective of Chang herself. This review will overview the themes and then critically comment on the efficacy of the author’s development of those themes. Chang shows how adversity can bring out the best in people; and how love, loyalty, and self-sacrifice are imbued in their family.