Comparing Wang Lung and His Uncle in The Good Earth
Everybody has their own ways of doing things. From spending money to the way they cook. In The Good Earth Wang Lung differs greatly from his selfish uncle. Wang Lung and his uncle are two similar men. They both come from the same type of heritage and they live in the same village. They are both married and they both have children that will carry on their family name. But still everybody is different. These two men differ when it comes to a number of things but their difference is in money.
Wang Lung is a responsible man who uses his money wisely. He uses his money to buy things that his family has a necessity for and saves some for the winter or for the upcoming year. He puts his money into important investments that will promise him great wealth in the future. He is a very compassionate man who cares for his children by buying clothes for his children, feeding them healthy servings of food, and he also still manages to take care of his ever-aging father. Wang Lung values money and would never think of using it in ways that would hurt his family of himself in any way.
The uncle, on the other hand, does not care how he uses his money. As long as it helps himself in some way then he is happy. He sells his harvest as soon as it is ripe and then always ends up running out of money before the end of winter. The uncle farms on barren land that has no nutrients left in it. Since he is always gambling his money away, he cannot afford to buy new land and receive some kind of decent crop from his investment. The Uncle is so selfish that he threatens to tell the village if Wang Lung does not give him money and food. In the Chinese culture this would be considered dishonorable if Wang would not help his family. It is their duty to help if their family, even if that means that Wang would have less than everybody else. The uncle spends his money on expensive delicacies for his wife who is overweight as it is. He could save the money and use it in the winter when they are in need the most.
Feng Meng-long’s story, “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger,” authentically represents how money is valued between Du Tenth and Li Jia. The classic story brings forth how tradition and family values are upheld in the highest honor. The young master Li Jia, who is the son of a prominent local official, embarks on a journey to the Ming capitol of Nanjing with the intention of taking exams. During his travels he meets the beautiful courtesan named Du Tenth who is bound to her madam in a house of ill fame in what is known as the pleasure district. Li Jia, being an immature and unmotivated by any type of responsibility, finds himself splurging all of his travel funds on pleasures with the beautiful Du Tenth. The couple find themselves to have fallen in love with one other. Du Tenth proves to be a very smart and loyal character. She cleverly devises a plan to escape her bind to her madam and leave to be with her love. When the couple make their departure, they go on their journey to their new life together as husband and wife. Du Tenth continues to prove how smart she is by showing time and time again to Li Jia that she was very prepared for their future. The story tragically ends when the gullible Li Jia is tricked by the manipulating Sun Fu to trade his love, Du Tenth, for a thousand pieces of white silver.
In the epilogue to The Death of Woman Wang, we see several ways in which Chinese culture determined the sentence meted out to the Jens by Huang. False accusation of innocent persons was a capital crime in 17th century China, punishable by death. The Jens, however, were not executed. The largest factor in sparing the younger Jen, was based around the cultural importance placed on continuation of family lines and the strict ways in which this could acceptably happen.
“The Death of Woman Wang”, written by Chinese historian Jonathan Spence, is a book recounting the harsh realities facing citizens of Tancheng country, Shandong Province, Qing controlled China in the late 17th century. Using various primary sources, Spence describes some of the hardships and sorrow that the people of Tancheng faced. From natural disasters, poor leadership, banditry, and invasions, the citizens of Tancheng struggled to survive in a devastated and changing world around them. On its own, “Woman Wang” is an insightful snapshot of one of the worst-off counties in imperial Qing China, however when taking a step back and weaving in an understanding of long held Chinese traditions, there is a greater understanding what happened in
The Cultural Revolution in China was led by Mao Zedong, due to this Liang and many others faced overwhelming obstacles in many aspects of their life such as work, family and everyday encounters, if affected everyone’s families life and education, Liang lets us experience his everyday struggles during this era, where the government determined almost every aspect of life. The beginning of the book starts out with Liang’s typical life, which seems normal, he has a family which consists of three children, two older sisters and him the youngest, his two sister’s reside in Changsha 1. his father has an everyday occupation working as a journalist at a local newspaper. Things start to take a turn early in life for Liang Heng, his family politics were always questioned, the mistake made by one of his family members would impact his entire family and it would be something they would have to suffer through, it was impossible for them to live down such a sin.... ...