Believe it or not, behind every successful man or woman is often more than not, some luck and of course hard work as well. In Pearl S. Buck’s novel, The Good Earth, poor people don’t become rich through sheer hard work. Most of the peasant villagers in this novel pass on their poverty and back breaking work to their children whom restart this vicious never ending cycle. Wang Lung, a poor farmer marries his wife O-Lan and soon after faces a famine. Wang Lung goes through a series of obstacles and tragedies but thrives after a fateful encounter with luck. The ups and downs Wang Lung and his family face do not only apply to its setting, historical China, but everywhere across the globe. Wang Lung’s misfortune that can occur to any race, anywhere …show more content…
takes place when an unforgiving famine strikes, leaving Wang Lung and his family diminished to starving scavengers. “Month passed into month and still no rain fell.”(page 73).
Wang Lung’s business failing is most similar to lives elsewhere where one can easily become bankrupt or financially disabled . When the only business a person’s ever known becomes unstable and luck is not present, one can only do so much but survive. “They cannot take the land from me.” (page 79). In this excerpt, with everything gone after Wang Lung had been robbed of his food, Wang Lung feels that his land is what is keeping him going and still have meaning. As like anyone anywhere even in times of need has a something that keeps them going and fighting. Like the famine that Wang Lung faced, people facing financial problems is only one of the many tragedies that life will throw at Wang Lung and the affected people …show more content…
globally. After Wang Lung moves to the South, life throws an unexpected life changing load of luck at him that was that opportunity to seize and rob a rich man. “ “Give me the money then!” ”(page 146) This quote explains the greed and slowly changing heart of Wang Lung that never stole before. Wang Lung when tried is not so immune to materialistic things like any other normal man out in the world. “In the rich man’s house. It must be a favorite’s treasure.” O-Lan found jewels worth a fortune in a loosened brick wall that turned her and her family’s life around. Although O-Lan and Wang Lung face a series of crisis, they later learn that to them, their land is like their life, like people hold something dear to them as well. At some point after Wang Lung is very successful, Wang Lung has no work to do on his land, leading hi, astray with an irrelevant O-Lan.
“Come out my Lotus Flower, here is your house and here your Lord.” Wang Lung’a concubine has emerged to Wang Lung’s house, which causes distress to O-Lan , the woman whom bore Wang Lung sons and helped him establish everything he has. A great sin like this would be considered adultery and infidelity elsewhere, “Then O-Lan waited and when he did not speak, the hot scanty tears welled slowly into her eyes,” O-Lan already knows what Wang Lung is doing yet she can only sit by and watch. Although, there is only so much O-Lan can endure when her husband is literally shouting out that he is cheating on O-Lan. These struggles O-Lan is going through happens to so many people around the world and it is scary how many there
are. The Good Earth really gives you can insight on global worldwide problems that have happened and are happening. Wang Lung who is a very normal man who meets great luck after a devastating famine, was not immune to materialistic things that had the ability to change him. The obstacles, tragedies, and daily choices that Wang Lung and his family make no only reflect them but people everywhere leaving none out. The Good Earth truly realizes the good, the bad, and the realest parts of people.
Power and Money do not Substitute Love and as it denotes, it is a deep feeling expressed by Feng Menglong who was in love with a public figure prostitute at his tender ages. Sadly, Feng Menglong was incapable to bear the expense of repossessing his lover. Eventually, a great merchant repossessed his lover, and that marked the end of their relationship. Feng Menglong was extremely affected through distress and desperation because of the separation and he ultimately, decided to express his desolation through poems. This incidence changed his perception and the way he represents women roles in his stories. In deed, Feng Menglong, is among a small number of writers who portrayed female as being strong and intelligent. We see a different picture build around women by many authors who profoundly tried to ignore the important role played by them in the society. Feng Menglong regards woman as being bright and brave and their value should never be weighed against
Yan Zhitui states that, "women take charge of family affairs, entering into lawsuits, straightening out disagreements, and paying calls to seek favor...the government offices are filled with their fancy silks." (Differences between north and south, 111). Yet, even in the Qing dynasty women were still restricted by and expected to uphold more traditional ideals, especially in the public eye. So, in the end, through her virtue, Hsi-Liu’s two children we able to become upright. Here, there is a split between what a woman is supposed to be according to old Chinese tradition, and the realities facing women in Tancheng. The loss of her husband, and economic hardship had forced His-Liu to behave in a different way, as if she were usurping the power from the eldest son so she could teach the two boys a lesson about being good family members. While she still maintains the ideals of bearing children, and being loyal to her husband, even after he dies, out of necessity she is forced to break from Confucian ideals of being only concerned with the domestic issues. This too put her at odds with the more traditional society around her, as the villagers pitied her sons, but vilified the Hsi-Liu for being so strict with them (Woman Wang, 65). Had she remarried, she would have been looked down upon even more because she would had broken her duty to remain faithful to her deceased
I would like to point out that Wang Lung was never the most filial of men. Early in the novel, we saw him slip up once or twice. However, at a younger age, he felt guilty when this happened and was able to hold his tongue in most situations. Wang Lung’s uncle is able to exploit Wang Lung based on his filial piety. When the uncle, a lazy man who blames his struggles on an “evil destiny”, asks his nephew to borrow money, Wang Lung explodes, saying, “‘If I have a handful of silver it is because I work and my wife works, and we do not…[let our] fields grow to weeds and our children go half fed!’” (65). But right after he lets these words slip, he “[stands] sullen and unmovable” (66) because knows that his outburst is wrong. However, later in the novel, Wang Lungs lack of sense for filial piety grows evident as he becomes more arrogant. For example, when he is nearing the end of his life, Wang Lung asks without a second thought to be buried below his father but above his uncle and Ching. Asking to be buried above his uncle makes the statement that Wang Lung believes he is a greater man than his uncle. Before his rise through the ranks of society, Wang Lung would never have even considered being buried above his uncle, even though he always had a disliking for him. However, because of his power, he feels that he has the right to disrespect his
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.... ...
From the beginning of Wang Lung’s marriage to O-lan, she saved him time, money, and effort without complaint. She offered wisdom when asked and was smart in the ways of the world. During the famine, when the family went south in search of food, O-lan taught her children how to beg for food, “dug the small green weeds, dandelions, and shepherds purse that thrust up feeble new leaves”(p. 128). She raised her children prudently. She knew how to bind her daughter’s feet, and she gave them a better childhood than she had had. O-lan knew that the land was the only consistent thing in her life, so she willingly helped Wang Lung as he bought more and more land. O-lan knew her place in the family was as a wife and mother. As a wife, she fe...
Most critiques of The Good Earth are preoccupied with the authentic quality of the novel, and while the Western critiques praise it as a novel based on facts, the Chinese hold a different view. Kang Younghill, a Chinese man, in reference to the image Pearl Buck created of China, stated that "it is discouraging to find that the novel works toward confusion, not clarification" (Kang 368). This statement illuminates Kang's feelings that the details, which Buck had presented as factual in the novel, were contrary to the actual life of the Chinese. Yet researches have shown that Buck was rightly informed and presented her information correctly. One detail that she paid special attention to was the family structure within the rural Chinese family, which she presented in the form of the Wang Lung household. The family structure demonstrated by Buck is not restricted to the Wang Lung family, but was a part of every rural Chinese home in the early 1900s. Every member's experiences within the family structure are determined by the role and expectations placed on them by the society, and Buck was careful to include these experiences in Wang Lung's family.
When his wife, O-lan sees this drastic change, she is horrified and rebukes her husband, telling him he “cut off his life”. O-lan’s criticism leaves Wang Lung regretful about his decision to cut his hair. Buck emphasizes the mutation of the symbol of hair in this passage, as Wang Lung’s hair no longer represents his loyalty to tradition, but rather his yearning to be modernized. O-lan emphasizes Wang Lung’s conversion to modernism when she exclaims that he “cut off his life”, which indicates that Wang Lung is ditching his traditional lifestyle by modernizing his hair. While Wang Lung does assimilate more to modern culture, he does experience guilt, realizing that he is being controlled by Lotus. Wang Lung’s regret proves that while his hair represents mostly modernism, it also of a bit of traditionalism. Therefore, Buck utilizes hair to highlight Wang Lung’s shift in
Throughout the book The Good Earth written by Pearl S. Buck, it shows the evolvement of the main character Wang Lung and how owning or not owning land in the 1920s is affected by peasants in China. It also shows the struggles of a peasant’s life, going through poverty and what happens when wealth enters their lives. Owning land as a peasant is an important aspect of their living style, simply because they live off of what they are able to grow that season. They depend on their land for resources to provide for themselves and family; and also selling crops or trading crops in order to make money. The peasants of China exemplify how important their crops and land are to them throughout the whole book by showing love and compassion for them; but,
Ultimately, The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan Spence is a timeless, educational, historical novel. Spence purpose to enlighten the reader of the Chinese culture, tradition and its land were met through the use of sources, like 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. The intriguing structure of The Death of Woman Wang will captivate any reader's attention.
“‘If you sell the land, it is the end.’” (360). There is absolute truth in these words, if one was in rural, turn-of-the-century China. These wise words, quoted by the main character Wang Lung, come from Pearl S. Buck’s enlightening historical fiction, The Good Earth. In the story, Wang Lung, a poor young farmer, marries a slave of the powerful Hwang family, O-lan. Together, they face hardships and triumphs, prosperity and famine, along with the birth of their three sons and two girls (the fifth child died of strangulation). Throughout Wang Lung’s life, he evolves dramatically in response to the many challenges he faces. In particular, his wealth, idea of women, and the earth itself change Wang Lung’s attitude and point of view as he rises in the social classes of China.
O-lan was obviously a very bold and important woman in this novel yet never knew it. She would do what she was raised to do and try her best to make her husband happy. Through all her marriage, she helped Wang Lung to be one of the wealthiest men in his city. While O-lan endured many difficulties, she continued with her duties as wife through thick and thin. Whether it was her begging on the streets for food and money, or putting up with Lotus, her husband's concubine, O-lan remained a strong woman with good qualities until the day she died. While she usually had little to say, O-lan's impact on the Lung family is one that wont be forgotton. She accomplished all of her goals in life and fulfilled her marital duty in making Wang Lung very happy. Even after all this, O-lan still was a very modest woman.
However, Chunming possesses a different approach on searching for a better life. Not only that, Chunming stresses the real meaning of “purpose” moving to the city. However, the difference with Chunming is, she does not only promote self-purpose to herself, but to other struggling Chinese workers as well. This is evident on the diaries she makes. On one of her diary, she states, “What’s important is: What kind of person do you want to become in the future? For what purpose have we traveled thousands of miles and left our homes behind to come out to work---To earn money! (68). Chunming using the word “we” suggests that she does not only speak for herself, but she encourages for Chinese workers to look for their purpose as well. For Chunming, without purpose means there is no point in moving to the city. This complicates her economic exigencies because say readers assume that she is feeling as though she lost her purpose---she can also go back to her diary for self-motivation which can lead to success. Therefore, her diary is a symbol for her bold imagination or even great ambitions. However, Chunming’s diary is not the only thing that defines her bold imagination. Trying to make her quality of life better, Chunming chose a different path to make money. Due to her impressive imagination, she started working for a company that requires selling hangers and molding parts. It is almost like
Wang Lung needs a wife so saves up the little money he has and buys a woman who is a slave named O-lan. O-lan is sold to Wang Lung so she can take care of the home, cooking and bear children. Wang Lung is disappointed when he first sees O-lan because she does not have bound feet which was a desirable quality at that time but he does enjoy when O-lan has the food ready when he comes in a night from the land. Wang Lung is very proud when O-lan makes cakes that no one else in the village knows how to makes and when his family comes to feast for the new year at their house.
Is it because he was a woman that he cried out at the sight of a child being harmed? Did he not cry out at the death of his wife because she was a woman? The role of the female in this story reveals a sense of inferiority towards women. These questions that the story raises show how women were viewed as inferior and weak in the eyes of the Chinese culture.
The Good Earth focuses around the life of a Chinese peasant, Wang Lung, who struggles to overcome a poverty-stricken life. The accounts of Wang Lung's life portray traditional China. One prominent aspect of this story is how women were depicted in society. The role of women in China is woven throughout the novel. Depending on their social status, each female character within the novel gives readers a different perspective of a woman's role during this period. In addition to their roles, the author includes the trials and tribulations these women must face as well. As a whole, the importance of these female characters are based upon their contribution to the ego's of the male protagonists and as being providers of support to both family and order in society. In Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, women are depicted to be consistent with the authentic Chinese culture of that period.