Chapter 1 Reflections - The Good Earth
In the novel, The Good Earth, Chinese culture influences the ideas of poverty andwomen's' rights that Pearl S. Buck carries through the book. In the first chapter, it was Wang Lung's wedding day, yet it wasn't a happy day. His father had chosen his son's bride -- stating the bride was not to be pretty and must be treated like a slave. The Chinese really respect their elders, so Wang Lung always listened to his father and was forced to take care of him. This made Wang Lung so happy when he got a to have a wife so she could do of his work for his father. When Wang Lung went to town before picking up his wife, he stopped at the barber shop and told the man to cut everything, but the braid. When the barber told him that being bald was a new look for farmers, Wang Lung replied that he'd have to ask his father before cutting his braid. This is another example of how his father controlled him.
After Wang Lung went to the barber he stopped at the restaurant in town that most farmers and poor people ate, yet this time when he walked in he felt good because he looked better than any of the other farmers. Even a beggar asked him for money, calling him a teacher. This made Wang happy, and important -- feelings he never had at home. Though he looked good on the outside, he felt guilty in the inside. Spending money he really needed on himself illustrates how the badly the poverty was at that time.
When Wang Lung had eaten his noodles at the restaurant he went to the market and bought pork and other supplies for dinner. He then heading to the House of Hwang to pick up his wife. While he was at the House of Hwang the gateman took his basket and looked inside of it. He then exclaimed,"In a house like this we feed these meats to the dogs!"(p.15) This also symbolizes how poor Wang Lung was, yet when he was walking back to his small house with his new wife, "[He] felt in him a great pride that this woman was his and did not fear to appear before him, but would not before other men."(pg.23) That quote represents how the Chinese culture treated women like slaves; "He felt in him a great pride that this woman was his..." that part of the quote really illustrates how the women were treated. As if the mean owned them and they were to be slaves forever. This novel discusses some of the issues and hardships of the Chinese culture in a way that we can relate to it from our lives today.
Wang's Uncle and South to the City - The Good Earth
Chinese culture teaches their people to respect their elders. In this case Wang Lung's uncle is using this at his advantage to blackmail Wang Lung into giving him what he want while Wang is struggling to provide for his family. After this Wang must choose between his family and his land. When Wang chooses his family to move to south and leaves their land behind, this is one of the last things he does before his true self is revealed -- a rude, selfish man. Moving to the city was the only way the family could survive.
The city is filled with signs of wealth, yet there is a despairing multitude of people who live on the border of starvation. O-lan lets the children steal, knowing that this may be the only way they can get enough food. One day Wang Lung returns home to find his wife cooking a piece of pork, the first piece of meat they have had since killing their ox. However, when his younger son brags that he stole the meat, O-lan is upset. He allows his family to eat the pork, but will not eat it himself -- acting as if he is too good to be bad, a major difference of behavior towards the end of the book. After dinner, he beats his son for stealing. Wang begins to long for a return to his home and the land. O-lan even suggested they sold their daughter in order for Wang to be able to go back to his land. Though Wang Lung loves his daughter too much to sell her. While living in the south O-lan, Wang, and some other residents ransacked the houses of the rich, in which O-lan stole some jewels. Wang had taken money during the looting and they used it to move back north, yet what they didn't know was that this was the beginning of the tragic end of their lives.
Good Earth Essay
Greed — excessive or rapacious desire — something Wang Lung never wanted, yet when his true self was exposed and everyone saw what a selfish, immoral man he was his life was changed forever. Throughout the novel, The Good Earth, Wang Lung is submissive to the immoral behaviors of the House of Hwang just to tragically end up like someone he never wanted to be. Is it really worth giving up everything we have ever done just to become someone we don't want to be?
"This was the last morning he would have to light the fire... And [even] if the woman wearied, there would be children to light the fire." (p.3) This was how Wang Lung though his would be — a woman to help him work his land, to bear him children, and to do the house work. He never knew that she would become the one the family depended upon — the one he would need to survive. In the first chapter, it was Wang Lung's wedding day, yet it wasn't a happy day. His father had chosen his son — demanding the bride shall not be pretty and must be treated as a slave. When Wang Lung arrived at the House of Hwang to bring his new wife home he thought to himself that he would never be like the people of the House of Hwang, for he resented their selfish and rude behavior.
Wang Lung's life was on the rise to power. He had a wife to help him work in the fields and shortly after the wedding O-lan informed Wang "[She] was with child." So far Wang's life was going accordingly to his plan and he thought nothing would stop him. With O-lan came experience — she was raised in the city socially considered the more experienced class compared to the country folks like Wang, who brought innocence into the mix. In the combination of experience and innocence life was created. O-lan gave birth to their first child, a baby boy, which in Chinese culture was a great omen. A great harvest followed the birth of their son and when O-lan returned to show her old masters her success with being married to a farmer she discovered that life is paradox. The Lung's farm had an abundance of food during the harvest and increased in wealth while the House of Hwang as suffering, their leader had become addicted to opium and spent all the money on the addictive substance. This was one of the first things that helped contribute to the ignorant Wang Lung’s tragic flaw.
After having a great harvest a drought hit the country – causing the Lung’s to move south. While in the midst of this chaos O-lan had had another son and a daughter. Arriving in the city with his father on his back Wang Lung had almost no money, his family was starving and there was nothing he could do. He had no land, he had no happiness, he had nothing. Living in the city O-lan felt at home again. She knew how to survive, even if it meant to sin; she allowed the children to steal, making Wang Lung angry. When their oldest son steals their first piece of meat since they killed their ox, Wang won’t eat it and when his son is finished eating Wang beats him. This illustrates Wang trying to be like a moral person when what his desires is the immoral thing such as stealing. When a revolution hits the south Wang Lung, O-lan, and some other residents raid the palace. In the moment of decision Wang Lung's true self comes out when they go in the palace. He chooses to steal, to feed his hunger for immorality. With this money he can return to his happiness, to his land, to his purpose of life.
Returning to his purpose of life, Wang discovers that O-lan had stolen two pearls. Now knowing he has power, money, and land he wants to take her pearls to get more land, but O-lan begs him not to. This was something that kept her alive while Wang turned for the worst. As his power increased Wang bought another wife and even built her a separate part of his house. This killed O-lan inside – she was the one who had kept the family alive while Wang Lung had ignored them for his own selfish sake. Shortly after having his second wife, Lotus, living with him Wang Lung took O-lan’s two delicate little pearls and gave them to Lotus. A few months later O-lan died. Wang had destroyed her with his immoral behavior. He once loved her, he once was happy, he once had her and with this loss Wang’s own life was lost.
As the money kept coming Wang Lung found himself with more and more land, yet he had hired servants to take over land. Though he had everything he wanted there was still something missing. “This he did for the sheer joy he had in it, and not for any necessity, and when he was weary he lay down upon his land and he slept, and the health of the earth spread into his flesh and he was healed of his sickness." (p.214) He didn’t need to be powerful, rich, and selfish he just wanted to be. He didn’t need to work on his land, he wanted to. This quote defines that Wang Lung needed his land to live, but by hiring slaves to work his land Wang had no purpose of life, causing his “sickness”, and when Wang returned to his land his “sickness” was healed. Though when Wang wasn’t with his land he was spending money or buying more land, it seemed as if his power, money, and land never ended.
As Wang Lung aged, he became more and more senile. His children and grandchildren find his beliefs and attitudes about life humorously old-fashioned, just as he had thought about his father. He takes pleasure in his food and drink and in Pear Blossom, his second concubine. When he feels he is dying, and he asks his sons to buy a coffin. They do, and the coffin comforts Wang Lung. He moves to the earthen house with the coffin, saying he would like to spend his dying days there. One day he overhears his two elder sons discussing the sale of some of the land. He cries out, “If you sell the land, it is the end,” and although the sons assure him over and over that they will not sell the land when Wang passes away they sell it – symbolizing the death of a family, a man, a life. A life in which a once great man had lived until his submissive behaviors turned him into a heartless man.
We have to ask ourselves, who do we want to be? What are the choices we want to make – should we choose the moral thing to do or do we make a mistake and choose wrong? It’s up to us to make the right choice and when it comes to the moment of decision our choice impacts the person we are and the person we will be. Though Wang Lung made many immoral decisions, we were able to see his true self, the selfish, heartless man he always was and always would be. With this comes responsibility – who will we be? Will we stay moral and be the person we want to be, or turn into Wang Lung? As people, it’s up to us, every action we make, every word we say, who will we be?
