Skip to main content

Pearl Buck's The Good Earth

Pearl Sydenstricker Buck became famous throughout the world for her second novel, The Good Earth, which basically tackles about the struggles of a peasant farmer in China, 100 to 200 years ago. The said novel narrates how Wang Lung (the main character) and his family rise from poverty to unimaginable wealth. It has many key morals. However, the most important is that money can’t buy happiness. Wang Lung and his family had a good sense of values. They were down-to-earth kind of people, and loved each other and their land. On the other hand, when a Chinese palace was raided, and Wang Lung stumbles across a large amount of gold, the table starts to turn. It all begins with additions to their room, a three-room house rather. Then he starts buying more land and before long, he owns hundreds of acres of land, has hundreds of servants, and lives in a palace. Soon, the wealth spreads discord among the family members. Wang Lung’s children (now grown-ups) start fighting for money and inheritance. Wang Lung falls in love with another woman and pays her to come live with him at his house. Surpassing clashes and sudden twists, tired old Wang Lung returns to the earthen house of his land to die. Material prosperity brings him superficial social satisfaction, but only his land can provide peace and security. Even in his final days he felt troubled, when he overhears his two older sons planning to sell the land as soon as he dies. Thus, the book presents the moving story of the joys and tragedies, and the ups and downs, of the Chinese peasant farmer and his family. The novel’s film version, released in 1937, was seen by over twenty million people around the world. It really deserves to win the Pulitzer Prize and the William Dean Howells medal.

Authored by Pearl S. Buck

The Good Earth takes place in a small earthen brick house in Northern China between 1900’s and 1920’s. Wang Lung is really a poor farmer who has just married O-lan. To support the family, they work extremely hard in the fields under the fiery hot sun. But then, his luck changes. One day, he is swept along by a mob that breaks into a rich man’s house. He suddenly comes face to face with the owner, and when the man offers him money to spare his life, he gets everything the man has. Our main character eventually climbs from poverty to paradise. He also changes from a nice, hardworking man to a man of bad personality. His life becomes miserable after his helpful and diligent spouse, O-lan, dies.

Buck’s novel doesn’t just have a strong, interesting and fascinating plot; it also centers on Chinese literature. Though she is American, her masterpiece gives a better understanding for readers. It gives us an idea of what the Chinese do during weddings, birth of a new child and certain holidays. I strongly recommend it to people interested in Chinese literature and traditions.

The novel’s theme makes me realize being rich is not that important, rather joy and the family around me, supporting what every step I take, are the most important necessities in life.

The characters being referred to in the novel are mostly on the 3rd person omniscient point of view. The main character resembles that of a Chinese farmer, about the decade of ages 20 to 30 years old, probably a long-lived adult. He is an ordinary person caught in events. He is hard-edged and mostly serious with occasional humor, with regards to its sense of humor. He is smarter than most other characters – having an average intelligence. And his physique may include bulging muscles – very athletic. The main adversary is a female at the age about 20 to 30. And Buck could have intended to make her a prostitute. What a terrific character!

The Good Earth is one big hit. A reader like me can give a hundred thousand folds for this award-winning novel. It’s so fabulous, that no reader can defy its inner core. It’s filled with lots of excitement, mistaken love, occasional romance, sudden deaths, and a lot more. The description of Pearl Buck is so exemplary, and it depicts the truth beyond having wealth and continuing the struggles in life with or without love. I can say that it’s an extremely good book and is really worth the time. Fantastic, so read it… 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Disguise: Itak sa Puso ni Mang Juan

Delotavo’s interesting visual artwork reflects on the negative effects the Coca-Cola Company has brought about to a Third World country, the Philippines. Antipas Delotavo is a social realist who only considers things as they are and whose works reveal much about exploited workers. The painting shows the response of Mang Juan, a typical Filipino worker, to the upsurge of foreign colonialism and the aggressive injection of Western influence. Itak sa Puso ni Mang Juan is a feedback on the negative impacts of globalization or commercialization in the Philippines. As perceived, a dagger-like tail of the letter C in the company’s title is pointed at the heart of Mang Juan. This exposes the struggle of an average Filipino worker, the embodiment of the Filipino public or the masa, against the agonizing monopoly and economic control of international corporations, most of which are offering products and services that entice consumers to live life according to “wants”, and not “needs”. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Coca-Cola Product Review: Coke-aholic Much?

The 1955 Coco-Cola infomercial, “Pearl of the Orient”, showcases Coke both as a valued commodity and as part of the Filipino lifestyle. For decades, Coca-Cola has, and still, continued to reign in the consumers market stunning other companies with their artistic and viewer-friendly commercials. It has also succeeded in introducing Coke to every Filipino family, regarding Coke as a member whose absence would mean a lot of loss. The infomercial also opens the gateway to the Philippines at that time, presenting Filipino people and culture.  Image Courtesy: Coca-Cola The product Coke is represented here as Coca-Cola’s colonial effort to assert its influence in Philippine culture and establish business imperialism within the country. Coke production is viewed here as the force which offers employment to a lot of Filipinos, and its continuous stay and utilization of resources, sand, sugar cane and even cheap labor, tell the viewers of the Philippines’s richness in resourc...
Post a Comment
Read more

Revealing the Two Fridas: Frida Kahlo

Painted in 1939 at the time of her divorce with famous muralist Diego Rivera, The Two Fridas is said to be one of the products of the mixed emotions evoked by Mexican nonconformist artist Frida Kahlo during her 47 years of painful living. Frida Kahlo lived in a society which allowed her to aspire to be a listening wife and ideal mother. She used her weak points, her realizations in life, to gather more strength, stand up from every fall and produce one of the most valuable, feminist paintings I have ever seen. After the Mexican Revolution, Mexico stood up for its highly patriarchal system of society, wherein women were viewed inferior to man. They were forced to take the role of subservience, other than the acceptance of being role models to their sons. Respect was less of a concern to deal with since mothers were only able to earn it from their sons, indicating that there narrow possibility of achieving respect when it comes to single women. Other than that, Catholic domi...
Post a Comment
Read more