The Good Earth
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- For the 1986 album by The Feelies, see The Good Earth (album).
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| Author | Pearl S. Buck |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Political |
| Publisher | John Day Publishing Co. |
| Released | June 1931 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 375 p. (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-381-98033-2 (first edition, hardback) |
| Followed by | Sons |
The Good Earth is a novel by Pearl S. Buck, first published in 1931, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1932. It is the first book in a trilogy that includes the books Sons (1932) and A House Divided (1935).
Contents |
[edit] Plot
[edit] Introduction
It is the story of a peasant family in China in times of famine, flood, and prosperity. A peasant, Wang Lung, who lives with his widowed father, marries O-Lan, the homely former slave of a wealthy household, the Hwang Family.
[edit] Summary
Through frugality and hard work they fare relatively better than other farmers in the village. However, as the weather turns disastrous for farming, the family, now grown to include the couple's three children, has to flee to the city to find work. They sell their meagre possessions (but not the land) and take the train for the first time.
While at the city, O-Lan and the children beg and Wang Lung pulls a rickshaw. They find themselves aliens among their more metropolitan countrymen and foreigners. They no longer starve, but still live like paupers: Wang Lung's work is barely able to pay for the rickshaw rental, and the family eats at public kitchens. Meanwhile, the hostile political climate continues to worsen, and Wang Lung longs to return to the land. They are able to do so after a riot gives Wang Lung some wealth, after a frightened rich man hands him a bag of gold thinking that his life will be spared, though some of it is because O-Lan, knowing the household of a wealthy family, knew where to look for valuables.
Upon returning to their home, the family fares better. With their money from the city, Wang Lung is able to buy an ox and farm tools, and he hires help. He is eventually able to send his sons to school, build a new house and live comfortably. However, the wealth of the family is tied to the harvests of Wang Lung's land—the good earth of the novel. Wang Lung eventually becomes a prosperous man, with his rise mirroring the downfall of the Hwang family, who lose their connection to the land. Wang eventually falls to the vices of rich food and takes a concubine. At the end of the novel, Wang Lung's sons also start to lose their connection to the earth, plotting to sell it, thus showing the end of the cycle of wealth and downfall. Wang Lung makes his peace with his life, however, and at the end willingly returns to the earth.
[edit] Characters
- Wang Lung – protagonist, poor farmer and later very successful man
- O-lan – first wife, depicted as plain and hard working, used to be a slave in the house of Hwang, hates Lotus and Cuckoo
- Wang Lung's Father – desires grandchildren to comfort him in his old age, becomes exceedingly needy as the novel progresses
- Nung En (Eldest Son) – becomes a scholar, is most like the sons of Hwang
- Nung Wen (Younger Son) – becomes a merchant, is practical and sly
- The Poor Fool – oldest daughter of O-lan and Wang Lung, brain damaged due to starvation
- Youngest Son – becomes a soldier, falls in love with Pear Blossom
- Youngest Daughter – twin sister of the Youngest Son, taken to home of her betrothed father-in-law in order to protect her virginity from Wang Lung's uncle's son
- Wang Lung's Uncle – antagonist, highly ranked in a band of thieves and a burden to Wang Lung
- Uncle's Wife – becomes a friend of Lotus and is another burden to Wang Lung
- Uncle's Son – bad influence on Nung En and later becomes soldier
- Pear Blossom – comforts Wang Lung in his old age, is afraid of men
- Lotus – concubine, status symbol, beautiful and lazy
- Cuckoo – female slave/servant to Lotus, crafty and scheming
[edit] Major themes
While many associate the book with Pearl S. Buck's life as a missionary and feminist, neither seems to be true. The only Christian missionary who appears in the novel is markedly ineffectual: he gives Wang Lung some paper showing a crucified man whom the reader can interpret as Jesus. However, neither Wang Lung nor any of his family can read, and his grandfather guesses that the man on the paper must either have been wicked to be punished with such a miserable death or he was a relative of the man who gave out the papers and the man was seeking to avenge him. O-lan then sews this paper into a shoe.
Similarly, Buck depicts foot-binding and its possible consequences, but refrains from judgment on it. In fact, in a later novel, Kinfolk, a Chinese expatriate intellectual makes an argument on the superiority of foot-binding to corsets that his author leaves unanswered.
Provincial and urban settings are shown through a Chinese perspective colored with the woes of the time period. The portayal of the status and treatment of women, a man's status in Chinese society, and the Chinese culture pre-Revolution make the book a classic. Wang Lung's rise from poor farmer to respected family patriarch illustrates a Chinese man's relationship to everyone around him during the early 1900s.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The Good Earth was adapted into a play by Donald Davis and Owen Davis. The play was subsequently made into a feature film of the same name in 1937. Paul Muni stars as Wang Lung. Luise Rainer won an Academy Award for her portrayal of O-Lan.
