Preview

The Good Earth: The Rise of Wang Lung's Family to a Life of Wealth

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
623 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Good Earth: The Rise of Wang Lung's Family to a Life of Wealth
Throughout the course of the novel, The Good Earth, Wang Lung and his family rise from a life of poverty to a life of wealth. This dramatic change in social status and life style causes Wang Lung and his family to gradually disconnect from the land. In addition, the Wang family slowly loses their moral position and their once valued family traditions. Unlike Wang Lung, his children were brought up in a life of wealth, never given the same opportunities to find their connection to the land. Wang Lung never teaches his children the value of the land as his father taught him, and thus the land is soon forgotten. The gods and their powers are also forgotten because Wang Lung chooses not to pass on his family traditions to his children. Towards the end of the novel the fate of Wang Lung's family becomes clear; they are destined to fall following in the footsteps of the House of Hwang.
Although Wang Lung separates himself from the land when he begins hiring laborers to work on his farm, he continues to maintain a minimal, yet significant connection to his roots. "He had gone away from it…and he was rich. But his roots were in his land…" His children however, were never in anyway connected with the land. They never got their hands dirty, for they did not work on the land. They did not labor and produce harvests. Although Wang Lung recognized the idleness in his children he considered it just. "He is more delicate than I was, and his father is rich and mine was poor, and there is no need for his labor, for I have labor in my fields…" Although Wang Lung knows his son should labor on the land, he also knows he will can not force him to because there is no need for his labor.
For Wang Lung, prayer to the gods was the solution to all his problems. If a drought occurred, he would pray to the gods for rain. If he needed more money, he would pray to the gods for silver. If he were nervous for the birth of his next child, he would pray to the gods for a son.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Death of Woman Wang

    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan Spence is an educational historical novel of northeastern China during the seventeenth century. The author's focus was to enlighten a reader on the Chinese people, culture, and traditions. Spence's use of the provoking stories of the Chinese county T'an-ch'eng, in the province of Shantung, brings the reader directly into the course of Chinese history. The use of the sources available to Spence, such as 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 convey the reader directly into the lives of poor farmers, their workers and wives. The intriguing structure of The Death of Woman Wang consists on observing these people working on the land, their family structure, and their local conflicts.…

    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Liu family were spending the day in the city of New York. They made several stops at different attractions of the city throughout the day. In the evening, they arrived in Chinatown. Eric feels like he is no longer in New York. There are shops and shoppers crowding the streets. He feels the need to be alert due to the amount of people and their seemingly characters. The streets are wet, dirty, and littered with trash. The family enters a bookstore inside an old building. Eric can not read any of the books. The family then ventures to a grocery full of people. Eric felt better about this shop. It was filled with Chinese foods and home goods. His mother filled a cart with supplies they could not find at home. Their order was cashed out with an abacus. The family came to Chinatown “to dip into a pool of undiluted Chineseness.” (Liu 81). Even though the family is Chinese, they feel that they do not belong here for long. Eric begins to see the differences between his family and the residents of Chinatown. Their fluent language and hard faces. The family happens upon Eric's grandmother. She is upset about them not visiting her. Eric realizes that his grandmothers everyday activities are his attractions. They leave his grandmother and head home. Eric falls asleep on the way. He feels comforted by being home. He showers and goes to bed.…

    • 370 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Death Of Woman Wang Essay

    • 1581 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan D. Spence, paints a vivid picture of provincial China in the seventeenth century. Manly the life in the northeastern country of T’an-ch’eng. T’an-ch’eng has been through a lot including: an endless cycle of floods, plagues, crop failures, banditry, and heavy taxation. Chinese society in Confucian terms was a patriarchal society with strict rules of conduct. The role at this time of women, however, has historically been one of repression. The traditional ideal woman was a dependent being whose behavior was governed by the "three obedience’s and four virtues". The three obedience’s were obedience to father before marriage, the husband after marriage, and the son in case of widows. The four virtues were propriety in behavior, speech, demeanor and employment. The laws of the land and fear of shame in society dictated that men were allowed to rule over their household leaving women in a powerless state as almost a slave of the home. In P’u’s stories women are portrayed as complex characters who hold important roles in the family, but are treated with little to no respect by authority figures, and other men of higher class. In The Death of Woman Wang, Spence portrays…

    • 1581 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    As established by Wang Lung’s rags-to-riches journey, an unfortunate situation or condition is never permanent. There is a cycle of life that is slightly implied throughout the chapters of the book. When it seems that that world has ended when something terrible occurs, it really hasn’t. For Wang Lung, the combined losses of his wife, Olan, father, and friend, Ching, were especially devastating. But, his spirits are lifted with the marriage of his sons and the birth of his first grandson. As cliché as it sounds, the promise of a better tomorrow is what motivates individuals across the globe to get through…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The first example the readers can relate their lives to in The Good Earth is Wang Lung’s determination with his land. This determination is caused by his thirst for wealth and will to survive. The readers are able to relate to Wang’s determination because everyone at one point in their lives have had the feeling of wanting to succeed in something for their own purposes. Lastly, the land means the world to Wang just like how everyone in the world has something that means the world to them.…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sek-Lung is born in Canada, with a sick body, being considered inferior and unimportant. To begin with, he gains a reputation because of his brainlessness. Referring to his own feeling, “everyone knew […] I was brainless” (Choy 145). For example, “I would say ‘Third Uncle’ instead of ‘Great Uncle’ ” (Choy 145). That is because he is stuck between two cultures. In English, kinship terms are simple, but in Chinese, they are complicated, and Sek-Lung is so confused. Another reason is because he is not allowed to go to school due to a lung infection, and he cannot receive proper education, neither from English school nor Chinese school, which restricts his knowledge. Every time he uses improper Chinese, he is insulted by being called brainless. In addition, the lung infection makes him very weak, and he has to stay at home, while “everyone in the family is caught up with work and school” (Choy 186). In fact, “Kiam was fifteen and was getting all A’s at King Edward High; Jung was twelve and was learning how to box […] at Hastings Gym” (Choy 148), and his sister can “read rapidly” (Choy 176). His siblings impress him so much with their amazing abilities. In contrast, Sek-Lung can do nothing, which makes him feel inferior. Furthermore, he recognizes that he is a burden in his family. He thinks, “I did everything to ruin their time with me, if they stayed around at all” (Choy 224). For instance, each family member needs to take turns to teach him. He notices that he is wasting their time, and actually they do not like spending time with him. In brief, Sek-Lung is brainless, not as good as his siblings, and he…

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Beginning in the late 19th century and continuing to the early 20th century, many Chinese families struggled to gain social, economic, and educational stature in both China and the United States. In the book, A Transnational History of a Chinese Family, by Haiming Liu, we learn about the Chang family rooted in Kaiping County, China, who unlike many typical Chinese families’ exemplified hard-work and strong cultural values allowing them to pursue an exceptional Chinese-American lifestyle. Even with immigration laws preventing Chinese laborers and citizens to enter unless maintaining merchant status, Yitang and Sam Chang managed to sponsor approximately 40 relatives to the states with their businesses in herbalist medicine and asparagus farming. Though the Chang’s encountered many of the hardships typical of Chinese families for the time, they relied on their outstanding work ethic so that their families would always be supported, receive the best possible education, and preserve family and kinship relationships to get them through the tough times and long periods of separation.…

    • 2293 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Good Earth

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages

    2. Wang Lung feels compelled to purchase the rice field House of Hwang because he believes that land is like flesh and blood to people, and it is too precious to go to waste, so if he buys it he can put it to use and make money for his family. Also, he feels important when buying it from the “great house of Hwang.” At first, he regretted buying it because he wished he had his silver back, considering the land would take hours of labor to work on, and buying it had not been as glorious as he anticipated.…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    This story focuses on the experience of a man, Chen Xin (pronounced "Chen Zin") who is returning to the city of Shanghai after an absence of ten years. He has spent that time in a rural area and has looked forward to being reunited with his family, which consists of his mother, his elder brother and the brother's wife and child, and his younger brother. The family lives together in cramped quarters and the introduction of the middle brother into this space creates something of a crisis.…

    • 646 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many people and families live through the tragedies of life and work to find out where they lay in their society. In Pearl S Buck’s novel, The Good Earth, Wang Lung and his family embark on the long journey through life. Wang Lung and his family face both times of happiness and peace, and challenges and tragedy. Wang Lung, the main character, rose from poverty into wealth through hard work and luck. He faced many difficult challenges, but overcame them with the help of his family. Many others in this novel worked hard, but none has achieved wealth as he has.…

    • 682 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Red Scarf Girl Analysis

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages

    They seemed unimportant to me now… I had promised to care for my family…”- Jiang Ji-li Chapter 19 pg. 261-262. In the beginning of the book, Jiang had different views of her family, opposing the statement she stated above. I feel that Jiang had a change of mind because of all the terrible occurrences she and her broken family are receiving. Since her father was detained and her family was in pieces, she had to hold the responsibility of keeping the promises she made. From her promises, Jiang set aside her dreams and the future she wanted for herself and traded it for her family instead. This to me expresses her selfless quality to setting others before her and learning to accept who she is while at the beginning she wanted to change everything about her, but she remained loyal to her family at the…

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Themes in the Good Earth

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In Pearl Bucks novel The Good Earth she gives an inside look at the Chinese culture. In the novel Wang Lung is poor farmer married to O-Lan, a loving wife who takes care of Wang Lung’s father, plus her own children. Three themes that Pearl Buck uses are survival, family structure, and the subjugation of women.…

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Good Earth

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck is about a farmer named Wang Lung who goes from rags to riches. He is able to become rich from his hardworking, loyal wife named O-lan. They both work hard on the land becoming very dependent on it and Buck personifies the land, which Wang Lung owns. Personification is useful in that it shows Wang Lung’s dependency on the land to find food, money, and family connections. With personification of the land, it helps enhance the novel for the reader to better understand how much the land meant to Wang Lung.…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "I 've seen people howling from hunger and tearing their hair out when they had the strength. After a flood eight years ago, I saw human flesh sold in a market. I 've gone into villages where whole families committed suicide..." (Bosse 227), the sallow-faced little man Chen and Hong met at the town of Gaoyou says. This is an example of disruption in the mandate of heaven and how big of an impact it can take of those who live in Ming Dynasty China. The mandate of heaven applied to all of those who lived in Ming Dynasty China, playing an absolutely important role in how the government ran. If the mandate was troubled, the gods would respond with natural disasters, such as…

    • 1108 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nectar In A Sieve

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Once the tannery moved into their small Indian village, everything began to change for the families of rural farmers including their son’s views on working the land like the generations of men before them had. They no longer wanted to be poor lowly farmers who couldn’t afford the land they cared…

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics