The Good Earth
The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck, is a novel in which the main character, Wang Lung, encounters numerous challenges and struggles. These challenges and how he resolves them affect his life in profound ways. As Wang Lungs story unfolds amidst the great revolution one thing remains constant: Life is never easy for Wang Lung and his family. The novel follows the life of Wang Lung from rags to riches, good health to poor and emotional simplicity to complications. As Wang Lungs character ages the basis upon which he grows is through his struggles against nature, society, and fate. As a farmer Wang Lung is greatly affected by the outcome of nature. Wang Lung's connection with his land is an obvious and important one. The land holds promise and the road to a better, more successful life. As a poor farmer in the beginning of the book Wang Lungs dependency on the land for survival is immense. As a result, he treats the land with love and connects with it on a deep level, in hopes of a loving return from the land. "There was only this perfect sympathy of movement, of turning this earth of theirs over and over into the sun, this earth which formed their home and fed their bodies and made their gods."(22) The
" (206) Wang Lung hires men to work on his land and allows his sons to be educated. His psychological and emotional states are enlightened as a result of living through conflict. Before Wang Lung becomes a rich man, he has morals, and sees a fine line between right and wrong. He belonged to the land and he could not live with any fullness until he felt the land under his feet and followed a plow in the springtime and bore a scythe in his hand at harvest. "I can pay the silver," Wang Lung says in response to the doctors 500 pieces of silver fee, to save O-lan's life. Fate, a significant ideal in Chinese history, upholds its importance in this novel by constantly making an appearance in Wang Lung's life. After Wang Lung realizes the presence of his newfound wealth, he acts like a completely different man. O-lan eventually dies, and after her burial Wang Lung reveals, "in that land of mine is buried the first good half of my life and more" (195. Wang Lung starts out a poor farmer, struggling against the system to become a wealthy man with a thriving family. "But Wang Lung thought of his land and pondered this way and that, with a sickened heart of deferred hope, how he could get back to it. Wang Lung has changed from seeing the land as a holy ground that he and his family survives off of, to a means of becoming rich. He believes that his fortune places him on a pedestal and that he is too good for common life. Not only is this change induced by experiencing a conflict with fate, but positive change becomes the outcome of the negative experience. connection Wang Lung has with the land changes him because it is the only deep connection he has with anything. Wang Lung's life is greatly affected by the conflicts he encounters.
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Acceptance Essays
