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 connection Wang Lung has with the land changes him because it is the only deep connection he has with anything. When Wang Lungs land is flooded by the drought Wang Lung ventures to the south, a place he has always dreamed of visiting. This advocates much change in Wang Lung. He begins to see what the world is like outside of his farm, and experiences different languages, cultures, and economies. Life in the city proves to be too much change for Wang Lung, and he begins to miss his old life. "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. He belonged, not to this scum which clung to the walls of a rich man's house; nor did he be...