The Good Earth

Author	Pearl S. Buck
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). Image File history File links GoodEarth. ... Pearl Sydenstricker Buck, most familiarly known as Pearl S. Buck (birth name Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker; Chinese: ; pinyin: ) (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973), was a prolific American writer and Nobel Prize winner. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Politics is the process by which decisions are made within groups. ... See also: 1930 in literature, other events of 1931, 1932 in literature, list of years in literature. ... A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) book is bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth or heavy paper) and a stitched spine. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative in prose. ... Pearl Sydenstricker Buck, most familiarly known as Pearl S. Buck (birth name Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker; Chinese: ; pinyin: ) (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973), was a prolific American writer and Nobel Prize winner. ... Year 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... No prize was awarded in 1917. ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Plot

Introduction

It is the story of a farm family in China in times of famine, flood, and prosperity. A farmer, Wang Lung, who lives with his widowed father, marries O-Lan, the homely former slave of a wealthy household, the Hwang Family. A famine is a social and economic crisis that is commonly accompanied by widespread malnutrition, starvation, epidemic and increased mortality. ... Look up flood in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Slave redirects here. ...

Summary

Through frugality and hard work Wang Lung and O-Lan 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. He can only work at night at a fraction of his former pay for fear of being conscripted into the army. Eventually, a riot occurs and a mass of people break into the rich peoples homes. Wang Lung gets separated from the rest and encounters a rich man who hadn't managed to flee. He pays Wang Lung a large amount of gold in return for sparing his life. Beggars in Samarkand, 1905 Begging includes the various methods used by persons to obtain money, food, shelter, drugs, alcohol, or other things from people they encounter during the course of their travels. ... Rickshaws (or rickshas) are a mode of human-powered transport: a runner draws a two-wheeled cart which seats one or two persons. ...

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. Using jewels O-Lan had looted from the house in the city, they buy the House of Hwang's remaining land. However, one year a flood covers all the farm land. Wang Lung, who has nothing to do all day, eventually falls to the vices of rich food and takes a concubine. Later, they move into town and rent out the old House of Hwang. Wang Lung is old and just wants peace in his family, however there are always disputes, such as between his first and second sons. At the end of the novel, Wang Lung overhears his sons plotting to sell some of the land, thus showing the end of the cycle of wealth and downfall. Wang Lung makes a desperate argument to persuade them otherwise, but the sons are not swayed. A swampy marsh area ...

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
• Eldest Son's Wife – city woman who hates the Second Son's wife
• Younger Son's Wife – country woman who is hated by and hates the First Son's wife
• 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
• Ching – Wang Lung's faithful friend/neighbor. Dies and gets buried in the family "graveyard".
• Old School Master &ndash signifigant because he names Wang Lung's two eldest sons

Major Characters

Wang Lung: Wang Lung is a poor peasant farmer whose love for the land sustains him through the difficult times of his life. After marrying a slave from a great house, he gradually rises from a poor, humble, country farmer to a wealthy, respected, landowning patriarch of a great family. He multiplies his fortunes through the help of his loyal wife, O-lan, and his faith in the good earth.

O-lan: O-lan is sold by her parents during a famine to the great House of Hwang where she works as a kitchen slave until being given to Wang Lung. She is a dark, plain-looking, dull woman who rarely speaks. Although she is not beautiful, O-lan is extremely patient, hard working, resourceful, and faithful. She gives birth to three sons and three girls, and five children survive. She knows that Wang Lung can never love her, but is extremely loyal to him. After having worked all her life for Wang Lung and the family, O-lan dies from an incurable illness.

Old Man (Wang Lung's father): Wang Lung's father comes from a family of farmers, and has worked on the land for most of his life before bequeathing it to Wang Lung. He is an old man who becomes increasingly feeble with age, spending most of his time eating and sleeping. He dies soon after O-lan dies.

Ching: Ching is Wang Lung's nearest neighbor who, with Wang Lung's rising fortunes, comes to live with him, and becomes his steward, overseeing various matters of the field and the workers. Ching is a small, timid man who rarely speaks. The famine destroys his family, but he spends the rest of his life serving Wang Lung like an extremely faithful dog. After Ching dies, Wang Lung can no longer bear to go out to his land by himself.

Eldest son of Wang Lung (Nung En): He is Wang Lung's first born. During adolescence, he is lustful, troublesome, and moody like a young lord of a great house. He is sent to school to be educated, and eventually goes south to become a scholar. Later, he returns to marry a town-born maid who is the daughter of a grain dealer. As an adult, he is highly conscious of the status and the wealth of his family in town. He is also very extravagant, and scornful of the common people. Later, he becomes an official among the rich men in town, and gets himself a second wife.

Second Son of Wang Lung (Nung Wen): Even as a child, the second son is different from his older sibling. Sharp and thrifty, he is apprenticed to the grain merchant Liu after school. Later, the second son becomes a clerk of the grain shop, comes to manage Wang Lung's finances, and marries a village maid. He and his haughty older brother do not get along as a result of various differences. Later, the second son sets up a grain market of his own.

Third Son of Wang Lung: The third son is born as a twin with a girl child. He has O-lan's gravity and silence. Wang Lung wishes to keep him on the land as a farmer, but he does not wish to be a farmer. Wang Lung finally allows a tutor for the third son so that he may be educated, but the third son runs away from home to become a soldier. Later, people from the south say that he has become a high ranking military official of the revolution.

Wife of the Eldest Son: She is a properly demure, fair maid from town who is the daughter of Liu, the grain merchant. After marrying the eldest son, she gives birth to Wang Lung's first grandson. The wife of the second son and she do not get along.

Wife of the Second Son: She is a good-humored, robust village maid who marries the second son. She gives birth to a girl child.

Eldest Daughter of Wang Lung (Poor Fool): When she is born, a sense of evil strikes Wang Lung, as though an era of misfortune has begun for him. She is an infant during the famine, and most likely, because of lack of nourishment, the eldest daughter grows up to be mildly retarded. She never talks nor does she ever grow up to do things befitting a child of her age. She simply smiles like a baby, and plays with a piece of cloth. Because Wang Lung pities her, he loves and cares for her the most out of all the rest of the children. Even as he is dying of old age, Wang Lung does not forget 'his poor fool,' making sure that she will be taken care of by someone. Pear Blossom promises Wang Lung that she will look after the eldest daughter after his death.

Daughter of Wang Lung (Born and killed during the famine): The second daughter is born during the famine, but dies immediately after being born. It is suggested that O-lan kills her because it is during the famine, and a girl is only a burden, brought up to be given to other families in marriage. Wang Lung notices bruise marks around the child's neck as he wraps the body to bury it.

Second Daughter of Wang Lung: She is born as a twin with Wang Lung's third son. She is an extremely pretty, delicate girl who is later sent off to be married to the son of Merchant Liu. O-lan binds her feet tightly so that she will not meet a fate like that of herself as an unloved, undesired wife of a man.

Wang Lung's Uncle (younger brother of Wang Lung's father): Wang Lung's uncle is a lazy, sly, old man who is a burden and a constant source of trouble to Wang Lung. Unlike Wang Lung, he is not a hard-working farmer, always gambling away whatever money he has. He joins a group of dangerous bandits during the famine, and comes back to use that to threaten Wang Lung. He and his wife live off Wang Lung's wealth, and later die of age and excessive opium use.

Uncle's Wife: The wife of the uncle is a fat, loud, greedy woman who is as lazy and devious as the uncle is. She arranges the union between Wang Lung and the beautiful Lotus. She dies some time after her husband from having smoked too much opium.

Son of the Uncle: He is the lustful, base son of Wang Lung's uncle who is also a constant source of annoyance to Wang Lung and his family. He lures Wang Lung's oldest son into prostitution during adolescence, and lusts after Wang Lung's second daughter so that the maid has to be sent to the home of her betrothed for protection. Later, he goes off to a war in the north and becomes a soldier. For a short time, he returns to Wang Lung's house with a group of rowdy soldiers, stirring up confusion and trouble within the household, but goes away as soon as he came after leaving one of Wang Lung's slaves pregnant.

Lotus: Lotus is a pretty, slender girl of the great tea house who later becomes Wang Lung's mistress. Her delicate features and little face enchant Wang Lung. At Wang Lung's house, she leads a life of good food, silk clothes, and luxury. Although beautiful, she is quick-tempered and spoiled. As an old woman, Lotus is fat and lazy, caring for nothing but food and jewelry.

Cuckoo: Cuckoo is a handsome woman with a sharp face and hard features. She is a sly, quick-witted woman who will do anything for money. Although a mere slave at the House of Hwang, she is the Old Lord's favorite. Later, after the great house has fallen into poverty and deterioration, she wields power and control over the Old Lord, selling the family land to Wang Lung in exchange for jewels. After the Old Lord dies, Cuckoo becomes the keeper of the teahouse Wang Lung frequents to see Lotus. She comes to Wang Lung's house as a serving woman to Lotus. When she comes, there is trouble between her and O-lan.

Minor Characters

Gatekeeper of the great house of Hwang: He is the haughty, condescending gatekeeper who lets Wang Lung into the house on the day he goes to get O-lan. According to Cuckoo, he is one of the robbers to loot the great house during the famine.

Gatekeeper's wife: She is the pockmarked wife of the gatekeeper. Later, when Wang Lung goes to the great house to decide whether or not he will rent it, she lets him into the courts.

Old Mistress: She is the mistress of the great house who gives O-lan away to Wang Lung. Because of her constant opium smoking, she is haggard and distracted. When Wang Lung first sees her, she is a small old lady, clad in satin and jewels and sitting on a dais.

Old Master: He is the lord of the great house. When Wang Lung goes to see him to buy land, he has been reduced to an old man, helpless under the control of a cunning slave (Cuckoo).

Merchant Liu: He is the grain merchant in town who marries his daughter to Wang Lung's eldest son. He also agrees to marry his son to Wang Lung's second daughter and apprentices Wang Lung's second son.

Pear Blossom : She is a pale, frail girl who is sold to Wang Lung following a famine. She waits on Lotus, but gains her disfavor by refusing to be given to the son of Wang Lung's uncle. She is a frightened, delicate creature who prefers Wang Lung to young men. She takes care of Wang Lung in old age, and comforts him by promising to take care of his poor fool after his death. Because she is a very pretty girl, Wang Lung's third son and the uncle's son all show interest in her.

Slave: She is the stout slave of Wang Lung who volunteers to be given to the son of the uncle when he comes as a soldier. Later, she gives birth to a girl child, and takes care of the uncle's wife who is dying. She asks Wang Lung to find a husband for her so she can be married, and Wang Lung chooses to give her to the laborer who caused Ching's death.

Laborer: He is a ruddy, rustic farmer who inadvertently causes Ching's death. He is later given one of Wang Lung's slaves who wishes to be married to a farmer.

Yang, the whore: She is the coarse, aged whore who lives in the court of the great house after the fall of the Hwang family. She is visited by Wang Lung's eldest son during his adolescence. Wang Lung asks her that she refuse to see his son when he comes to see her in exchange for money. She agrees to the arrangement.

Girl Cousin of Wang Lung (Daughter of the uncle) : She is the daughter of Wang Lung's uncle. One day, Wang Lung sees her talking freely with a man, and the uncle comes to Wang Lung to ask for some money to provide for her wedding dowry.

Schoolmaster at the small school near the city gate: He is the old master of the small school near the city gate who once failed the government examinations, and decided to turn to teaching young men in the classics.

First Grandson of Wang Lung: The eldest son's wife gives birth to a son who is Wang Lung's first grandchild.

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. A missionary is traditionally defined as a propagator of religion who works to convert those outside that community; someone who proselytizes. ... Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ...

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. X-ray of bound feet. ... An expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of his upbringing or legal residence. ...

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. // First flight by the Wright brothers, December 17, 1903. ...

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. Donald Davis holds the world record for running the fastest backward mile. ... Owen Davis (b. ... A reel of film, which predates digital cinematography. ... The Good Earth (1937) is a movie based on the 1931 book of the same name by Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck about Chinese peasants who try to survive a locust invasion. ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Paul Muni photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1932 Paul Muni (September 22, 1895 – August 25, 1967) was an Academy Award-winning versatile actor from the Golden Age of Hollywood, Born Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund to a Jewish family in Lwow, Galicja, an ethnically Polish part of the then-Austro-Hungarian Empire... Luise Rainer in The Great Ziegfeld (1936) Luise Rainer (born January 12, 1910 in either Düsseldorf, Germany or Vienna, Austria) is a two-time Academy Award-winning film actress. ... Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ...