I just finished The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, an American woman raised in China. Buck was the first woman and the third American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1938. Having been raised in China, Buck was well acquainted with Chinese culture and even knew the Chinese language before she knew English. I am a lover of books that usher me in to different cultures although, oftentimes, the realities of the ways and beliefs of different cultures are heartbreaking. Such is the story portrayed in The Good Earth.
The novel begins on the day a poor young farmer, Wang Lung, goes to pick up his wife, who is a slave, from the mansion in which she works. The couple has never met but Wang Lung looks forward to having a woman tend the house and bear children. The story continues on through the years of their marriage and doesn’t end until his wife, O-lan, has died and Wang Lung is on the verge of death. During their lifetime, they had endured extreme poverty and had at last acquired extreme wealth through the fruit of their land.
What left me feeling this book was, at its core, a tragedy was the lack of value placed on women and the lack of intimacy within the familial relationships.
Women were not valued in this culture beyond their ability to conceive men. When Wang Lung’s first two male children are born there is much relief and celebration. But when the third, a girl, is born her birth is announced by her mother as being “only a slave this time–not worth mentioning.” What haunted me most about the way women were treated and viewed in this book is the reality that China is not even free today of viewing women as less than men. I remember the first time that I learned of this: it was in high school and my History teacher was planning to adopt from China. She told us that they would adopt a girl because girls in China were often abandoned and intimated that even worse things could happen to a baby girl. I remember being disgusted and shocked that a baby girl could be killed or abandoned just for being born a girl. My sixteen year old mind could hardly fathom it. But fathom it this book will help you do. In it contains a world where men have multiple wives and women have no say in the matter. A world where a girl’s feet are bound because small feet are beautiful and they help make a girl a better prospect for gaining a respectable husband. When a girl marries she would then be all but forgotten by her own family. A woman inevitably marrying off was actually the reason given by Wang Lung as to why their births could be met with dismay: a girl would not stay with her family, but a boy would grow to be a man and continue to live in his father’s house and carry on his name, trade, and legacy. Having children thus becomes an act of pragmatism, not love.
There is no intimacy within any relationship portrayed in the book. Wang Lung’s first marriage is a practical one and although he often feels proud of his wife’s industriousness, there is no genuine love. This was painfully obvious when he disregards her feelings and takes on a second wife. This second marriage is a lustful one based on Wang Lung’s sexual attraction to a prostitute that he eventually gains for himself. His second wife is disregarded just as the first had been when, years later, Wang Lung gives in to another sexual temptation and this time takes on a third wife who is about forty years younger than he is.
One might think that because such value and esteem is placed on a man having sons that the father-son relationship would be the strongest, healthiest one. But alas, it is not. In fact, there is absolutely no semblance of healthy relationships in this novel, only broken human ones. It seems that for Wang Lung the merit of having a son is just so that he can say and so that his community can see that he has one. Wang Lung takes no interest in knowing who his sons are or building a relationship with them. As their father, he has a right to determine what their lives should look like and only gives in to their desires when it benefits his own life. For example, Wang Lung decides to send his two eldest sons to school after he tires of being made a fool during business transactions when it is evident to others that he cannot read and write. He designates his third son to be the one who knows the land and be a farmer. He decides not to educate his third son because he sees it as no practical need for his own concerns. After all, he reasons, he already has two sons who are educated, he has no need for his third to be so. It is only when his third son becomes restless that his first son is able to convince Wang Lung to educate him. Wang Lung concedes because he is desperately seeking “peace” in his house and doesn’t want the onus of dealing with his third son’s ill temper that has come as a result of being dissatisfied with the lot his father has given him in life. Wang Lung often makes decisions and gives in to others as a way to create peace for himself. The concept of him attaining peace was reiterated over and over again as Wang Lung aged. Sadly though he was a man who in his dying days could only find peace in his land, not his family, not in his religion, certainly not in his marriages. Although his earth was good to him in the ways in which he so desired–he was able to amass wealth and a respectable reputation within his community from it, in it the reader can also see that it served as an idol in this man’s life and he gave it the love and respect he should have given to his family. Nevertheless, we still feel pity for him when he reaps what he has sown and it is known that his sons, in disregard of their father’s wishes, will bring to pass his biggest fear and sell his land when he will die. It is no wonder though that his sons would disrespect his father’s wishes in this way; after all, he has not demonstrated a love towards them that would create a natural desire for them to honor his wishes, rather he has demonstrated a life that has been lived solely for himself. He will die then as an emotional stranger to his wives and sons who look forward to the day when they can sell his beloved land to feed their own selfish desires.
