The Good Earth

A book review on The Good Earth written by Pearl S. Buck

Review written by: Donna Whistler

Synopsis: The Good Earth follows the life of Wang Lung in historical China. The story follows Wang Lung’s rise from poverty and his moral destruction.

Themes:  The Good Earth has two main themes. The first theme has to do with status and poverty. Wang Lung was a farmer, and a farmer during this time period was the lowest of the low.  Wang lung works hard and through his perseverance his family becomes extremely wealthy. The second theme has to do with money and its correlation to morality. As Wang Lung gets richer and richer, his morality declines.

Note: This book is best enjoyed with its historical context in mind. If you end up choosing to read this novel, get a copy of the book with the historical context outlined in the back. Or just simply research the time period first.

Overview of the novel: In the beginning of the book, Wang Lung is preparing for his wedding day. He goes to the house of Hwang, (the richest family near him) and goes to retrieve the servant they have promised him for his wife.  The house of Hwang, although very wealthy, was very wicked. There the old lady of the house of Hwang smoked opium all day and the servants were worked to death and mistreated. The old lady finally grants him his wife and Wang Lung and O-lan (his new wife) set out for home.

O-lan proves to be an excellent wife for Wang Lung. Although she is quiet and rarely speaks a word, she is frugal, hardworking, and a good cook. She also takes good care of Wang Lung’s father with whom they share a house.  Together, they work hard to become prosperous. O-lan bears him a son, a sign of good omen to the Chinese. They become more and more prosperous, and O-lan gives Wang Lung another son. When O-lan bears Wang Lung a girl, and a mentally challenged girl at that, their fortune begins to change. Wang Lung and his family have to flee because of political conflict, famine, and drought.  Once again at the bottom of the chain, Wang Lung and his family have to work hard to survive. Eventually, they return to their homeland. Because Wang Lung was smart and had invested his money in land, he did not have to start over. Many other families’ money had been stolen, but Wang Lung invested in land which he believed could not be taken from him.

Wang Lung once again works hard to prosper. As he becomes more and more successful, more and more problems arise. His sons start to rebel against him. Wang Lung realizes he never taught his sons the value of hard work. He had done it himself. Both his sons desire to be scholars and leave the farm. They had a disdain for traditional Chinese culture, hard work and perseverance. Wang Lung begins to make his own mistakes. Whereas before he had an unusual amount of respect for his wife and his daughter, which was quite uncommon and shameful in Chinese culture, he starts to disregard his wife through adultery. He hires people to do his work for him and starts recklessly spending his silver in the village. He goes to the tea house, a prostitution center. He picks out a prostitute named Lotus and goes to see her every day as a secret. Finally in a last stance of defiance and disgust against O-lan, he builds Lotus a compound onto his house and lives with her.

Wang Lung completely ignores O-lan’s well being after he met Lotus. O-lan contracts some deadly disease which makes her day to day chores harder and harder, yet she keeps working trying to please Wang Lung. When O-Lan dies, Wang Lung is grieved at his actions towards her. He realizes how good of a wife she really was, and he begins to go back to his lifestyle of hard work in the fields. This “repentance” however does not last long. He shows no sign of doing anything about Lotus and becomes lazy and a reckless spender again.

Eventually, Wang Lung is an old and very rich man. When the house of Hwang was ransacked and abandoned during the time of famine and drought, Wang Lung set his eyes upon living there someday. He purchased the old house of Hwang and moved his whole family in. His sons spend tons of his money on luxuries, expensive food, and decorations. Wang Lung had started to stay away from women. He became an easy pushover for his sons and starting acting more his age, until he gave himself a new wife, a young girl named Pear Blossom. Once again he becomes foolish and lustful when he is rich and at ease.

Wang Lung knows his death is coming soon. He has his sons make him a coffin and place it in his room. He reflects on his life every morning as he looks at his coffin. Finally he makes a decision to go back to his old farmhouse and live out the rest of his days there. His sons out of duty come often enough to visit him, and Wang Lung would have them walk the lands with him. Although the end of the book could be summarized, Pearl Buck’s final ending is too good to be paraphrased. One day when Wang Lung and his sons were out on the land, his sons start to discuss selling the land when he dies and building railroads across the rest of his property.

“’Now, evil, idle sons—sell the land!’ He choked and would have fallen, and they caught him and held him up, and he began to weep.

Then they soothed him and they said, soothing him, ‘No—no—we will never sell the land—‘

‘It is the end of a family—when they begin to sell the land,’ he said brokenly. ‘Out of the land we came and into it we must go—and if you will hold your land you can live—no one can rob you of land—‘

And the old man let his scanty tears dry upon his cheeks and they made salty stains there. And he stooped and took up a handful of soil and he held it in his hand and muttered, ‘If you sell the land, it is the end.’

And his two sons held him, one on either side, each holding his arm, and he held tight in his hand the warm loose earth. And they soothed him and they said over and over, the eldest son and the second son, “Rest assured, our father, rest assured. The land is not to be sold.’

But over the old man’s head they looked at each other and smiled.”

Conclusion: Through hard work and perseverance, Wang Lung finally gets his wish. He wishes to be rich and a well respected member of his community. When he goes to get O-lan at the house of Hwang, he dreams of someday being rich and honorable enough to be lord of a house like that. Although he recognizes all of the problems and sin in the house of Hwang, he ignores it and admires it nonetheless.

Wang Lung finally achieves his goal. He buys the house of Hwang and has it richly adorned by his eldest son’s design. Wang Lung is also a prominent rich figure in the village. Because Wang Lung chose to ignore the problems he worked so hard to achieve, his family suffers pretty much the same consequences as the house of Hwang.

Personal review: I have very mixed feelings about the book. The first third of the book had me so intrigued I could not put the book down. The writing style, the historical context, the themes, and the moral lessons contained within are all fantastic. Altogether the novel is cohesive, all the loose ends are addressed and the resolution drives home the moral point. Pearl S. Buck was definitely a fantastic writer and she deserves to be remembered for her outstanding contribution to literature.

On the other hand, this book also left me feeling a little sick. The sexual content and all the sin issues were much more then I would have wished to read about it. As a reader you become attached to O-lan, and Wang Lung’s defiance against his wife is sickening and made me want to stop reading. For this reason alone I cannot in good conscience recommend this as a good read to anyone.

I wish that this novel could have played out another way. But looking back on it, there was no other way to properly display her point. Her lessons about wise money spending and work ethics is to be admired, and could not have been portrayed in a more convincing way. I wish more people knew and followed the principles Wang Lung built his prosperous life upon.

Once again, torn, I cannot recommend this book. But if you do choose to read it, you will learn a lesson you will never forget.

Note: For reading purposes, I chose not to include all of the sexual content in the book. The book is very descriptive and goes into much greater detail and takes up a large portion of the books pages. This book is recommended only for those who think they can handle the content correctly and with a Biblical mindset. I would especially not recommend this book for young men, but I would also not promote it for women either. If this book interests you feel free to ask comments in the comment section below and make sure to pray for wisdom and discernment.