The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck

by Tristi Pinkston | More from this Blogger

16 Feb 2007 12:26 AM

"The Good Earth" is considered one of author Pearl Buck's greatest masterpieces, and I have to agree. Although it reflects a culture and a time very different from anything I'm familiar with, I could immediately recognize the flavor and the tone as authentic - I felt transported to a place I have never seen and now feel as though I could navigate my way through China with insight.

Wang Lung is a farmer, living with his widowed father. He has decided that it is time for him to take a wife, so he goes to the household of the Hwang family and purchases a slave they no longer want. O-lan is homely, taller than her new husband, and very meek, this last quality being very important to Wang Lung.

She works hard in the home and in the field, and before long, Wang Lung is more prosperous than he has ever been. Even when pregnant, she never stops working, and she presents Wang Lung with three children.

But then the weather takes a turn for the worse, and farmers everywhere are suffering. Wang Lung sells everything they have except for the land, and he takes his family (including his needy father) into the city, where they think they will fare better. But this is not the case. O-lan and the children beg for food while Wang Lung pulls a rickshaw and the grandfather wails about it. They barely have enough to survive.

Meanwhile, political tensions are running high and Wang Lung is fearful he will be taken into the army. One fateful night, a riot breaks out, and hoards of people run through the streets, looting. They head for the homes of the wealthy, and O-lan scoops up a bag of gems that one of the looters left behind. She gives it to Wang Lung, asking him if she may keep two small pearls that are in the sack. She wants to take them out and rub them from time to time, she tells him, and he laughs, thinking it's a silly fancy, but he gives them to her.

They return to their home and begin to prosper. They buy an ox, and tools, and the sons go to school. The earth is good to them. But it's not enough - with everything Wang Lung gets, he wants more, and eventually he uses the jewels O-lan found and buys the Hwang house, making O-lan mistress of the house where she once was a slave. But she still has the slave mentality, made worse by Wang Lung's attitude toward her. He has her to thank for everything he possesses, and yet he refuses to acknowledge the powerful influence for good she has had in his life. He even gives her pearls to a mistress he acquires, always wanting more. This nearly breaks O-lan's heart - those pearls were the only thing she ever asked for in their entire marriage.

At the end of the book, O-lan dies, and Wang Lung finally realizes everything she meant to him. Bowing over her grave, he cries, "O-lan! You are the earth!" which statement we can take to mean that through her, comes everything important to him. But he makes the discovery too late.

This is a somber piece of literature. The lives of the Chinese farmers were not glamorous by any stretch of the imagination and sometimes O-lan had to make sacrifices that were beyond what we could fully comprehend today. But this book will make you think and feel and appreciate. The beauty of the words, the clarity of the writing - Pearl Buck was an artist with the pen, as her Nobel Prize will attest.

This book was made into a movie in 1937, if you're interested in seeing the film.

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Our Favorite Literature

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Learn more about Tristi Pinkston

I've been a blogger for Families.com since August of 2006.

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Linda Hansen (1796) 16 Feb 2007 03:50 PM

Good review Tristi, you brought back memories of reading and enjoying The Good Earth. I have always love Pearl S. Buck and this was one of my favorites. Artcraft

Tristi Pinkston (10839) 16 Feb 2007 04:30 PM

Pearl is awesome, isn't she? I'll also be reviewing my personal favorite by her, "Peony."

misspiggy (240) 21 Feb 2007 07:23 AM

I love anything Pearl Buck has written. She has her own style which has never been successfully imitated. I understand that she thinks in Chinese and then translates into English, which would be at least part of that. Having spent her earliest years in China, she was first aware of that culture, then any others as she got older. This gave her insight no other writer has.

Tristi Pinkston (10839) 21 Feb 2007 12:54 PM

Thanks for your comment, misspiggy! Pearl is definitely a favorite for me.