The novel opens on the young Wang Lung's wedding day. His
father had purchased a bride for him from the rich House of Hwang.
She was a slave (for the farmer was poor), and not pretty
(for his father said that a pretty women is no good for a farmer,
she'll always be wanting clothes and jewels), but not pock-marked or
split lipped, either. Wang Lung goes to the House of Hwang,
receives his bride amid much ridicule by the butler, purchases a few
simple ingredients for the wedding feast. They are married,
and though O-lan, his wife, is initially afraid of him, they grow to
deeply appreciate one another. O-lan is a superb cook, having
learned cooking as a servant to the Hwangs, and she is a diligent
worker. She makes clothes, cooks, cleans, and helps out in
the field. And Wang Lung decides that, while she is plain,
she is more lovely than he suspected. He and O-lan are
frugal, selling crops during the winter when the price
is high, and saving money. Their home is filled with drying
spices,
pork, chickens, the scent of food, and two young boys running around.
O-lan has a child, giving birth to a son. She and Wang Lung
show him to the Ancient Mistress of the House of Hwang, as she had
promised on her wedding day. And it happens that O-lan
discovers that the House of Hwang is having money difficulties, such
that they are selling a small piece of fertile land near the town moat
(easily watered). Wang Lung begins to aspire to be like the
House of Hwang, and since land is wealth, he buys their land.
Word eventually spreads that Wang Lung is rich enough to buy
land from the Hwangs, and his lazy uncle comes to extort money from him
by asserting the necessity of filial piety in helping one's family.
Despite his occasional prayers to the gods of his field, that next year
is a drought. It is so severe that no crops can be harvested,
and people begin to starve. Wang Lung and his family even eat
corn cobs, and when that runs out, kill their ox. Wang Lung
has more than most people, and the villagers plunder his house in their
hunger, stealing his stache of silver, and all the remaining food.
His neighbor, Ching, has the pity to at least give back a
handful of beans so that O-lan can suck on them, for she gave birth to
a daughter, and would die without food. His uncle comes to
purchase his land from him at ridiculously low prices, and Wang Lung
refuses. He and his family sell their furniture
and go south on the fire-wagon to seek food.
They arrive in a large city (probably Shanghai or Guanzhou) and beg for
food. Wang Lung cannot stomach begging and feels like it is
more honorable to work for a living. But the only work
available is pulling a rickshaw, but the cost of renting the rickshaw
is about equal to his fares, and there is barely enough money for his
family to buy a bowl of rice at the poorhouse; they can save
nothing. While he is working, he meets his first foreigner,
and is terrified of their white skin and protuding noses. He
also encounters communists and Christians giving out paper tracts.
He cannot read, so he gives the paper to O-lan to make shoes.
O-lan has experienced famine like this, for she was sold into
slavery by her family in such a year (they even refer to their daughter
as "the slave"). Wang Lung refuses to sell his daughter, for
it would not be right, but he is brought almost to the point of doing
so in his despair at providing for his family, were it not for the
conquest of the city that happens.
The city had been being beseiged. Soldiers had shanghaied
people like Wang Lung, who had avoided capture and then began pulling
heavy loads at night for half the wages. Rich people moved
their possessions out of the city. And the old beggar, who
knew what rich people lived behind the walls their huts were built
against, said to Wang Lung, "when the rich are too rich there is a way.
And when the poor are too poor, there is a way."
Wang Lung did not understand, and even when the city fell,
and the beggars stormed the gates of the rich people, taking everything
they could get their hands on, he still could not bring himself to take
what was not his. However, he happened into a room alone, and
there was a fat rich man who had emerged from hiding. The fat
man was terrified that Wang Lung would kill him, and practically gave
him his gold in fear as he fled.
Wang Lung packed his family up and returned north. He bought
and ox from a farmer on the way, some seed, and some furniture.
He repaired his house (which was ruined by the local bandits
who had camped out there) and began plowing. He also gave
some seed to Ching, who was destitute, and plowed his field, in thanks
for the beans he had returned. Wang Lung loved the land
dearly, and was deeply content to be once again plowing the good earth
and bringing crops from it.
One night he was astonished to discover that O-lan had a packet of
jewels between her breasts. Since she had lived in the house
of the wealthy, she knew that the wealthy kept a secret brick to hide
valuables when the poor rushed the house, so she had known the meaning
of the loose brick she saw in the looting of the rich house.
And in most elegant dialog we see a glimer that, though O-lan
is plain and not beautiful, and quiet and spiritless, though she is
diligent, hard-worked, frugal, and faithful, yet deep within her, the
feminine desire to be beautiful still glimmers, faintly. Wang
Lung does not understand, and though he gives her the two small pearls
she requests, he is unable to understand what happened. So he
exchanges the jewels for land of the Hwangs, who have fallen
on hard times, having been plundered by the robbers during the winter,
and in great need of money.
Wang Lung now grew much richer, with the fertile land of the Hwangs.
He hired Ching, who was ever faithful and honest, to help
him, and soon to oversee other laborers. He enlarged his
house so that Ching's family could live near the fields.
O-lan gave birth two twins, although the daughter of the
family never was able to do more than stare outside and twirl a piece
of cloth in her hands. And he sent his eldest son to
learn to read and write so that he could conduct busines for him, since
Wang Lung could not read the contracts or even write his name.
His younger son he taught to farm, but the son hated it, and
was glad when he was allowed to go to school as well.
One year there was too much rain and the fields were flooded for a long
time. Wang Lung was idle, and idleness eventually led him to
the house of prostitutes in town. He was smitten with a
beautiful one, and began to see faithful O-lan as ugly, for she had
none of the characteristics of beauty that the culture appreciated.
So he took Lotus for a second wife. This cost him a
lot of money, because he made a special wing of the house for her, and
had to provide expensive things for her, and had to provide for her
shrewd and people-smart caretaker. O-lan was neglected and
was deeply wounded, although she never understood that, nor did Wang
Lung observe it. Wang Lung even took her two pearls and gave
them to Lotus Blossom. Some time afterwards, O-lan died of
cancer.
His wealth increased, and soon his uncle came to extort more money,
revealing why Wang Lung had never been robbed, even though many others
had been: his uncle was a member of the robbers.
Wang Lung was terrified, and so his lazy uncle and his lazy
family came to live with him, proving to be troublesome. Wang
Lung was eventually able to get rid of the troublemaking sons, and
secured peace for himself by getting his uncle and his wife addicted to
opium.
His eldest son became a merchant in town, the other son spent too much
time in Lotus Blossom's quarters and was thrown from the house,
eventually becoming a revolutionary. The eldest son became
ashamed that the family, though rich, still lived in a house on the
fields and convinced his father to rent out the Hwang's
abandoned house. So now Wang Lung had become his aspiration:
from a poor farmer, he became the wealthy House of Lung, even
living like them. Wang Lung's daughters, for instance,
demanded large expenses for clothes and things, much like the Hwangs
before him. As Wang Lung became old, eventually he took as a
concubine Lotus's servant (similar to the Old Man Hwang before him).
And since he could no longer farm the land, Ching supervised
everything and he was removed from the land he loved, and, as he well
knew, from the source of his wealth. Eventually he was
gathered to his fathers, and he charged his two sons not to sell the
land, for he saw what happened when the Hwangs sold the source of their
wealth. Yet, the House of Lung seems destined to a
similar fate, as the sons agree with a wink to each other;
their wealth is elsewhere, and they think they have no need
of land.
This is a superbly written book, simple and elegant, revealing a deep
understanding of human nature and of Chinese cultural thought.
Buck was a daughter of missionaries to China, and the book
has a Biblical feel to it. Like many of the earlier Old
Testament narratives, Buck does not explicitly pass judgement on what
happens, but expects that the reader's will perceive the rightness or
wrongness of Wang Lung's actions. Yet, like the Old
Testament, there is a subtle undertone that hints at her opinions,
which lies in the selection of events and the subtle way of wording of
the narrative. Likewise, the plot arc has a Biblical epic and
lesson to it: Wang Lung aspires to wealth and becomes it, but
at the expense of some of the same decadence of the Hwangs (the Ancient
Mistress was addicted to opium, which drained the finances, and Wang
Lung addicts his uncle. The Hwang's children produce an
immense drain on finances; his do to. The Old
Master had excessive concubines; Wang Lung is more restrained
but still breaks his wife's heart). And even though he sought
security in wealth, his family will be just as impermanent since, like
the Hwangs, his sons do not recognize that wealth comes from the land.
The writing is some of the most elegantly insightful that I have ever
read. Buck is able to succinctly describe Wang Lung's
thoughts in a way that describes every man, yet without the pedantic
plodding that, say, sci-fi writers do. A few examples will do
more justice than many of my words. The first is when Wang
Lung takes the jewels:
He
wrapped the stones in the rag again as he spoke and tied then hard
together with string, and opening his coat to thrust them into his
bosom, by chance he saw the woman's face. She was sitting
cross-legged upon the bed at its foot and her heavy face that never
spoke of anything was moved with dim yearning of open lips and face
thrust forward. ...
"I wish I could keep two for myself," she said
with such helpless wistfulness, as of one expecting nothing, that he
was moved as he might be by one of his children longing for a toy or
for a sweet.
"Well, now!" he cried in amazement.
"If I could have two," she went on humbly, "only
two small ones--two small white pearls even..."
"Pearls!" he repeated, agape.
"I would keep them--I would not wear them," she
said, "only keep them." And she dropped her eyes and fell to
twisting a bit of the bedding where a thread was loosened, and she
waited patiently as one who scarcely expects an answer.
Then Wang Lung, without comprehending it, looked
for an instant into the heart of this dull and faithful creature, who
had labored all her life at some task at which she won no reward and
who in the great house had seen others wearing jewels which she never
even felt in her hand once.
"I could hold them in my hand sometimes," she
added, as if she thought to herself.
And he was moved by something he did not understand and he pulled the
jewels from his bosom and unwrapped them and handed them to her in
silence, and she searched among the glittering colors, her hard brown
hand turning over the stones delicately and lingeringly until she found
the two white pearls, and these she took, and tying up the others
again, she gave them back to him. Then she took the pearls
and she tore a bit of the corner of her coat away and wrapped them and
hid them between her breasts and was comforted.
And after O-lan is angry with him for bringing Lotus Blossom's servant,
who was more important than O-lan at the Hwangs:
Wang Lung watched her as
she went and he was glad to be alone, but still he was ashamed and he
was still angry that he was ashamed and he said to himself and he
muttered the words aloud and restlessly, as though he quarreled with
someone, ...
The plot is equally well done, as it provides the opportunity to
display almost the entire range of human emotions and
temptations, yet in a way that is also able to describe
the life of the traditional Chinese townspeople, slaves, beggars, men,
woman, rich and poor. Some themes in particular are woven
into the plot. The overarching theme is how wealth does not
solve anything; perhaps the fact the Wang Lung's wealth
really came by chance, not by his hard work, is part of the theme as
well--money may happen to you, but it may not. A very strong
second theme is how men relate to women. Women are
consistently viewed as slaves by the culture, yet beautiful women are
spoiled. On the one hand, a wife that shares your values is a
great joy--Wang Lung and O-lan had a great marriage for many years
because of this, and he counted himself fortunate--yet on the other
hand, beauty is important in a wife, too., and Wang Lung is treats
Lotus well for the rest of his life. And although O-lan has
been so mistreated that she views herself as worthless, even so, she
retains the desire for beauty. When Wang Lung takes Lotus as
his wife, the reader is struck by the terrible injustice to O-lan, who
has been a lowly helpmate and partner, and is now betrayed by her
husband. A third, not quite theme, is how the characters
relate to each other. Neither Wang Lung nor O-lan have any
understanding of who they are emotionally and so their actions are
often reacting to feelings. Wang Lung seems to take the easy
approach to conflict--get rid of it. So he just pays money so
that Lotus Blossom can be pampered, instead of dealing with her
self-centeredness. Similarly with his sons.
The Good Earth
is in many ways a heart-breaking book, as the characters go through
many painful hardships, an increasing number of them preventable as the
book progresses. I was struck by the confusion that the
characters have because they do not have an awareness of sin:
the fundamental tendency to act self-centeredly often at the
expense of others. Nor do they seem to have any hope;
the best hope is money, but even that turns out to not work.
Yet, the reader is drawn to love the characters deeply.
We suffer with them as you read of the famine, and we are
glad when prosperity comes to Wang Lung.
It is also an insightful window onto traditional Chinese culture.
The parents of my Chinese-American friends make more sense
now. When they insist on their children planting fruit trees
in the backyard, it is because they value the land. The land
is the source of prosperity, and a backyard should not be wasted:
grow fruit. We, on the other hand, see the grocery
store as the place to get fruit, so it often does not occur to us to
plant fruit trees in our yard.
I highly recommend his book. It is one of the greatest pieces
of fiction that I have read and is a simply beautiful and elegantly
written portrait of traditional Chinese values and people.
Review: 10
| Wang Lung |
Simple farmer. He loves the land, and sees
the land as the source of wealth. He aspires to wealth |
| O-lan |
Wang Lung's wife. She is fairly dull-witted,
and not beautiful. She views herself as worthless, but
faithfully serves Wang Lung. |
| Lotus |
Pretty prostitute whom Wang Lung marries. She
is extremely self-centered, and becomes a bitter old woman. |
| Cuckoo |
Originally a servant of the Huangs and has managed to
continue the favorite concubine of the Old Master with her
understanding of how to manipulate human nature. Becomes
Lotus' servant. Is hated and resented by O-lan. |
| Wang Lung's father |
Has very traditional values. Is somewhat
senile through much of the book, and has to be served hot water instead
of tea, even though they are wealthy enough, because he views tea as an
expensive luxury. Is alert enough to recognize that Lotus is
a prostitute and loudly proclaims it. |
| Ching |
Wang Lung's neighbor. He is a good and honest
man, grateful for Wang's generosity to his family. Is an
excellent manager for Wang. |
| House of Hwang |
The decadent rich family. The Ancient
Mistress is addicted to opium, the Old Master has a bunch of
concubines, the manager helps himself to the money, and the butler has
to be bribed to let people in. |
Copyright © 2008 by
Geoffrey Prewett