Preview

Wang Lung, Protagonist of "The Good Earth": A Man of Determination and Loyalty

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
845 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Wang Lung, Protagonist of "The Good Earth": A Man of Determination and Loyalty
The Good Earth: Wang Lung - A Man of Determination and Loyalty

Pearl S. Buck shows her readers the many faces of Wang Lung in her book,
The Good Earth. Wang Lung is a rice farmer who gains all his wealth through the land. He struggles to move from poverty to a well respected wealthy man. Wang
Lungs character portrays a man's unselfishness, determination, and loyalty towards his family and friends. Wang Lung's caring and generous nature towards his family and friends make him a well-liked person. During the drought Wang Lung feeds the family members first and leaves what little is left for himself. Though it is hard,
Wang Lung manages to survive the drought. He feeds the family small portions of rice which are left over from the season. When the food runs out and the furniture and equipment are sold, Wang Lung decides to make a harsh decision.
He decides to lock up and move south. There he hopes to find food and money for his family. After a 100 mile train ride, they end up in the south. Wang Lung is delighted to find rice for only a penny. While Wang Lung uses the ricksha to make money for rice, the family eats and begins to regain strength. When all is well, Wang Lung returns home to start his life all over. Also during the drought Wang Lung spares food and money for his uncle, uncles's wife and their son. The uncle is a poor old gambler who would rather gamble his money away than to spend it on his family. During the drought he shows up in Wang Lung's fields begging for money. At first Wang Lung refuses to dish out money to his uncle. After a time of arguementing Wang Lung finally gives in. He states " 'It is cutting my flesh out to give to him and for nothing except that we are of a blood' ".(46) Wang Lung is upset that he had to give money to his uncle. Wang Lung didn't have to give to his uncle, but by doing so he kept peace with his him. Wang Lung's persistence to succeed carries him to a higher level in life. With such an

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Death of Woman Wang

    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan Spence is an educational historical novel of northeastern China during the seventeenth century. The author's focus was to enlighten a reader on the Chinese people, culture, and traditions. Spence's use of the provoking stories of the Chinese county T'an-ch'eng, in the province of Shantung, brings the reader directly into the course of Chinese history. The use of the sources available to Spence, such as the Local History of T'an-ch'eng, the scholar-official Huang Liu-hung's handbook and stories of the writer P'u Sung-Ling convey the reader directly into the lives of poor farmers, their workers and wives. The intriguing structure of The Death of Woman Wang consists on observing these people working on the land, their family structure, and their local conflicts.…

    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As a Chinese child who was born in Canada, Sek-Lung is living in an immigrant family, and he gets attracted by the local culture so that…

    • 1540 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Liu family were spending the day in the city of New York. They made several stops at different attractions of the city throughout the day. In the evening, they arrived in Chinatown. Eric feels like he is no longer in New York. There are shops and shoppers crowding the streets. He feels the need to be alert due to the amount of people and their seemingly characters. The streets are wet, dirty, and littered with trash. The family enters a bookstore inside an old building. Eric can not read any of the books. The family then ventures to a grocery full of people. Eric felt better about this shop. It was filled with Chinese foods and home goods. His mother filled a cart with supplies they could not find at home. Their order was cashed out with an abacus. The family came to Chinatown “to dip into a pool of undiluted Chineseness.” (Liu 81). Even though the family is Chinese, they feel that they do not belong here for long. Eric begins to see the differences between his family and the residents of Chinatown. Their fluent language and hard faces. The family happens upon Eric's grandmother. She is upset about them not visiting her. Eric realizes that his grandmothers everyday activities are his attractions. They leave his grandmother and head home. Eric falls asleep on the way. He feels comforted by being home. He showers and goes to bed.…

    • 370 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    As established by Wang Lung’s rags-to-riches journey, an unfortunate situation or condition is never permanent. There is a cycle of life that is slightly implied throughout the chapters of the book. When it seems that that world has ended when something terrible occurs, it really hasn’t. For Wang Lung, the combined losses of his wife, Olan, father, and friend, Ching, were especially devastating. But, his spirits are lifted with the marriage of his sons and the birth of his first grandson. As cliché as it sounds, the promise of a better tomorrow is what motivates individuals across the globe to get through…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    | His first escape attempt fails because he has to give all of his money he earns that he tries to put away for himself to his master.…

    • 2228 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    A strong, intelligent, independent boy is what every traditional Chinese family wants. Unfortunately, Sek-Lung is not such an ideal child. In the novel, The Jade Peony, Sek-Lung is a marginal character. He is rejected by the dominant group, first being made to feel insignificant and second to feel uncomfortably visible.…

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Good Earth

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages

    4. Wang Lung considers the birth of his daughter to be a bad omen, but he later comes to regard her with certain affection. At times he would feel responsible for her, and he even felt pity. Before his death, he made sure someone would take care of her after he passed,…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this story, Wang Lung’s life gives detailed examples of the hardships and struggles of living in a lower social class. Then, as the story progresses, the novel tells of the luxuries and customs of being wealthy. Many people can relate to this novel because it shows what life was a wealthy man and as a poor man. Nowadays, people in third world countries or are just common laborers…

    • 682 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The short story takes place in Vancouver, British Columbia. Sek-Lung’s family resides in Chinatown, a neighborhood where the alleys are filled with garbage cans. The family is not poor however they are struggling to make ends meet in the new country. The lack of advanced technology and immigrant circumstances places the story approximately around 1940’s or the 1950’s. The mood of the story is gloomy.…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Jade Peony

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages

    with his mother. The rest of the family is ashamed of this and wants to leave behind their…

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Good Earth

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Next, personification is useful in that it shows Wang Lung’s dependency on the land to find money. In the novel it says, “Wang Lung in this good year had a handful of silver dollars…” (Buck 46). With Wang Lung making more money than needed, he is able to buy land from the House of Hwang. Although the drought makes him go south, when he returns he is able to buy more land with the jewelry O-lan stole. By purchasing land it makes him even richer, and able to buy all the things he needs. Towards the end of the story, which at this time Wang Lung…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Cannery Row Research Paper

    • 2066 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The first man we meet in this book is Lee Chong. He is the owner and operator of the local grocery store. Chong is a stubborn man that cherishes the value of a dollar and a hard day 's work. He is…

    • 2066 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lalu gets caught by the bandit leader when she runs out of her hiding place to get a basket of potatoes. The bandit leader is Chen, her father’s old laborer. Lalu’s father tries to be brave and stand up for Lalu, but Chen threatens to kill his whole family because he knows all the hiding places. Lalu’s father begs to make him let her go, but Chen offers to pay for her. Lalu tries to persuade him to let her go, but he refuse. Then Chen calls Zhuo to bring some seeds and throw them in front of Lalu’s father. “Lalu stared at her father, willing him not to pick them up. He reached out, hesitated, then looked up at Lalu, his eyes pleading for understanding. She twisted her face away, a sob strangling in her throat. Behind her, she heard him snatch the bag and scoop up the spilled seed.”(pg. 50) Her father has to decide between his daughter and the survival of the rest of the family. It shows how she is leaving her home. Lalu is happy with her family, but her father sells her and she loses it. She is thrown out of the house like she’s not family. She loses her home for two bags of seeds. She can’t come back to the family if she really wanted too. Now that she is sold she can’t go back to her family, because she doesn’t belong to them…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    |family. You are no longer Chinese. You are not part of us |and his father throws all the pictures out the window. Henry…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A Cricket Boy

    • 476 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A long time ago, cricket fighting caught on inthe imperial court, withthe emperor leading the fad. A local magistrate in Huayin, who wanted to winthe favor of the monarch, tried in every way to gethim the best fightingcrickets. He had a strategy for doing so: He managed to geta cricket thatwas very good at fighting. He then made his subordinates go to theheads of each village and force them to send in a constant supply of fightingcrickets.He would send to the imperial court the crickets that could beat the onehewas keeping. Theoretically, everything should have worked smoothly.However, asthe magistrate was extremely zealous to please the emperor, hemeted outharsh punishment on any village heads who failed to accomplish theirtasks. The village heads in turn shifted the burden to the poor villagers, who hadtosearch for the crickets. If they failed to catch them, they had to purchasethemfrom someone else, or they had to pay a levy in cash. The small insectssuddenly became a rare commodity. Speculatorshoarded good crickets, buyingthem at a bargain and selling them for anexorbitant price. Many village headsworked hand in hand with thespeculators to make profits. In so doing, theybankrupted many a family.Cheng Ming was one such villager. The head of hisvillage delegatedpart of his duties to him because he found Cheng Ming easy topush around.Cheng Ming did not want to bully his fellow villagers as the villagehead didhim, so he often had to pay cash out of his own pocket when he failedtocollect any competent crickets. Soon the little proper ties he had weredrainingaway, and he went into a severe depression. One day, he said to hiswife that hewanted to die.“Death is easy, but what will our son do without you?” asked hiswife,glancing at their only son, sleeping on the kang. “Why can’t we look forthecrickets ourselves instead of buying them? Perhaps we’ll strike somegoodluck.”Cheng Ming gave up the idea of suicide and went to…

    • 476 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics