In Pearl Buck's, The Good Earth, more dynamic characters come into play throughout the book. O-lan takes the role of an obedient yet strong-minded housewife who was a former slave and is now controlled by her husband, Wang Lung. In this position she doesn't have much of a choice in her actions or decisions and remains loyal to Wang Lung. Her passive behavior causes a lack of emotion and dialogue in the book. Due to this absence of context, she remains a flat character. Although little is known about O-lan’s thoughts, throughout the book small glimpses of her past are shown which give an overall greater meaning, and importance, to her character.…
III. Body: How Wang Lung tries to establish a connection with the land, the rewards and wealth from having a strong connection with the earth, and the respect from other while leading to a prosperous life.…
There’s a reason why the phrase “life is a rollercoaster” has been around for so long. The Good Earth, a novel by Pearl S. Buck, tells the story of a poor Chinese farmer known as Wang Lung. Wang Lung goes through many ups-and-downs in his life, and the book illustrates how with dedicated work and a little luck, a man’s life can change for the better. The Good Earth makes the story of a farmer in China relatable to everyone in the world and tackles issues and challenges that people still face today.…
The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan D. Spence, paints a vivid picture of provincial China in the seventeenth century. Manly the life in the northeastern country of T’an-ch’eng. T’an-ch’eng has been through a lot including: an endless cycle of floods, plagues, crop failures, banditry, and heavy taxation. Chinese society in Confucian terms was a patriarchal society with strict rules of conduct. The role at this time of women, however, has historically been one of repression. The traditional ideal woman was a dependent being whose behavior was governed by the "three obedience’s and four virtues". The three obedience’s were obedience to father before marriage, the husband after marriage, and the son in case of widows. The four virtues were propriety in behavior, speech, demeanor and employment. The laws of the land and fear of shame in society dictated that men were allowed to rule over their household leaving women in a powerless state as almost a slave of the home. In P’u’s stories women are portrayed as complex characters who hold important roles in the family, but are treated with little to no respect by authority figures, and other men of higher class. In The Death of Woman Wang, Spence portrays…
Wild Swans is a personal account of three generations of women in China. In this chapter Jung Chang records the experience of her mother on the Long March across China to spread the ideas of the communist leader, Mao Zedong. After traveling from Jinzhou to Tianjin by train they had to continue their journey on foot. The route was fraught with danger as there were bandits and units of retreating Kuomintang soldiers ready to attack the marchers. They ‘had to walk long distances every day, often on rough paths, carrying their bedrolls and other belongings on their backs.’ Jung Chang’s mother’s feet were covered in blisters and she stumbled often in the slippery mud when it rained. They had to climb a steep mountain and she nearly toppled over the cliffs a number of times. She nearly drowned crossing a fast-flowing river. Her husband was allowed to travel in a jeep, with his bodyguards and he was not very sympathetic to his wife’s misery. Later she suffered a miscarriage as a result of this hardship and trauma.…
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.…
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…
The first fact that I found interesting in this film was that if you don’t have a son and you have a daughter in china, people will look down on you because sons are the ones who carry on the family name. The word that I think goes well with this is the word patriarchy. Patriarchy is men-as-a-group dominating women-as-a-group; authority is vested in males. This goes well because if the female doesn’t not have a boy the men will shame them. There are 13 million more young boys in china right now than girls. If women do not have a boy the husbands tell them that they will send them away. It is very hard for women to talk about having a son because of all of the pressure they are under. Another reason people prefer boys is because boys…
This story is also about a little girl, Jing-mei and her mother, Mrs. Woo. Though Jing Mie Woo’s mother is not constantly telling her how to behave like the mother in girl. She too does have an expectation of her daughter and what she will…
Some of the themes in the text are upbringing, education, rules, culture and the relation between a mother and child. The focus in the text is the differences between American and Chinese upbringing.…
The Anhwei years were pivotal for Pearl Buck. She learned a great deal about the daily lives of China's poorest…
In these first two chapters, we are immediately introduced to the main theme of the novel — our basic relationship with the earth and how we gain strength and sustenance from it. Wang Lung, the central character of the novel, feels a deep respect for the earth. We discover that his house is made of earth and even his gods before whom he places incense are also made of earth. Thus he gains his food, his shelter, and his religion from the earth. As Pearl Buck notes, everything comes out of the earth, but ultimately everything returns to the earth.…
In "The Good Earth", Pearl S. Buck takes you through the life cycle of a farmer who feels an immense dependency for the land. Wang-Lung, the main character, must endure the challenges and struggles against society, the environment, and fatality in order to provide for his family and ensure his rise from poverty to wealth. Within the novel, several themes emerge.…
The quote, “Behind every great man, there is an even greater women,” explains the role of women in John Steinbeck’s The Pearl. This short story was written in 1947 and reflects the thinking of a man during this time period. Kino, who is a poor pearl diver in a small town finds a pearl so great that he and his family would be set for life. But, the pearl ends up bringing more pain than hope to his family. Juana, Kino’s wife, watches as her husband gets more paranoid and cautious the longer they have the pearl. Juana’s actions in The Pearl, show how much the actions of one women can change a whole story.…
Another theme seed is promises. In The Red Candle chapter, Lindo Jong says that daughters break their promises. In China, one stayed true to their…