The Power Of Land In The Good Earth

When I read books, I always tend to go for ones that are based on reality. For example, books that are based on a person’s experience during a war would be something that would catch my eye at a library. In The Good Earth, written by Pearl S. Buck, the author puts you right in the book with farmer Wang Lung. With her words, you can picture yourself back in China in the early twentieth century. She tells the story of his life as a poor farmer. The theme surrounding the novel is the power of land. Buck stresses its importance throughout the book by bringing it up time and time again. In fact, Wang Lung shows its importance by saying, “Sell their land!” repeated Wang Lung, convinced. “Then indeed are they growing poor. Land is one’s flesh and blood” (52). Land is what signified one’s wealth and kept a family alive. Without land, they couldn’t sell crops for money, have money for food or clothes or even shelter, and they wouldn’t even be able to grow their own food.

She shows the reader how all over China, the language and culture is expressed differently. For example, in the north, where Wang lives, it’s mostly country and the language is spoken “...slow and deep and it wells from the throat” (107). While in the south “...the people spoke in syllables which splintered from their lips and from the ends of their tongues” (107). In the north, crops grew slow and there were harvests twice a year. In the south, crops were urged and men forced them to grow quicker with fertilizer. The differences were proven to be quite a challenge when Wang first came to the south and Buck made sure to show that while also explaining what it was that challenged him. She gives great detail in telling how the north and south