Who Is Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth

Upon first seeing the book, The Good Earth, I thought it was going to be absolutely tedious, however, my judgement was proven incorrect after I read it. The novelist of the book, Pearl S. Buck, did a competent job at captivating her audience, but with the historical and dramatic elements that she incorporates in this tale, she is able to possess her readers with some unknown desire to keep reading.

In this story, a devoted Chinese farmer, named Wang Lung, dreams of wealth, success, and strives to become like the honorable Hwang family- a local family who takes pride in their decadent lifestyle. When everything is finally in his grasp, his world begins to fall apart. The author manages to take her audience along on a journey of this man’s life

The author is able to show her readers this by describing Wang Lung’s longing for the connection to the earth when he is no longer in its presence. “But Wang Lung thought of his land . . . with the sickened heart of deferred hope, how he could get back to it. He belonged, not to this scum . . . of a rich man’s house . . . He belonged to the land and he could not live with any fullness until he felt the land under his feet and followed a plow in the springtime and bore a scythe in his hand at harvest” (123). She uses this quote to tell how one can feel so lost and wrecked when they’re away from the very thing that gave them life. After all, the land is considered to be “one’s flesh and blood” (52). Another one of the many morals found within this story is that wealth can cause a person to neglect what they value most. Along with wealth comes the need to constantly display one’s opulence with lavishing items. “There is this and that which we need in this house and we must not think we can be a great family just because we live in these inner courts” (309). In this case, Wang’s family begins to lose interest in the things that they once used to work so hard for and rather than be appreciative, they continue to seek out items that are of more value and higher

For example, the beginning of the book drags on; has a low tempo; and isn’t very intriguing. A book should jump out at a reader and instantly captivate them, but this novel didn’t do that for me. Also, it contained lots of foreshadowing, thus making the book a little too predictable. Pearl S. Buck should have incorporated more action, more excitement, more plot twists and things or actions that will cause a reader to never want to put the book down.

Overall, The Good Earth was not a book that captured my attention. This novel left me discontented and I felt as though it ended quite abruptly. I expected for this book to include a bit more action and drama as well. On the contrary, I did like the historical element that was included and also the major plot twist at the end. If anyone wants to know the ending, they’ll just have to read the book to find