provide for him. Throughout the novel, and particularly over the course of the first harvests, Lung invests an incredible volume of effort into his fields and their thorough cultivation.
Lung does not find the task arduous, but rather rejoices in the surplus of the harvest and takes pride in the silver he can store away. This reserve proves to him the nobility and value of his efforts, and allows him to take pride in his humble occupation. This newfound wealth carries over into the resource that Lung venerates most, land. Upon taking their son to the House of Hwang when he turns a year old, Olan observes that the Great House has been declining in wealth, due to the wastefulness of its gentry. Lung first takes horror at the unfathomable spending, but decides to take advantage of the situation to expand the borders of his small farm. Despite the troubles involved in buying a plot of land so far from his home, Lung makes his decision for the sake of proving his …show more content…
worth in comparison to the rulers of the Great House. Upon his arrival and announcement of his important business, he is relegated to making the exchange with a money agent rather than receiving the respect of negotiating with the Lord himself. This greatly angers Lung, and he vows to subdue the Great House, redoubling his effort to accomplish this. Lung’s opportunity to work towards a concrete goal in a competitive manner gives his work new meaning; every ounce of Lung’s sweat pours into his estate and pride. This dedication portrays an important principle of capitalistic labor; the economic reward to a worker should coincide with his input. Lung exemplifies that when a worker can see, feel, and enjoy the rewards of his work, his determination is invigorated. Lung’s relationship with his Uncle reflects his valuation and respect of work.
In Chinese culture respect of elders and belief in fate form dominant principles and inform an abundance of social and lifestyle choices. Lung’s Uncle embraces a philosophy of fate over his own will, and has resigned himself to a unproductive and piteous lifestyle. Lung however views his Uncle as a wasteful individual responsible for his own failure, in contrast to Lung himself. Lung rebukes his Uncle, but in order to save himself from social disgrace, he allows his Uncle to loan some of his silver. This coercive loan greatly angers Lung, despite the fact that he had shortly prior freely spent a fairly large sum on festooning his newborn son. The difference in these expenditures results from whether or not the recipients warranted them in the opinion of Lung. Lung takes great pride in his beautiful, healthy, and clever son, whereas he bears shame from his Uncle’s carelessness and failure. Lung does not counter waste itself, but rather disapproves of excess supporting an ingrate. This displays how people determine the value of others by the effort they
purvey. Lung came to further appreciate his opportunities to work once they were taken from him. As the rains withheld, Lung entrenches himself in desperate attempts to revive his crop, frantically hauling water from the well to his ailing fields. Their food had begun to dwindle during this time, and Lung felt concern but not bitterness. Despite his attempts, the harvest almost entirely fails, and in the absence of ways to remedy the situation, Lung and his family despair. The inability to do anything about his situation agitates and suffocates him. Work often serves as a relaxing force, it assures the worker that he has power over his situation and that his own hands can mould his future. The drought that struck Lung’s land challenged this perception in him, eventually forcing him and his family to look for livelihood elsewhere. Despite man’s greatest attempts, his feats cannot withstand the powers of nature and time. The Lung family escaped famine into a southern city of abundance, where despite the agricultural surplus, the working class receive only a thin rice gruel they need to survive, with no opportunity for advancement. Despite these dire conditions, Lung still takes pride in his ability to support his family. When his youngest son steals a bit of beef, Lung throws it in on the ground saying, “‘Beggars we may be but thieves we are not!’” (Buck, 119). Lung’s refusal to take even the slightest illegitimate income, even in the form of food, reveals the importance of self-sufficiency. Supporting oneself forms an essential component of identity, and the need to take from or rely on others impairs society and one’s self-assurance. Other urchins in the city view work and thievery in a different light. While they recognize the injustice of petty thefts and thefts between equals, they loathe and wish to steal from the extravagantly rich. These labourers slog through days of agonizing and demeaning work, literally carrying the rich on their backs in some cases, for nothing more than the days unfulfilling subsistence. This lack of opportunity in the urban poor community contrasts Lung’s ability to amass his estate in his agricultural village. Often times observers will deduce that all workers long for their work to end, but Lung’s case shows that workers actually need a course to improve themselves and find value in their work, only hopeless workers like Sisyphus long for an end to their toil. Lung founds a great family and farm that grows to surpass the Hwang estate in the seven years following his return from the city. By that time, Lung no longer needs to work himself, and as flood waters begin to cover his cropland, he finds himself idle and directionless. He develops and increasingly intense desire for a prostitute in the town, Lotus, and he can never find complete satisfaction in her. Eventually he buys her and brings her into his home, and finds he no longer has to comport himself as a bon vivant for her sake. Thus he returns to the earth, and there he finds the satisfaction that he could not in his lust, “Lung was healed of his sickness of love by the good dark earth of his fields and he felt the moist soil on his feet and he smelled the earthy fragrance rising up out of the furrow he turned for the wheat…when he was weary he lay down upon his land and he slept and the health of earth spread into his flesh and he was healed of his sickness.” (Buck, 228). This most fundamental of satisfactions drives Lung throughout the book, and provides him with the will to persevere. Lung’s success also brings on new challenges to his identity and pride. He has frequent quarrels with his eldest son, oscillating between pride and derision at his son’s fineness and education. While Lung courts Lotus he attempts to behave like a rich man, but ultimately he remains a farmer, and behaves as one with his family and in his business, a rough, simple, and conservative man. Lung finds in his later years that not even his youngest son shares his identity in the land and farm work, though they all pursue some form of occupation. These aristocratic roles are foreign to Lung, and he regrets that they do not value land and physical labour as he does. Lung feels a distinct difference in identity to his children, and he remains a humble but fulfilled farmer at heart to the end of his days. Lung’s constant sweat, blood, and tears to support his desired status and his family make up the most essential components of his identity. Ultimately all of mankind to this day focuses about the ways, however indirect of agriculture, that food is put on the table. Individuals use occupation to define their meaning in society and in their families and to make judgements about their peers. Labour is the centerpiece of economic systems as well, and workers can only be motivated and advance to their full potentials through opportunity. Lung’s journey shows that hard work builds pride and material reward, but ultimately the greatest satisfaction is derived from the work itself.