Rice Without Rain By Mingfong Ho

For farmers, the fields are the solitary source of any significant income. Some of the farmers nowadays are still proletarians due to the fact conditions are not always right for harvesting. Farming boils down to a precise science. One must have enough harvest to make it all worth it. They have to pay off all debts for the season as well as putting food on their table. When conditions are not right, it can lead to immense problems as seen throughout the novel Rice without Rain by Mingfong Ho. In addition, one can only comprehend true burdens through specific experiences. However, when everyone comes together, one might just make a difference. Working the fields are a way of life for thousands of people all over the world. Fields provide food
for those who work them. If the crops do well, you will surely have food until the next harvest. However, if the farmer goes through a rough season, you may just starve. With rice being one of the hardest crops to grow, the village of Maekung is battered with a substantial drought. Jinda Describes the pitiful sight, “Across the valley, yellow rice fields stretched, stropped and dry. The sun gazed the afternoon with a heat so fierce that the distant mountains shimmered in it. The dust in the sky, the cracked earth, the shriveled leaves fluttering on brittle branches- everything was scared” (1). Due to the drought, the rice is not growing to its fullest. The village desperately needs the monsoon rains to come to salvage what is left of the rice crops, and quick. Once it has become time to begin harvesting the crops, it was nearly impossible. Jinda explains the difficulty, “The soil was dry and unyielding, and she had to push down on the plowshare with all her strength just to break through the hard crust” (205). Harvesting was already a man’s job and here the village had no man to do it. Therefore, Jinda had to step up and do it for herself. Lastly, with all the labor put into the fields, the villagers have been forced to pay half of the crops to Dusit, the rent collector. Inthorn angrily states, “I have grown rice in these fields. And for fifty years, I have only seen half of my crops carried off” (80). Dusit has not laid a finger on these fields. Jinda feels the same as her father when she is presented with the college student’s shoes. Shoes are one of the biggest things that get dirty with hard work, without dirt there is no distinguished sign of hard work.
Harvesting the rice fields is hard even with a good season. All villagers must pitch in and help. Jinda states, “The day Lung Tong’s field was being harvested, the wind was especially strong. The men were collecting sheaves of rice and tying them in huge bundles before hoisting them onto shoulder poles” (39). No one intentionally sits out, even though the men do most of the heavy lifting. Once the four college kids come into Maekung, they were put to work in the fields. Jinda recalls the scene, “True, Sri worked very slowly, sawing clumsily with the sickle blade when a deft slash would have done. But even when her small, soft hands became badly blistered, she never complained” (38). Sri had the experience firsthand of how hard working in the fields had been. She saw just how hard it was to tend to the fields. Yet, she did not complain once because she was there to learn the ways of working the fields. However, once Jinda went to Bangkok, she discovered all the students’ shoes. They were all in perfect condition. Jinda elaborates, “Jinda remained outside, looking at the shoes. Most of them were white canvas tennis shoes, but were pairs of leather shoes, some rubber slippers, and even a pair of shiny high heels. Slowly Jinda kicked off her own rubber sandals. She noticed that hers were worn and rust-brown with dirt –the only pair to show any sign of
contact with soil” (155-156). Jinda has worked in the fields for her whole life. She helped four of the students from various universities in Bangkok learn the ways of a farmer, and yet, there is no sign of dirt anywhere on their shoes. Jinda begins to wonder if these students know what they are talking about in the meeting about living conditions in other areas because they have not experienced it firsthand. She wonders if they are even capable of fixing the problems among the villages. Getting what you want does not always come easy, you must fight for it; however is fighting always the right answer?
Prior to the development of the rally to lower rent, four college students from various universities in Bangkok traveled to the small village in Maekung. Ned clarifies, “We feel that as students, we should learn more of how the farmers of our century live… We are asking permission to live here in Maekung with you for the next few months” (20). The villagers were shocked that anyone would want to travel all this way to an extremely poor village just to learn of their ways. However, they at least tried to get some sort of an experience. During their visit, they saw that there were major issues. The rent being the biggest issue. The rent is so high that after paying the rent collector they barely have anything to live off. After the students returned to Bangkok, they decided to plan for a rally to help lower the rent cost. With these types of rallies done in the past, several things have been accomplished. Ned explains, “A new minimum wage law, legal trade unions, better hospital. And now parliament may even change the land rent law” (160). To help with this, Jinda traveled to Bangkok. She would be able to tell the public what it is like to suffer. However, with a good cause comes a bad cause. After several months of planning, the rally finally goes underway, disaster breaks out. Jinda describes the horrific scene, “But it was too late. Soldiers were fanning out
in front of the ambulances, advancing toward the center of the square, pushing the crowd forward. There was another bomb. It landed farther away from the speakers platform, but the explosion was deafening and devastating” (174). Chaos broke out in the start of the rally. People are so afraid of change. Lowering the rent could potentially help thousands of people yet, many people were still against it. Overall, this novel has three major symbols to signify the importance of working for a living along with protesting for what you think is right. The first symbol is the fields. The fields indicate the way of living for amateur farmers. Working in the fields provides food and an income for farmers, without it they may just starve to death. Secondly, the student’s pristine shoes epitomize the lack of knowledge or working in these fields. Lastly, the rally embodies the fight for what one feels is right. Everyone should fight for what he or she feel is right, even if the outcome is not always the one expected.