The Good Earth Quotes

The Good Earth was written by Pearl S. Buck, an American novelist and writer, who spent most of her life in Zhenjiang, China. Growing up in China, Buck was exposed to lives of both the poor and the wealthy. She saw that the attitudes between the two status levels were very different. The poor felt they were only entitled to what they worked for, while the wealthy felt that they were entitled to anything they wished. The main character in Buck’s novel, Wang Lung, was raised in a poor home; however, all of this changes because of his and his wife’s hard work. His children are not raised in a poor environment and this has an effect upon their attitudes in regards to their parents’ customs. In The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, Wang Lung’s children are raised in an atmosphere of privilege, leading them away from their family’s traditions.
Although Wang Lung grew up respecting the land, none of his sons develop a connection or love for it. The children were not old enough to work on the land before the drought. After the drought, when they came back to
the farm, the family became rich and no longer has to work on the land. Lung became rich because he forced a frightened man to give him money. They hire people to farm the land for them. The children only experience starvation when they were very young, during the drought. Unlike Wang Lung, who burns incense to the Gods, his sons no longer practice religious rituals. His sons do not burn incense, like their father. Wang Lung was very superstitious when he had a daughter, saw a crow, and his uncle took his money, that is why he burns incense. The sons are never superstitious or scared the Gods would curse them. Lung’s sons stray from the Chinese tradition of filial piety, the belief of great respect to elders. The grandpa treats Lotus bad, he throws rocks at her, calls her a harlot, and spits at her. Lotus cannot not do anything about it because she has to respect elders. The oldest sons argue about many things, one of them including who should be in charge of the family money. They do not respect Wang Lung when deciding who would be in control of the money.
Does becoming wealthy change a person’s values?
For some people, becoming wealthy would not change them. In fact, they might use their newfound wealth to help other, less fortunate people. However,others do change, experiencing things they could not have before they became wealthy. Lung was not born to wealth and carried on traditions that his sons did not when they became prosperous. Although the Lung family has all that they wish, the sons never appear to experience joy. Unlike their father, the sons never experience real happiness; they do not feel the blessing of fair weather or the gratifying experience of having a connection with the land. As Alexandre Dumas said, “Those born to wealth, and who have the means of gratifying every wish, know not what is the real happiness of life, just as those who have been tossed on the stormy waters of the ocean on a few frail planks can alone realize the blessings of fair
weather.”