Wan The Good Earth Essay

The Good Earth follows the life of a Chinese farmer, Wang Lung, in pre-revolutionary China throughout the course of his adult life. As the title suggests, the heart of this book and the center of the main character’s life is the earth. Not in the sense of Earth as a planet or as a representation of humanity, but as the land that belongs to Wang Lung. His poverty and riches coincide with the draughts and the rain. Deeper than this, however, is the synchronization of his morality with his connection to the earth. This is the overarching theme of Buck’s novel. Contemporary Literary Criticism (vol. 11) writer, Malcolm Cowley puts simply, “[‘The Good Earth is] a Parable of the life of man, and his relation to the soil that sustains him.” To analyze this and illustrate the changes of Wang Lung’s life in relation to his land, this paper will be broken down into two main sections, each dedicated to an important element of Wang’s life.

Wang Lung’s Marriage to O-Lan. The novel opens up on the day of Wang Lung’s marriage to a slave from the Great House of Hwang. This marriage, one pre-arranged for two strangers, is to the benefit both parties.
Thus … The Good Earth is another … drama acted out against the relentless cycle of history which raises up one generation and causes the downfall of the next (J. W. Stuckley page 76).
Wang’s legacy would be the same as the House of Hwang’s -- an amazingly wealthy house sinking into the ground because of its disconnected, both physically and morally, with the land. The way that the plot comes full circle emphasizes the transformation of Wang Lung’s character as his life diverges from the soil it came