Who Is Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth?

“If you sell the land, it is the end” (Buck 385). With these words, the main character, Wang Lung, in Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth is down to his final breaths and is petrified of how his sons have the power to throw away his life’s accomplishments. The real question is what interferences does Wang Lung face in this fictional book that leads him to say such strong words? He is a farmer that starts off with nothing but land and hard work. By the end, he is known as the Old Lord of The House of Wang. Though throughout the entire book Buck authorizes the effects of nature, it’s also sharing a story of how social classes cooperate as well. Although the setting of The Good Earth is specifically set in China and at a time where traditional men would still wear long braids, the concept of the story can relate to any age and quarter of the globe. It’s fair to say that everyone lives on Earth. Where this is Earth, there is nature. Where there is nature, there is land. Where there is land, there is food. Without this, the human race would become ballistic and Buck makes that very indisputable in the story. It’s an utterly massive rollercoaster of …show more content…
The thought of silver and gold appeals to him, though, it doesn’t appeal to him the way it does to other poor farmers. When Wang Lung sees himself holding wealth in his hands, he only sees more land and more hard work. Whereas, when other men picture wealth, they see themselves living lives Old Lords’ live and eating dainty foods they’ve never tasted before. Wang Lung has experienced climbing the ladder of success and he truly recognizes the importance of backbreaking work. Everyone starts off somewhere, and this is something even his sons don’t perceive. His sons started off at the top because of their father’s success and that is why they are oblivious to what was given freely to them. This is the cycle Pearl S. Buck strives to