We can connect this novel to Chapter 21 of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, “Marked for Greatness”. In this chapter, Foster talks about how characters being different basically mark a character for “greatness”. In the book, The Good Earth, the protagonist, Wang Lung, is different from the many other people. He is referred to as a “Country Bumpkin” by many throughout the course of the novel. While others have taken a much more modern approach to life, Wang sticks to his roots and the “old way” of life. He wears his hair long, wears plain clothes, and works on his land throughout most of the novel, unlike many other “rich folk” in the story who get workers to work for them. In Foster’s book, these “unique” kind of traits is what marks
