...Analysis of Wang Lung’s Character in The Good Earth as a Typical Farmer Image in China Abstract Pearl Buck, who lived in China for almost 40 years, has formed an in-depth understanding of Chinese society and owned a spontaneous emotion toward Chinese people. With a meticulous and direct observation of Chinese farmers, she accurately grasped “earth” as the survival core and cultural root of Chinese farmers. In her masterpiece, The Good Earth, Pearl Buck brings authentic rural life and vivid images of farmer in China to western readers through her unique perspectives. The Good Earth not only changes distorted stereotype Chinese images in the westerners’ mind in 19th century, but also fully demonstrates various Chinese farmer’s characters. This thesis intends to analyze Wang Lung’s behavior and his hidden characters as a typical farmer in China. Through scrutinizing the text content, the author discovers that both merits of traditional Chinese farmer and backward thoughts under the feudal society are embodied in Wang Lung’s character. On the one hand, Wang Lung, industrious and frugal, simple and kind, has a keen attachment to earth. On the other hand, he is feudalistic, timid and conservative with a strong lust to women. Key Words: The Good Earth Wang Lung image of farmer Contents I. Introduction 1 1.1. Summary of The Good Earth 1 1.2. The Significance of The Good Earth 2 1.3. Relevant Studies of The Good Earth 3 II. Wang Lung’s Merits...
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...reading The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck, one may find a major theme that is present throughout the novel, is that wealth could erode traditional values. This is proven by Wang Lung’s experiences in the novel, for as he grew in prestige and wealth, his original values, such as his ardent attachment to the land, his...
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...The distinguished novel, The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck is critiqued by the New York Times as “A comment upon the meaning and tragedy of life as it is lived in any age in any quarter of the globe.” The book illustrates how a poor farmer named Wang Lung becomes affluent after a few lucky breaks and lots of hard work. This story can be understandable to anyone in the world at any time period. Although some people may be rich, everyone has money problems sometime in their life. In the city, Wang Lung and his family only made enough money to feed his family a bowl of rice the next day. But when Wang Lung becomes prosperous, he didn’t sell his land because he still needs money. If Wang Lung didn’t have income, he would lose money and then have a money crisis like the Hwang family. No matter who you are, you will have money problems sometime in...
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...Loss makes people lose faith in their culture or appreciate their culture more depending on how strong they are emotionally and mentally. In the book called “Like Water for Chocolate” by Laura Esquivel, Tita's death made Esperanza appreciate not only Tita's legacy but her culture by passing down Mexican recipes and sharing old remedies. In another book called “ The Good Earth” by Pearl S. Buck, Wang Lung loses his humbleness and then he disregards the earth gods. The last book that supports my thesis is called “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, when Okonkwo loses his pride he decides he wants nothing to do with his clan so he ends his life. Throughout this essay I am going to share with you how loss can cause a person to appreciate their culture more and how a person can lose faith in their culture depending on their mentality and emotions stability....
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...Irony in the Good Earth Irony plays a major part in the novel, The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. Authors often use irony in their writings to show contrast between what is said or what is meant, and what really happens. There are many different examples of irony throughout the book. The displayed irony includes: Wang Lung, money, and sons. These three topics are perfect examples of the use of irony in this novel. When the main character, Wang Lung, first started out in the novel he was a poor farmer awakening to his wedding day. At this point, Wang Lung was very sensible about money and lived in an earthen house on his land. Wang Lung married O-Lan, a slave that lived in the Great House of Hwang. He was treated poorly and unequally by the Great family and he never would have thought he would later come to live in the Great House. Sure enough, his fortune changed and Wang became a rich man and his family became much like the Great family. Wang Lung became slightly careless with his money, but with the persuasion of his sons, he purchased the Great House later on in the novel. “I could sit on that seat where the old one sat and from whence she bade me stand like a serf, and now I could sit there and so call another into my presence” (Buck 288). Truly this is a great rags-to-riches story and this is ironic because once he was a poor farmer looking up at the Great house, and later he owned it. “Now Wang Lung, as this hour drew near stayed more and more in the house in the...
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...The Good Earth takes place during the early twentieth century in China. Wang Lung starts out as just another poor Chinese farmer trying to make a living from his small bit of land. He works hard, follows family traditions, worships the small earth gods that he believes control the land, and values his land over everything because his life is so dependent upon it. However, as his fortune changes, readers see more and more of his true character through his actions. By observing Lung, readers understand how easily someone’s beliefs and values can change with their situation. Although flawed, Wang Lung continues to be the character with whom readers identify and sympathize. Throughout the novel, Wang Lung demonstrates both his virtues and his faults. One of his faults is avoiding confrontation. This fault is not as clear to readers until after he has children. Several times throughout the novel Wang Lung’s sons take advantage of this trait. When Wang Lung decides to send his older son to school, the younger one begs and whines until his father gives in and allows him to go as well. His sons are not the only ones who use this...
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...In The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck there are many complex and delicate relationships, one of them being between Wang Lung, the protagonist, and his youngest son. Throughout the course of the novel, Wang Lung has a difficulty recognizing his son’s true identity. Wang Lung decides that it will be his youngest son that will learn how to work on the land, but he does not take his son’s opinions into account. Wang Lung has a flawed perception of who his son is; he believes that his youngest boy is simply a quiet lad that does not need much attention. This lack of attention is problematic because it causes Wang lung to grow more unaware of his son’s nature. He never bothers to learn who is son truly is. Wang Lung simply accepts the fact that he...
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...It was Wang Lung's marriage day. At first, opening his eyes in the blackness of the curtains about his bed, he could not think why the dawn seemed different from any other. The house was still except for the faint, gasping cough of his old father, whose room was opposite to his own across the middle room. Every morning the old man's cough was the first sound to be heard. Wang Lung usually lay listening to it and moved only when he heard it approaching nearer and when he heard the door of his father's room squeak upon its wooden hinges. But this morning he did not wait. He sprang up and pushed aside the curtains of his bed. It was a dark, ruddy dawn, and through a small square hole of a window, where the tattered paper fluttered, a glimpse of bronze sky gleamed. He went to the hole and tore the paper away. "It is spring and I do not need this," he muttered. He was ashamed to say aloud that he wished the house to look neat on this day. The hole was barely large enough to admit his hand and he thrust it out to feel of the air. A small soft wind blew gently from the east, a wind mild and murmurous and full of rain. It was a good omen. The fields needed rain for fruition. There would be no rain this day, but within a few days, if this wind continued, there would be water. It was good. Yesterday he had said to his father that if this brazen, glittering sunshine continued, the wheat could not fill in the ear. Now it was as if Heaven had chosen this day to wish him well. Earth would...
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...Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth is about a farmer, Wang Lung, who experiences times of poverty and prosperity throughout his life; however, to summarize the book in one sentence is to do a great disservice to it. One of the novel’s recurring themes is that of beauty. The book takes place in China in the late 19th or early 20th century. Time has changed our world in many ways since then. Has time changed the meaning of beauty? Is there a difference in how the Chinese and Americans see beauty? Do we perceive beauty in different ways than the people in the time of The Good Earth? I conclude that the ideals of beauty have changed since the book was written and that modern American society has taken on new views of what it means to be beautiful. Men and women today can use cosmetics as part of a regular beauty routine to achieve certain beauty standards and to increase confidence. Throughout the last century in America, the very meaning of beauty has changed very often: from the Gibson Girl in the early 1900s to the flappers in the 1920s, from the full-figured pin-up girls of the 1940s and the 1950s to the “heroin chic” waifs of the 1990s, what the western world considered beautiful changed with each decade. When one considers beauty, it is now most likely physical appearance that comes to mind. Hilhorst notes, “The view that physical beauty can be conceived of as a value in its own right is, however, a modern thought.” Hilhorst explains in “Physical Beauty: Only Skin Deep...
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...Aerosols Good or Bad? There is a wide misconception that aerosols are bad for the environment and contribute to the depletion of the ozone. Aerosol (derived more or less from “air-solid”) is technically just the suspension of fine particles, such as solids or liquid droplets, in a gas. As such, clouds, smog, smoke, air born dust, etc. are all aerosols. About 90% of all aerosols are naturally produced . They can either be directly emitted into the atmosphere (primary aerosol like dust, sea salt and black carbon), or they can be formed in the atmosphere by condensation (secondary inorganic aerosol such as sulfates, nitrates and ammonium). Aerosols are argued to be cooling the surface of the earth. This is relevant because the effects of aerosols may have beneficial or possibly dire consequences. Aerosols play a large role in cooling the surface of the earth, counteracting global warming, medicine, and therefore nothing should be done to eliminate them. Many types of aerosols have a cooling effect on the Earth, such as the aerosols produced from the burning of fossil fuels. The aerosols produced from this are known to partially counteract global warming caused by various greenhouse gases. In order to say that aerosols cool the earth, we have to explore the different theories on how they are said to do so. According to Jeffrey T. Kiehl in "Solving the Aerosol Puzzle" the burning of fossil fuels and biomass (in natural and man-made fires) leads to the production of substantial...
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...number of the population exceeds the capacity of their living habitats and the existence of their resources, it normally occurs from the unbalanced rate of birth and deaths, an increase in immigration, or an unsustainable biome and depletion of resources. Overpopulation is generally considered as a disadvantage as it may contribute to multitudinous problems such as environmental deterioration, low life qualities, good deficiency, and fatal issue such as population collapse. This essay will emphasize on the diversity of negative aspects of population growth in various countries on their environments, economy, and society. The major and largest factor related to my idea of too much population growth as a disadvantage towards most countries is its effects on the countries’ environment and natural resources. According to the Population Connection (2009), since the growth of population in 1950, 80% of the rainforest have been destroyed, more than 10,000 wildlife and plant species had extinct, greenhouse gas emission has increase continually by 400%, and more than half of the Earth surface has been used for purposes...
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...Introduction Finding a cure for cancer has been an elusive decades long treasure hunt. Within the last twenty years or so; Patrick Quillin, PhD, RD, CNS, author of Beating Cancer with Nutrition, and other research has shed new light on diet playing a role in the prevention and potential reversal of cancer. Nutrition and diet play a substantial role in the development and preservation of the human immune system and overall health of the human body on the cellular level. However, the correlation between diet and cancer is unclear despite research being conducted in the field of nutritional oncology. Though significant progress has been realized in the treatment of cancers through modern technological advances in medicine, prevention and mitigation of cancer lay within nutrition, more specifically a natural diet consisting of fruits and vegetables, which contain antioxidants and phytonutrients. Background Cancer is a collective term describing uninhibited cell propagation in various parts of the human body [1]. This process is called carcinogenesis (literally means “cancer creation”). Once propagated, the cancer can spread and cause death in a timely manner. Cancer occurs via mutations in the genetic code that can occur in a variety of cells in the human body. Mutations of this sort are believed to be the result of oxidative stress. In the human body oxidative stress occurs when there is a disparity between free radicals and antioxidants, thus compromising the body’s ability...
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...atmospolres.com Assessment of air pollution around coal mining area: Emphasizing on spatial distributions, seasonal variations and heavy metals, using cluster and principal component analysis Bhanu Pandey 1, Madhoolika Agrawal 1, Siddharth Singh 2 1 2 Laboratory of Air Pollution and Global Climate Change, Department of Botany, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi–221005, India Environmental Management Group, Central Institute of Mining & Fuel Research (CSIR), Barwa road, Dhanbad–826015, India ABSTRACT Jharia Coal field (JCF) in Jharkhand is the richest coal bearing area in India, which contains large quantities of high grade coking coal. The conventional coal fuel cycle is among the most destructive activities on the earth, threatening the health, polluting the air and water, harming the land, and contributing to global warming. The variations in air quality in terms of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter around JCF were evaluated over the period of 2010 and 2011 at five sites during different seasons. Air pollution index (API), calculated on the basis of suspended particulate matter (SPM), SO2 and NO2 concentrations was highest near the coal mining area. The ambient concentrations of heavy metals (in PM10) also showed significant temporal and spatial variations at different sites around coal mining areas. Pollutants dispersion and spatial variations were explained by the use of cluster ...
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...why we may or may not need laws; while leaving enough room for the reader to make their own judgments. Chapter 4: What’s Wrong With the World Part 2. Nothing works Costs are produced by one person and borne by another. This simple statement is simply stating that costs’ are not made by only one person in any given situation. As in the example of the polluter and the person being affected by the pollution; there were choices on both parties to bear costs of being neighbors. One may believe that the costs are highest for the person that is inhaling the toxic fumes, but why would a person buy property if this was a possibility once there? Others agree with that the company producing the pollution should be more responsible for the good of all and any negative externalities should be a cost that the company should have to bear. This is where a third party...
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...RESEARCH PAPER ON GM Introduction "General Motors has no bad years, only good years and better years" (Sloan, 1972). This mantra established in 1950 by former GM president Harlow H. Curtice may have been true at one point, but is called into question today by many, including Wall Street. General Motors Corporation, also known, as GM or GMC is the world’s 2nd largest auto company in sales revenue behind Toyota which took the lead in 2006. General Motors reigned as the global leader in the automobile industry for the last 76 years, which was longer than any other automaker. Today, Richard Wagoner, Jr., GM Chairman and CEO currently runs GM, which was founded in 1908. GM today employs approximately 324,000 people around the world, with their global headquarters in Detroit Michigan. Their European headquarters is based in Zurich, Switzerland. In 2006, 9.1 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM, Daewoo, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, and Vauxhall. General Motors has a superb relationship with international connection. GM takes pride in fostering global partnerships and consumer relationships. GM is majority shareholder in GM Daewoo auto & Technology Co. of South Korea and has had collaborative ventures in technology and manufacturing with several other automakers. It also has ventures with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation of China. GM’s largest national market is the United...
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