Customer Reviews

Good Earth

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

The novel, The Good Earth is a novel written by Pearl S. Buck. The book set in the time of turn of the century China, is about the fifty year fraction of the life span of the main character, Wang Lung, and how his life and his ever-growing family drastically changes through out the years. Wang Lung starts off as a poor farmer and gradually evolves into a rich dynasty with money coming from every angle. This wonderful book shows irony in a way I thought not possible, how money can change a person, and how sometimes the ". . .rich become too rich." My personal favorite part of the novel is when Wang Lung tricks his aunt and uncle into becoming opium addicts. I also enjoyed some of the blunt humor the author produces in the quotations of the characters. The Good Earth is a definite must for students in the high school level to read because it shows the destruction of the female sex in great detail. Women in the novel are known for being almost worthless objects. Its almost sickening to read the hardships of Chinese women and how they had no choice but to live with it. Female pupils, no matter how they try not to, will eventually face similar situations, maybe not as drastic, but still degrading. Ironically, The Good Earth makes women proud to be women and may cause men to be a little embarrassed as they read how their past "brothers" treated the opposite sex. The novel is full of material, not just for the mind, but also for the soul.

I recently read the book, The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck. It was really interesting, and educational. It introduced my class into a whole different world of 19th century China. It went through the life of a Chinese farmer named Wang-Lung. The book shows his hardships, and prosperity as he tries to make a good life for his family. He goes from a poor farmer, to a rich, respected man. I felt the book was interesting. It was lagging at times, and sometimes was hard to focus on. But it proved to be an good chance to look at the life of the Chinese people. I learned a lot about their culture. I was introduced to the ideas of concubines, foot binding, and infanticide. Some of the topics the books touched on were hard to swallow, such as infanticide. It was hard to hear about how naturally it happened in their society. Foot binding was also hard to understand. Their culture is so different then ours, and I enjoyed learning about. My favorite a part of the book was after O-lan, Wang-Lung's first wife, died. This caused him to realize how important he was to her. He had forgotten how much he needed her in everything from, raising his family to tending his land. She was a huge part of his life and as he got richer he forgot that. Losing her caused him to take a serious look at all that this woman had done for him. This book was definitely important to read. Children in our society are so sheltered when it comes to learning about other cultures, this book, The Good Earth, is an easy way to see a completely different, some times strange, way of life.

The Good Earth

The Good Earth is a book written by Pearl S. Buck. The book is about the life of a poor farmer named Wang Lung, living in the country of China, and during the late 1800s. The story starts out with Wang Lung on his wedding day with his arranged marriage to a slave in a Great House. The slave's name is O-Lan and she was a very hard worker. During the first years of their marriage they had a couple of sons and prosperity. After the second son came a daughter, and the hardships. A huge drought came along and the family had to move south of their village to a city. In the city they begged for money and pretty soon they got it. The family became rich even more than before. More children were born, Wang Lung bought more and more land, and he even lent money to other people. The family became more broken and selfish as the years went by. The book ended with Wang Lung being a selfish, typical rich man, and dying The book was not one of my favorite books, but I didn't not like it either. The book was written wonderfully and I congratulate Pearl Buck on this achievement. This is the kind of book that you think a lot in and that you should read again and again. My favorite is when Wang Lung felt really bad about the death of O-lan and how ashamed he was that he never loved her. I did not like Wang Lung and I was glad when he did died. He was a very selfish man that only cared about things that had to do with money. The sad part is that a lot of people are like in our world. I think that the book The Good Earth is an important book to read. It helps people realize that we should not be so materialistic. I am glad that I read this book.

Katelyn Giarratana Enrichment 9A Period 5

The book The Good Earth is a very complex book written with simple language. The Good Earth is basically about the rise and fall of one family. Wang Lung is a very poor farmer at the start of The Good Earth. He must go the great house of Hwang for a wife. His wife was a slave at the house for many years. From the beginning Wang's wife, O-lan, brings him good fortune. She is clever and works from dawn until dusk without rest. She bears him sons and speaks true advice. When the famine hit they were forced to relocate to the South. O-lan is the one that enables them to survive in their new surroundings. When they are finally able to return to the land Wang discovers a cask of jewels on his wife's body. He sells the jewels for land and from this land becomes rich. With his wealth idleness sets in. Wang takes another wife. He grows to loath O-lan because of her looks. O-lan dies. Wang grows old and richer yet. His sons are like young lords. Bursting with silver and education. With the death of their father they will sell the land and so the house of Wang will fall. I enjoyed the Good Earth immensely. I really liked the main idea and the simple way the story was told. Emotions were expressed vividly through the characters. The book's full circle plot adds to its interest. My favorite part of the Good Earth was when O-lan was dying. That part was filled with so much emotion. You felt so much empathy for her when she called out "I am ugly and know I can not be loved." This women has worked and obeyed Wang Lung from the moment she came into his house. I think The Good Earth is extremely important to read. It adds more cultural diversity to our sheltered lives which will make us better people in the future. This is extremely important and will help us become better developed and intellectually more sound.

The Good Earth is a book about a Chinese man named Wang-Lung and his family. Wang Lung was married to a woman O-lan and they lived with Wang Lung father. Over the years they had five kids. Wang-Lung went from being a poor farmer to being a lord in the great house. He even buys a concubine. In the end though the land Wang-Lung loved so much, the land that brought him his wealth was about to be sold. The book was okay for something we had to read in class but it was not something I read in my spare time. It's not something that interested me because I'm not into learning about others culture.

My favorite part of the book was when Lotus arrives at the house I was really surprised at O-lan's reaction to the whole thing. I was also surprised that she told Wang Lung about the eldest son going into Lotus's courts. I didn't think that she would tell on her own son. Even if she didn't know for sure that he was going in to see Lotus. I don't think that The Good Earth was that important to read. I think it would be if we were learning about Chinese culture. That wasn't what we were doing though so I don't think that it was that important and we could have read something more interesting and appealing to kids in our age group.

The Good Earth, is about Wang Lung's plights with the earth. Many other things occupy Wangs life, but the earth is his main concern. He works the land as his father did before him. When famine strikes Wang Lungs land, he and his family are forced to go south for the winter. They have to work hard and beg all winter, and if they had not been so lucky as to be at the city when a revolution was occurring, which enabled them to loot the rich mans house, they might still be very poor. His new found riches gave him the ability to buy for himself a concubine from a teahouse in town. This started Wang Lungs Downward spiral. I thought this book was very good. It was like a window into the Chinese culture. My favorite part of the book was when Wang-Lung says to the old teacher in regard to his boys that he is sending to school, "So if you would like to please me, beat them." I also think that The Good Earth is indispensable to any person that fancies himself well read. I think that because of what I said previously about it being a window to the Chinese culture.

Dear Friend,

The Good Earth is an outstanding book to read. I am not going to tell you about this great book because you should read it and find out what it is about. I liked this book because it was hard to predict what was going to happen in the future. There were a few different thoughts of mine that will happen. The Good Earth has a couple of parts to it that makes me remember it well. My favorite part to this book is when O-lan stands up for herself and has her first child without anyone in the same room as her. This makes her feel good because she is so used to being by herself from the House of Hwang. The Good Earth is really an important book to read because it shows how much the Chinese people have changed. It also teaches what there life was like back then, and then you can compare that to the life of the Americans past. The book shows how much harder their life was than our life was. The Good Earth is an exceptional novel for people to read. If I have a chance I would read the exceptional book again. Your friend, Brad Szatkiewicz

The Good Earth is a book about a poor farmer who depends on the earth for his life. After marrying, life doesn't seem to be so hard, but soon famine strikes and he is forced to leave his beloved land and move to the city. A stroke of fortune and his wife's quick thinking procures him enough money to get back to his land. From then on the "gods smile on him" and he prospers. This wealthy farmer now has other things on his mind like wives for his sons and another wife for himself. Eventually it is apparent that his wealth causes him to drift from the land and lose some of his morality. Over all I enjoyed this book. It had many lessons to teach such as the bad use of money corrupts, and a spouse makes or breaks someone. The book was long but it kept my attention. My favorite part was when O'lan discovered the jewels using past experience and gave it unselfishly to Wang Lung. Then they were able to return to the land, purchase goods and continue to prosper. I think this book is good for someone trying to get a glimpse of Chinese culture and at the same time enjoy the story. The Good Earth guides readers into the past and shows them the hardship, misery and joy of the past. It shows us, today, how fortunate we are to live in a relatively free country where men and women are treated equally.

Leanna Pagdin

The book, The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck is basically about a poor farmer in China who has a love for the land, but money takes him over in the end. He lives with his father, and eventually he marries to a woman named O-Lan. Together they have many children. O-Lan is a woman of few words, yet when she does speak the words hold much importance. Wang Lung is very into his land, he has a love for his land that is greater than the love of his own wife, at first. As times become less and less prosperous for Wang Lung and his famliy, they decide to flee to the South. In the South, Wang Lung becomes rich. Upon becoming rich, he decides it is time to return home to the land. However, once he returns things would never be the same as they once were. He loses sight of his dreams, his love, his life------the LAND! He never could get back that desire to just go and put his bare feet in the cool earthen soil. I enjoyed this book very much. It was different than the books that I normally read. I usually read horrors or mysteries, but this novel had a different meaning behind it. I enjoyed this change. My favorite part was when Wang Lung bought Lotus. This was my favorite part because it illustrated the culture in China much better for me. It showed me how men treated women in China. I feel that the Good Earth was a very important book to read. Especially if you do not have any general idea of what the Chinese culture was like.

The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck, makes our culturally ignorant society somewhat aware of what has been going on in China. Without the aid of this book not too many people would have a clue what is going on in China. It is about a typical poor farmer named Wang Lung. He struggles and lives tilling his field and taking care of his elderly father. Then he marries a woman who was formally a slave in the great house of Hwang. Wang now has a woman to work with him, cook, clean, and take care of his father. Wang Lung slowly prospers and finds wealth and buys more land. He is not foolish yet and the riches have not gone to his head. There are many natural disasters which devastate Wang and his family. The class stratification in China is described well. The rich are too rich and the poor are in extreme poverty. During extreme cases like these, the poor were forced to ransack the house of the rich. By these means Wang Lung came to fortune. He grew prosperous and became the most wealthy man in town. He move his now great family into the great house of Hwang where his wife was once a servant. The book tells the story of a peasants rise to greatness. The ride there was an interesting and roller coaster type ride. I enjoyed the book because it was interesting and captured Chinese culture very well for a fictional book. It was a positive story and was all in all an interesting read. I enjoyed it entirely and there were no particularly boring parts. I have never actually hated a book but this is among the top choices. The best part of the book was the book itself. There were no exceptional parts but there were no lagging parts to it. It was solid all the way through. It's an important read because today our society is ignorant of other cultures and we know nothing of foreign lands. This at least gives someone an idea of the aspect of Chinese culture.