Earth Pearl S. Buck's Masterpiece, Term Paper

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Accordingly, Wang Lung is overjoyed when he learns that his first child is a son, and he and O-lan attempt to fool any contemptuous spirits into thinking that the child is an undesirable girl: "What a foolish thing he was doing, walking like this under an open sky, with a beautiful man child for any evil spirit passing by chance through the air to see!... 'What a pity our child is a female whom no one could want and covered with small pox as well! Let us pray it must die,'" (Buck 54). This is why, when their second child is born a female O-lan says, "It is over once more. It is only a slave this time -- not worth mentioning," (Buck 67). This birth suggests to Wang Lung that he is beginning to be cursed by bad luck (Buck 68).

When the couple's third child is born, also a girl, it is during a time a famine, which was preceded by the birth of the first girl. This brings Wang Lung to suspect that girls are a bad omen. He discovers, however, evidence that O-lan killed the infant because it would have been too taxing on the family to feed it. Wang Lung leaves the body to be eaten by a starving dog: "He had scarcely put the burden down before a famished, wolfish dog hovered almost at once behind him... 'It is better as it is,' he muttered to himself, and for the first time was wholly filled with despair," (Buck 86). So although Wang Lung realizes that it is better that his baby girl is dead for the entire family, it still breaks his heart.

It is also during the famine that Buck reveals more about the practice of selling daughters into slavery. Since food and money are so scarce for all of the families, many men end up selling their daughters into slavery in order to provide enough money to rebuild their lives once times get better.

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In chapter 15 when Wang Lung returns to the farm, for instance, he discovers that his uncle sold all of his female cousins off into marriage (Buck 57).

Buck also characterizes what was deemed proper feminine behavior in turn of the century rural China in a number of instances. The woman that Wang Lung's first son marries is a properly cultured woman from town; meanwhile, his second son ends up marrying a girl from the village who is far less reserved or submissive to her husband -- and men in general. Wang Lung looks favorably upon the elder son's wife because she performs the duties that are required of a woman: "The wife of the eldest son was faithful and she conceived and bore and conceived and bore regularly and faithfully, and each child as it was born had its slave," (331). Once again, even once they are married into another family, woman are only valued for what services they perform; ultimately, these services boil down to serving the men, and bearing them male heirs.

Overall, Buck does not criticize the manners in which females were oppressed in early twentieth century China, but illustrates them vividly and clearly. The consequence of this technique is that even the characters who routinely perpetrate cruelty and domination over women -- including Wang Lung himself -- are understandable and relatable individuals. Buck, by providing the readers with details into their actions, hopes, fears and motivations, allows even readers separated from them by a century and half the world to grasp the fundamental nature of their lives. This is the overriding power of the Good Earth. O-lan, despite Wang Lung's repeated abuse of her, is still, in the end, valued by him for her unceasing attention to her duty, and everything that they have been through together. So, even within a society that views females as little more than natural born slaves, Buck reveals how their elemental humanity remains in tact.

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