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The Book Club Online is the oldest book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone. We offer cordial discussions of one book a month, 24/7 and enjoy the company of readers from all over the world. Everyone is welcome.
September Book Club Online starting here on September 2
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
| (http://seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/goodearth/goodearthcover.jpg) |
Interest in Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, continues with the news that her never-before published, final novel is coming out in October, forty years after her death. The Good Earth is the poignant tale of a farmer and his family in old agrarian China, a depiction of traditional Chinese culture in the early twentieth century before World War II. Some critics say it should move readers to rediscover Buck as a source of insight into both revolutionary China and the United States’ interactions with it.
Let's discover together why The Good Earth remained on the bestseller list for 21 months in 1931 and 1932, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932.l
As Buck delved deeply into the lives of the Chinese poor, she opposed the religious fundamentalism, racial prejudice, gender oppression, sexual repression, and discrimination against the disabled.
She championed many of these causes when she returned from China to the US, including woman’s rights, rights for physically and developmentally disabled persons, and racial inequalities. Pearl won the Nobel Prize in literature, the first American woman to do so.
Relevant Links:
the Good Earth Timeline (http://www.pearl-s-buck.org/document.doc?id=8): |
| DISCUSSION SCHEDULE: |
| September 2-8 | Chapters 1-8 |
| September 9-15 | Chapters 9-15 |
| September 16-22 | Chapters 16-22 |
| September 23-29 | Chapters 23-34 |
Some Topics for Discussion
Sept. 3-10 Chapters 1-8
1. How did a man expect his life to change when he married in China?
2. What did his marriage preparations reveal about Wang Lung's character?
3. Did his new wife disappoint? Your impressions of O-lan?
4. Was it just a coincidence that Wang's good fortune began to change, once he bought that plot of land?
Contact: JoanP (jonkie@verizon.net)
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So happy that you all selected The Good Earth for September. It's been so long since I first read it - that I've forgotten the story. I remember the title, and I know Pearl Buck is still talked about. I just don't remember exactly why. I did intend to find out. My son lives in Lynchburg, VA, two blocks from Randolf College, where this sign is located. He sometimes asks me if I've read The Good Earth, as we walk by with the dogs. I've given him a vague answer like, "hasn't everyone read it? This time I'm going to read it - next time, I'll give him a decent answer.
(http://seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/goodearth/Pearlbucksign.jpg)
How about you? Have you ever read it? If yes, how long ago? We'd really love for you to join us in September!
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Never read it and was about to order it when I remembered my new computer book database and found that I have the book. So will read in September.
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I read it (again) recently but its not my favourite, which at the moment is The Pavilion of Women. Imperial Woman and Peony are two others I've just finished and enjoyed a lot. I've got a whole pile more waiting for me!
I have been more struck by her admiration and understanding of Chinese civilization than by her opposition to its barbarism, but I expect different books may present different aspects. Certainly the books I have found most interesting and enjoyable have been about the upper or middle class Chinese, not the poor.
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It's been a while since I read The Good Earth. I have ordered the book & plan on joining the discussion.
Sally
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I plan to participate in this discussion. This is a book I have wanted to read for sometime. Stopped in Barnes & Noble yesterday and purchased the book and also downloaded the audio book from the library as well. Looking forward to the discussion.
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I'm reading The Good Earth for my f2f book club which meets on September 14th. Perfect timing! I'll try to join you.
Nancy
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Welcome everyone!
kidsal - I'm looking forward to discovering Pearl Buck with you!
That is perfect timing! Looking forward to sharing with your f2f group, Nancy. So happy to hear you might join us!
dean69 - what a great idea, listening to the audo and reading the text at the same time. Have you started yet? I read the first chapter this morning...easy reading, isn't it? Pearl Buck paints pictures with her words.
Sally, let us know when your book arrives. Will put up a reading schedule shortly.
Dana, glad you're with us. We're trying to figure out how to enrich the discussion, how to get to know Pearl Buck better. There are a number of our readers who have read the book before - I'm sure they can add much to enrich the discussion. I'll admit, I'm as interested in Pearl Buck herself, as I am in this one book that made her famous. I'm sure we'll think of some way to include everyone. Stay tuned!
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I want to suggest a way to enrich the discussion.
There is another book which was written about the same time that Pearl Buck wrote hers . The author was also a Chinese Missionary and a woman. It was a book for children and won the Newberry award for the best Children's book for 1933.
The action takes place in a similar geographic area of China.
It's called ;
"Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze."
It takes place in Chungking of the 1920s. and deals with the Opium wars, Sun Yet Sen, the Chinese Nationals and communist forces and the influence of foreigners.
This book was my favorite book growing up and led to a life long interest in China. I think by the time I read The Good Earth I had such a foundation of knowledge about China that the book had very little influence on me. In fact I preferred the movie to the book which is certainly a rarity for me.
Oh yes, the author is Elizabeth Foreman Lewis. Part of her career in China was as Superintendent of schools in Chungking.
Quite an accomplishment for someone who grew up not living in China.
I must add that her personal life was a lot happier than that of Pearl Buck.
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Thanks, Jude! A quick check at Amazon shows that the book is still available after all this time - published in 1932...the same year that The Good Earth was written. Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze (http://www.amazon.com/Young-Upper-Yangtze-Elizabeth-Foreman/dp/0312380070)
Do you suppose the two women knew one another? I see that Pearl Buck wrote an introduction to this book. You say her life in China was a lot happier than Pearl's. (Shall we call her "Pearl" in this discussion - nicer, friendlier than "Buck" don't you think?)
Maybe we should start there - in preparation for the book discussion. Knowing where the author is coming from often helps to understand what she is writing. Let's look at her childhood first. If one's childhood is unhappy, the effects are usually long-lasting...
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What a great group. I look forward to joining this discussion. I too vividly remember parts of the movie with Merle Oberon. My memory of reading the book isn't as vivid. I'm glad to read it again.
Thanks, Jude, for the recommendation of YOUNG FU OF THE UPPER YANGTZE. I see that my library has a copy.
Joan, I'm looking forward to learning more about Pearl Buck. I hadn't realized that she was one of only two female American novelists to win the Nobel Prize. (Toni Morrison was the other.)
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Here is a bio of Pearl Buck, with a short video:
http://www.biography.com/people/pearl-s-buck-9230389
Years ago we went on an Elderhostel to Bucks County, PA and we visited the Pearl Buck home. The highlight of the trip was a speech by one of the children that Pearl had adoped and she told many stories of her youth. It was a long time ago and I don't remember the details except the amazement of how many children of all races that she adopted. I have the vague impression that this presenter had a difficult childhood - it would be most interesting to read a book written by one of these children.
I've have never seen the movie some of you have referred to.
I vaguely remember that Michener's home was near the Buck home and they were friends. Can't remember if we saw Michener's home or not, perhaps he was still living. Gosh, if I had only kept a diary of those Elderhostel trips we took. Some were so interesting. The organization is now called Road Scholar, but I'm sure it is similar.
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Marcie, delighted that you can join us! Welcome! I'll try to rent the Merle Oberon movie from Netflix - but think I'll wait until after I read the story in Pearl's own words. After reading the first three chapters, I can't imagine the movie, any movie capturing author's written expression. I might be wrong...glad you will be reading along with us!
Welcome to you too, Ella! I remember those Elder Hostel trips you made! I'm determined to find more about those adopted children. Wouldn't it be great if we could invite the one you met at the Elderhostel?
I'm wondering about the implication that Pearl Buck had an unhappy childhood - though I see nothing in the biographical links. Though she was born in the US - in 1892 - as a baby she was taken to China while her parents worked as missionaries. Was she unhappy in China? Or when the family had to flee her home at age nine when during the antiforeign Boxer Rebellion of 1900?
Or perhaps when her first child was born in 1920 with a PKU disease and she returned home to institutionalize her daughter? Read more: http://www.notablebiographies.com/Br-Ca/Buck-Pearl-S.html#ixzz2cLCtvOoM
Later she wrote about this daughter, Carol, "The Child Who Never Grew" - "the true story of the struggle of the author after learning that her daughter Carol, born in 1920, was mentally handicapped. The 1992 Woodbine House edition contains a foreword by James Michener, an introduction by Martha M. Jablow, and an afterword by Janice C. Walsh, who was Pearl's daughter and Carol's's sister. (adopted in 1925) (Does this name sound familiar to you, Ella?
Jablow notes in her intro that "Child" first appeared as an article in "Ladies Home Journal" in 1950 and was shortly thereafter published in book form. Jablow notes that the book is "a landmark in the literature about disabilities."
Buck writes very movingly of her heartache at the discovery of her child's plight. She documents her awareness of the stigma against people like Carol, and also tells of her search for an institution where Carol's special needs might be met. Buck passionately defends the humanity and worth of the mentally retarded, and tells what her experiences with Carol taught her: "I learned respect and reverence for every human mind. It was my child who taught me to understand so clearly that all people are equal in their humanity and that all have the same human rights."
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Ella, a picture of Janice Walsh, the first child Pearl adopted in 1925. Do you recognize her?
https://www.english.upenn.edu/sites/www.english.upenn.edu/files/walsh.jpg
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No, I don't JOAN, it was so long ago. As I remember, the lady who spoke to us was older, had gray hair but I wouldn't want to be quoted. My husband was with me, but he died in 2004 and I doubt if he would remember. I'm not surprised by the foreword by Michener in the book about the child. They were very good friends.
I did NOT mean to state that Pearl Buck had an unhappy childhood. Sorry about that. I meant to say that the presenter - the lady that spoke to us - the adopted child of Buck, had an unhappy childhood as I remember.
YEs, it would be very interesting to hear from one of these adopted children. It was Buck's opinion that all races could live in harmony if they were brought up in the same atmosphere.
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When I mentioned Pearl Buck's unhappy life I was referring to the fact that her first and only birth child was born with PKU. This is a severe disorder in which the infant suffers seizures, albinism and has microcephaly ((Small head or small brain). This means that the child is severely retarded. It may be hereditary.
Pearl Buck's first marriage was also an unhappy one.
Later in life Pearl Buck divorced her husband, remarried and adopted six children.
So its not all gloom and doom.
An interesting side fact is that After the Atomic bombs were dropped on Japan many pregnant woman who lived within a certain radius of the bombs had babies with PKU.
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This is so fascinating, filling in the environment in which Pearl Buck wrote this book, isn't it? I understand she wrote the book in China, but need to understand with whom she was living, what she was doing there. Was she, like her parents, a missionary? Was it this contact with the peasantry in Chinkiang, China (?) that inspired the story we are about to read?
I think we need a time-line, as she didn't seem to stay in any one place too long. While searching for information on her seven adopted children, I learned that she had married her husband, John Lossing Buck in 1917 in Nanking, China, where Pearl spent most of her time caring for her mentally disabled daughter, Carol, who was born in 1920. Poor little Carol, Jude. We're told she returned to America to pursue her master's degree in English at Cornell University. Wasn't this the same year she adopted the first of the seven children, Janice? I'd like to learn more of Janice, from Janice, Ella. If she was born in 1925, she must be about 88 now. I know Pearl wrote The Good Earth in China in 1932. I wonder if she took Jancie to live in China with her. If not, where is Janice at this time? As Jude says, she divorced her husband - in 1935. Even though she remarried, she kept Buck's name through her whole life.
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Wow, what a discussion! I had no idea . . . partially because I might be the only person on the planet that has never read The Good Earth - - I am doing the latin course that starts soon, and I will also read the book. Hope to hook up with all of you through this process.
Elise
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What a pleasant surprise to comes in this afternoon to find you here, eamour - Welcome!
Was even happier to learn this will be your first time reading The Good Earth. We'll try to figure together the connection between Pearl Buck's experience in China and this story she has come up with. I've started to read the book, it is beautifully written, easy to read...but I can't see a connection between this Chinese family and the American missionary. I think I need more information about China while Pearl Buck was writing this book in 1930.
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Here's a very handy Timeline. We 'll keep it in the Heading throughout the discussion for easy reference. I think we'll need it!
the Good Earth Timeline (http://www.pearl-s-buck.org/document.doc?id=8)
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Will try to check in. I had a Pearl Buck siege many years ago and read everything I could get my hands on.. My favorite was not The Good Earth, but Peony and Imperial something or another.. She was interesting though.
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Eamour, you're not the only person on the planet who hasn't read this book; I haven't either. We can discover it together. It's nice to meet you here.
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I read somewhere some years ago that she started wriiting between her daughter and a bad marriage, it provided her with an outlet.
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Good heavens! Look at this, I had no idea. Here's Stacey Schiff (author of Cleopatra) on the Spurling book about Pearl Buck:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/books/review/Schiff-t.html?_r=0
Buck lived in interesting times, and in interesting places. The child of a Presbyterian missionary to China, she grew up amid bandits, beggars, lepers, typhoons, floods, rebellions, famine, sinister mobs, marauding soldiers, opium clouds. Hers was a fairy-tale childhood of the bleak and semi-tragic variety. Before her birth, her mother had lost a child each to dysentery, cholera, malaria. As Pearl explored the backyard, she stumbled upon tiny limbs and mutilated hands, the remains of infant daughters left to die. “Where other little girls constructed mud pies,” Hilary Spurling writes evenly, “Pearl made miniature grave mounds.” She was 8 years old before she saw running water.
Buck’s father, Absalom Sydenstricker, was a fanatical man with a healthy martyr complex, “proud of his ability to whip up quarrels with himself at the center.” Daily he ventured out to save souls. Daily he was spit upon, cursed, stoned in the street. He produced few converts but plenty of frustration. While he devoted himself to God, Buck’s mother gave herself over to grief and rage. It did not help that her husband never really believed that women had souls, or that the Chinese were people. Money was tight, the more so as Sydenstricker refused to spend any on his wife or daughters. There was every reason why young Pearl should throw herself into the pages of Dickens, her narcotic of choice and her sole link to the Anglo-Saxon world. Well before she was 10 she determined to be a novelist, as enchanted by ancient Chinese epics as by the Western canon, of which she made quick work. For a period of her childhood she reread all of Dickens annually.
And there's more, much more in that article. Absolutely amazing woman, I had no idea. I thought I knew about Pearl Buck, I need to read that book. And how au courant is this with her new one coming out!!!
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Wow! We were looking for the reason (s) for Pearl's unhappy childhood. After reading Stacey Schiff's article on Spurling's biography, you have to wonder how the author survived her childhood - and why she chose to become a missionary as a young adult. A novelist, I can see that. She certainly had seen enough for several novels. "Bleak" - an apt adjective to describe her childhood. It will be interesting to see the China in which Pearl grew up in The Good Earth.. Thanks for the article, Ginny!
Steph, please try to join us...your Pearl Buck "siege" would be an invaluable resource...and hopefully your experience with our curious first-timers will add to your appreciation of her work and what she made of her life after its unpromising beginning.
Welcome, everyone! This promises to be quite an experience!
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I must confess that I never understood her father as a real missionary. All I could decide if that churches did not actually select the missionaries.
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I did get The Good earth on kindle and started to read it- many years ago since I read it the first time- but I wanted to know more about the author and found "My Several Worlds" by PEARL BUCK . This is a great insight into her life. Looking forward to the discussion in September.
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I have purchased the book and am looking forward to joining the discussion group in September.
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I must confess that I never understood her father as a real missionary. All I could decide if that churches did not actually select the missionaries
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I would imagine that it wasn't easy to find anyone who would uproot his family and spend so much time in China an this uncertain time, Steph. From the Schiff article quoted above, we learn Pearl's mother and father had been doing missionary work for many years before she was born. Also, that he was not very effective making converts, and that money was tight. You have to wonder why his church continued to support him. I was interested to read that Pearl was not an only child...there was a brother, Edgar too. I'd like to learn more about him.
waafer, happy to hear you will be joining us...and that you have her book, "My Several Worlds." Is there any information on her parents - and her early years in China?
hepeskin - delighted to hear that you plan to be here too! Welcome to both of you!
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Good heavens, I had forgotten My Several Worlds. As I recall, it was really interesting.
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In my Library copy of the book there are a number of different introductions.
In the one on the author's life we find this:
"Her father, Absalom, was a severe , dogmatic missionary. Her mother was neglected by her patriarchial husband and devastated by the deaths of four of her seven children......in the end of her life , she renounced her faith."
"Pearl attended Miss Jewell's School in Shanghai in 1909, but the education she received there paled compared to what she learned volunteering at the Door of Hope, a shelter for girls who had been sold into slavery and prostitution.. This indelible experience shaped her future."
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How old was she when she got to volunteer there. I would think a married adult back in those times.
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Steph
The book doesn't state her age but she was still in school and was about 17 and not married.
Why did you think she was a married adult to volunteer at this center/
The book also doesn't say what exactly she did there or how long she stayed on as a volunteer.
I imagine that the younger she was the greater the impact of that experience.
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I was simply guessing that young girls were mostly not allowed to view that end of the world in that period.. My parents would have had a catfit in the mid 50's if I had wanted to volunteer in tht sort of place.
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Catfit doesn't even begin to describe what my parents' reaction would have been. I'm sitting here laughing at the thought.
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Pearl Bucks parents were not around when she went to school in Shanghai.
They lived far away and there were no phone calls either. It was 1909.
Pearl was an independent sort even then. Her parents were not "Helicopter Parents' ever. Both encased in their own, different worlds.
No catfits there. Never heard that expression before but it is a good one.
Will be away for ten days visiting our son and family. Be in touch upon return.
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Pearl Buck's father, Absalom Sydenstricker, was a humorless, scholarly man who spent years translating the Bible from Greek to Chinese. Her mother, the former Caroline Stulting, had travelled widely in her youth and had a fondness for literature.
After being educated by her mother and by a Chinese tutor, who was a Confucian scholar, Buck was sent to a boarding school in Shanghai (1907-09) at the age of fifteen. She also worked for the Door of Hope, a shelter for Chinese slave girls and prostitutes.
Pearl's mother is the one to watch, the one Pearl had to thank for her education. She wrote a warm, revealing book about her mother She went off to the boarding school at 15. - her mother thought it was an opportunity to continue her education. She only spent two years there before coming to the US to continue her education in Virginia at Randolph Macon Women's College at 17. I'll bet her parents didn't know about her volunteer work at the shelter. Or maybe they did - and approved. Thought of it as missionary work.
Will go hunt up the biography she wrote about her mother.
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Pearl wrote of her mother in 1921 so her children would get to know her. She called the book, The Exile.. (She wrote a biography about her father too. She stashed them away until 1936 when they were published together.
It turns out The Exile is available in full online...
This review by a young Korean womann, recipient of a Pearl Buck endowment at Randolph Macon Women's College presents a wonderful picture of Caroline “Carie” Sydenstricker - you can see for yourself her importance in Pearl's life...
Caroline Sydenstricker from "The Exile" (http://faculty.randolphcollege.edu/fwebb/buck/mewarley/carie.html)
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ps.You read much of her success at Randolph Macon WC, Phi Beta Kappa, literary accomplishments, Senior Class President,etc...but it didn't come easy for Pearl. I just found this...
"By the time she arrived as a charity student at Randolph-Macon Women's College in Virginia, Buck was indelibly alienated from her American counterparts. "Girls came in groups to stare at me," wrote Buck, remembering her first harsh college days some 50 years later. She was set apart not only by her out-of-date clothes made by a Chinese tailor, but also by her extraordinary life experiences, which encompassed firsthand knowledge of war, infanticide and sexual slavery."
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She was such an interesting woman.. I honestly dont remember at 15 even knowing much about that end of life.. Guess I was just a slow learner..
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The Book Club Online is the oldest book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone. We offer cordial discussions of one book a month, 24/7 and enjoy the company of readers from all over the world. Everyone is welcome.
September Book Club Online starting here on September 2
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
| (http://seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/goodearth/goodearthcover.jpg) |
Interest in Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, continues with the news that her never-before published, final novel is coming out in October, forty years after her death. The Good Earth is the poignant tale of a farmer and his family in old agrarian China, a depiction of traditional Chinese culture in the early twentieth century before World War II. Some critics say it should move readers to rediscover Buck as a source of insight into both revolutionary China and the United States’ interactions with it.
Let's discover together why The Good Earth remained on the bestseller list for 21 months in 1931 and 1932, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932.l
As Buck delved deeply into the lives of the Chinese poor, she opposed the religious fundamentalism, racial prejudice, gender oppression, sexual repression, and discrimination against the disabled.
She championed many of these causes when she returned from China to the US, including woman’s rights, rights for physically and developmentally disabled persons, and racial inequalities. Pearl won the Nobel Prize in literature, the first American woman to do so.
Relevant Links:
the Good Earth Timeline (http://www.pearl-s-buck.org/document.doc?id=8): |
| DISCUSSION SCHEDULE: |
| September 2-8 | Chapters 1-8 |
| September 9-15 | Chapters 9-15 |
| September 16-22 | Chapters 16-22 |
| September 23-29 | Chapters 23-34 |
Some Topics for Discussion
Sept. 3-10 Chapters 1-8
1. How did a man expect his life to change when he married in China?
2. What did his marriage preparations reveal about Wang Lung's character?
3. Did his new wife disappoint? Your impressions of O-lan?
4. Was it just a coincidence that Wang's good fortune began to change, once he bought that plot of land?
Contact: JoanP (jonkie@verizon.net)
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Not so much that you were a "slow learner," Steph - Pearl just came from a different environment - a different world from the one you grew up in. You would have been one of the Randolph Macon girls, listening to her stories in disbelief!
Imgine growing up like this - thinking this is what the world is like. No wonder she came to Virginia feeling the disconnect with her fellow students!
"She roamed freely around the Chinese countryside, where she would often come upon the remains of abandoned baby girls, left for the village dogs, and she would bury them.
The young Buck and her family lived at subsistence level in houses that were little more than shacks and apartments on streets thronged with bars and bordellos."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128238422
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Yes, I can imagine listening to her. When I was a young teen, my parents got a fresh air child each summer. We lived in lower Delaware and this was some sort of get the children out of New York City for the country. They would come on a bus and most of the people in our church would take one. We got Rosemary every summer and a few Christmases for years.. actually until she married at about 17.. I remember being amazed at her stories. Her father was a bartender in what she called a Fairy bar.. You can imagine this farm girls mental picture of what was a fairy.. ( small, winged creature) and what she told me it really was.. Whew..
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Steph-- ;D
I got my book last night, so I'll be ready to go. I took a loook at it. It's beautiful writing.
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I just finished Matthew Pearl's newest book, "The Technologists" and in it are several boy students who are charity students and they are not very popular either. The book is about the founding of MIT and Harvard's involvement at the time. Historical fiction and pretty good.
I think my book came in at the library over the weekend. I am looking forward to The Good Earth but have also become interested in all the articles that folks have left links to. The one about Caroline, Pearl's mother. There is another book I haven't read. As I said before, I saw the movie when I was quite young and don't remember much about it. Just slanty-eyed women. I must look it up to see who is in it. A woman's face keeps coming up in my memory.
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I just watched a trailer for the Good Earth and thought I would bring it here for you all to see. Quite impressive. Just remember this is 1937and before we had color and black and white was really well done photography. You might want to enlarge your screen after is begins to play. Lower right hand corner has a thing to click on and boom! it enlarges! there. I also have a head set on and parts of this trailer are quite loud so I had to keep changing the volume. Enjoy!
ftp://http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006JV19PY/ref=atv_feed_catalog?tag=imdb-amazonvideo-20
I also read quite a biopic about Luise Ranier. She was a corker!! I leave the link but you might not enjoy it. Hollywood, she tears down as she talks to reporter at her home in Brentwood, CA. Again
this is in 1937.
http://www.luiserainer.net/Miss-Rainer-Regrets.php
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Oh my! I stopped in to see what The Good Earth was about, and all these posts just pulled me in, wanting to learn more about Pearl Buck. I am with those who have never read this book, and shamefully admit, I have never heard of Pearl S. Buck. I would love to join the discussion. After reading all the posts I clicked on the links, and checked out some of Pearl's other books, and feel like I could read The Exile right along with The Good Earth. SeniorLearn what have you done to me? I never in my lifetime read two books at the same time til I joined this book club.
So, off I go to snoop around and find out more information, before the discussion begins. Thank you JoanP. for mentioning this book in our "Those Angry Days", discussion, I probably would have missed a great book/discussion.
Ciao for now~
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Ah yes, Senior net and now Senior learn expands your to be read and your I must read this categories.. Too many books and not nearly enough time or space.
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Oh yes, Pat, I agree, the writing is beautiful -it's economical, yet full of meaning. The characters are so simple, yet complete. Don't you get the feeling Pearl is writing about people she knew? Happy you are joining this discussion!
From the Spurling biography- "Her love of these stories and her interest in people's lives made Pearl Buck determined at an early age to become a writer of stories. As she later writes in My Several Worlds: "Even then I had intended to be a teller of tales, a writer of novels, though how that end was to be achieved I did not know. One longs to make what one loves, and above all I loved to hear stories about people. I was a nuisance of a child, I fear, always curious to know about people and why they were as I found them." Aided by her mother's encouragement, Pearl got her first youthful selections published in the children's section of the Shanghai Mercury."
Bellamarie - I see you are hooked on the writer, her background - as I am. I know you have aspirations to write...and can see where you'd be interested in learning as much as you can about Pearl Buck. I'm beginning to see that it is impossible to separate her work from her life. It would be great if you actually do find the time to read of her mother in The Exile - It is said to be beautilfully written too - some prefer it to The Good Earth.
Annie - wowT That was quite a film production - in 1937, not long after Pearl wrote the movie! I wonder if she had any input into the film? I wonder if my parents saw it. They would have been dating at this time. Don't I wish they were still here to ask about it!
Since I haven't read the book in its entirety yet, I'm afraid to watch the trailer...worryied about possible spoilers. But will put the links in the header to view after. There's a discussion schedule in the heading, you may have noticed. We'll be discussing the first 8 chapters starting September 2.
Big Welcome- Path, Bellamarie and Annie! I think this will be a rich discussion because of all your contributions.
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http://books.google.com/books/about/Young_Fu_of_the_Upper_Yangtze.html?id=bQXK5-QiVj4C
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mark
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Bellamarie? Assuming you are the original Bellamarie, where have you been?? Hope you plan on being here for the opening of "Good Earth". Welcome back!!
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I remember when I was a schoolgirl, my mom kept Pearl Buck's The Good Earth hidden in her dresser drawer. She did not want me to read it because it talked about concubines. I hadn't the slightest idea what a concubine was, until of course I sneaked her book and read it. Then I read it again as a grown woman, and laughed to think she'd been so worried about my reading it.
I think I'll read Pearl Buck's Pavillion of Women that Barb had recommended. Anther one my mom would not have let me read, LOL.
Marj
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Bluebird, does this mean that you will be reading Yung Fu of the Upper Yangtze?
Marjifay...I hope you'll share some of what you're reading from Pavillion of Women. This is going to be such a rich discussion!
ps. What's a concubine? ;D
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I have the book and now must start reading our assignment for Sept 2nd. ::)
JoanP So, her mother did support her writing as a child. Was't she only 9 or less when that happened? That's amazing!
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I think I read she was six, Annie - but will check on that. All the more amazing since I read her first language was Chinese... Can that be right?
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JoanP no on webpage Pearl Buck is there.
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Here's another Biography of Pearl Buck (http://www.psbi.org/document.doc?id=6), bluebird.
"Pearl’s parents preferred to live among the Chinese and not in the missionary compound. Thus, she grew up in close intimacy with the Chinese people, speaking Chinese, playing with Chinese children, visiting their homes, listening to their ideas and absorbing their culture. These experiences helped to develop the mind and the imagination of an alert, intelligent child, who later used this material in her novels.
Pearl was home-schooled by her mother, who insisted that Pearl write something each week. At age 6, her first published work appeared in the English-language Shanghai Mercury, a newspaper with a weekly children’s edition. Being an avid reader and having few books available, she started at the age of seven reading Oliver Twist. Each year she read through the family’s collection of Charles Dickens. She later said this influenced her style of writing."
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So excited! I went to my library and they did not have The Good Earth or the Exile, BUT, they did walk me through downloading the adobe overdrive app and I now have The Good Earth on my Nookcolor and computer!! I have begun reading it and found myself giggle. Will wait til the discussion begins to share what amused me in the first chapter.
Marj, That is hilarious, your mother hid the book and YOU sneaked and read it. :)
Annie, Hello, yes I am the one and only original. I have been in Those Angry Days discussion. I am really looking forward to this one, and so happy to see you as well.
I have The Exile coming into my library in a few days, so I will begin that along with The Good Earth. I sense this is going to be a fun discussion.
Ciao for now~
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China and missionaries .. The two never managed t get along..
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Pavilion of Women is my favourite so far. About a lady who finds a concubine for her husband so she can, essentially, retire from the marriage, altho she still runs the household etc.
Rather civilized approach of the Chinese I thought! Its also the book where she expresses, through some of the characters, some views on Christianity, presumably hers.
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http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/Buck/tour.html
Found this with goodsearch.
first picture is her family
I want to read Yung Fu someday.
Thank you JoanP.
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Thanks for those good clear photos, bluebird. Will put them in the heading for reference as Pearl gets older.
Pavilion of Women "the book where she expresses, through some of the characters, some views on Christianity, presumably hers."
I'd like to hear some of those views, Dana. Neither Pearl - nor her mother, for that matter, seem to be the missionary type. Well, not the fire and brimstone preacher Pearl's father was...
"China and missionaries .. The two never managed to get along.. "
I can understand, that, Steph! I guess Pearl's father meant well - spent his time translating the Bible into Chinese. I wonder if that project was ever reproduced.
As far as I can see, Pearl and her mother spent their time caring for sick and abandonned children - and abused young women. Do you call that valuable missionary work? Pearl left a position in the Psychology Dept. at Randolph Macon after her graduation - to return to China in 1915 on learning of her mother's illness. A few years later, she met the man she married in 1917, John Lossing Buck, who was working as an "agricultural missionary." Does that mean anything to you? Pearl wrote "The Good Earth" in 1930, while living with John in China. Don't you think she learned a lot about "good earth" during this time?
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Yea! My book finally arrived yesterday. I also bought Yung Fu. I read The Good Earth many years ago & am looking forward to reading it again.
Sally
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I think that she probably learned the farming and agricultural methods from her husband. She conceived the fiction from her own experiences though.l
No idea how you would find out if her fathers translations were ever used.
Many female missionaries seemed to really be teachers and nurses.
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Couldn't find anything about the Reverend Sydenstriker's translation on the Bible into Chinese...but DID learn that he translated from the GREEK into CHINESE!
It will be interesting to hear what being married to such a man was like from those reading The Exile - Pearl's biography of her mother, Carie - The very title is revealing, don't you think? Many female missionaries seemed to really be teachers and nurses.
I can see that, Steph, but what do you think Pearl's role would have been? And what sort of a man did she marry. A man much like her father? I imagine she didn't have much of a choice among the missionaries in China..
Just found this -
In 1918, Lossing, as he was known to his friends, and Pearl went to live in Nanhsuchou, home to several thousand impoverished farmers. Here, Lossing began his research into the Chinese farm economy using sociological tools based on statistical surveys conducted in person. Pearl, who had grown up in China, accompanied him on his initial trips through the countryside to interpret and translate. She became intimately familiar with the daily lives of China’s poorest inhabitants, and years later the village would provide the primary setting for her first stories of China, including, The Good Earth.
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Sally, happy to hear you will be joining us. I think we ought to continue into the discussion of the book right here, in the morning - rather than start a fresh discussion. There's so much valuable background stuff here.
As in past discussions, we will discuss the book in chunks - if you read ahead, try to not reveal what you have found. You might spoil things for those who are reading. Tomorrow we will start with the first 8 chapters, no more. There is a discussion schedule in the heading. It may turn out that the pace is too slow...in which case we'll make some adjustments. Don't know how much time we'll need for each section as we attempt to intertwine what we learn of Pearl's life as she wrote the book.
Can't wait for tomorrow!
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bluebird, Thank you so much for providing the links to the photos of Pearl. Just looking at them gives me the impression she was a loving, caring, nurturing soul. I love the smile and love I see in her face as she holds the child. Til tomorrow~
Ciao for now~
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Good morning! It's "tomorrow."- September 2
Looking forward to hearing your first impressions of The Good Earth - the writing, the author's manner of expression and description. Can you provide an example?
Does it sound as if Pearl Buck knew Wang Lung or would you say he was a typical Chinese farmer - a stereotype?
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I always thought of him as a composite.. She knew so many .
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Good Morning & Happy Labor Day!
Speaking of labor, I was impressed with how much labor Olan was able to do, even while she was pregnant. Pearl has captured me in these first chapters, with how Wang has so much love for the slave woman he bought and wed. The part that brought me humor was, pg. 9 (ereader) "And what will we do with a pretty woman? We must have a woman who will tend the house and bear children as she works in the fields, and will a pretty woman do these things? She will be forever about clothes to go with her face!"
I no sooner found myself giggling at the realization his father pointed out, how vain and expensive a pretty woman would be, but then I found myself feeling for Wang, as his father continued to point out these facts as far as wedding a slave woman:
"No, not a pretty woman in our house. We are farmers. Moreover, who has heard of a pretty slave who was a virgin in a wealthy house? All the young lords have had their fill of her. It is better to be first with an ugly woman than the hundredth with a beauty. Do you imagine a pretty woman will think your farmer's hands as pleasing as the soft hands of a rich man's son, and your sunblacked face as beautiful as the golden skin of the others who have had her for their pleasure?"
Wang Lung knew his father spoke well. Nevertheless, he had to struggle with his flesh before he could answer. And then he said violently, "At least, I will not have a woman who is pockmarked, or who has a split upper lip."
This was sad for me, imagining how farmers looked at themselves as less a person because of their labors, skin color, and texture of their hands, due to hard labor.
I have fallen in love with Wang & Olan. So much more to comment on, but I have to go prepares dishes for our cookout. And I want to savor the great parts of these first 8 chapters. So much in them!!!!
By the way, does/did anyone know what pockmarked meant? I imagined a disfiguration on her face.
Ciao for now~
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Pockmarked would be scarred from smallpox. This would be like acne scars, only worse.
I see that what I will find hardest to take in this book is the status of women. They are really beasts of burden. When Wang Lung wakes up on his marriage day, he thinks, this is the last day he'll have to get up early, boil water, and make breakfast. Tomorrow, he will be able to lie in bed while his woman does it. But although he is brainwashed by his culture, Wang Lung is a decent sort of person. He wants his new wife to like him, and he is fonder of her than he is willing to admit to himself.
The language is beautiful, an apparent simplicity to fit the simple peasant, but rhythmical and economical.
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Steph, I thought of Wang as a stereotype - a "composite" of the many Chinese farmers Pearl came to know as she worked with her husband in his "agricultural missionary" work. But was he really like all the rest? I'll be watching for one of them with the same decency and consideration for his wife - that Pat describes. He had expectations of what a wife should do, but I don't think he expected to care about what she thought of him. I was surprised at this. In my mind, this made him stand apart from other men. O-lan could have done worse.
OK, she wasn't much to look at, but she wasn't scarred. Does he seem disappointed that her feet had not been bound? What does this mean? Was it a plus? Bellamarie talks about O-lan labouring in the field. Would this have been possible had her feet been bound? Was she expected to labor beside him in the field? Did other wives do this?
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Only the well off Chinese bound their daughters' feet. It was a sign of beauty ,like a lotus bud. But it crippled the women, who walked with a particular limping gait which was found attractive. When they got older they needed help to walk and were supported by two slaves. Of-course it kept them in their place,(!) and poor women did not have it done because they would not have been able to work in the fields.. The Manchus (ruling dynasty)did not bind their feet.
It's like female genital mutilation and wasp waists. When you see the damage done by these 3 practices it makes you want to vomit. Not to mention the pain...
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The smallness of the feet was thought of as attractive, as well as the gait. O-lan, being tall, probably had particularly large feet, and I think Wang Lung was disappointed in this, just as he was disappointed that he couldn't have a pretty wife, but I'm sure he didn't expect a wife with bound feet.
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PatH, I agree, I did feel a bit frustrated with the fact Wang thought, oh great now I won't have to take care of my father anymore or cook & clean. But if I am not mistaken, this is expected in their culture, so O-lan would be honored to be his wife and to do these things. I guess we have to remind ourselves of the customs in China, and the time it is taking place.
I didn't get the feeling Wang was disappointed his salve girl was not pretty, because if anything I think he did not see himself being a catch either, (dark skin and rough hands from hard labor). Him being a farmer, and she a slave, my impression was neither were into vanity. They know their place in their world, and for them, hard work seems to be their purpose in life. I don't know if other slave/wives help in the fields as O-lan did, I would assume they did. I don't think Wang expected O-lan to help in the fields especially when she was pregnant. I think Wang was very impressed to see her help out. Beauty from inside lasts longer, than beauty of the outside. I think Wang is realizing the beauty his wife beholds inside, especially when he saw how she had already planned the dressings of their soon to be baby.
Thank you for the clarification of the pock marked as small pox scars.
I'm suspecting Wang and O-lan will surprise their families and friends, as well as the readers, as this story moves along. I'm sensing they could hold important places down the road.
Ciao for now~
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"I think Wang Lung was disappointed in this, just as he was disappointed that he couldn't have a pretty wife, but I'm sure he didn't expect a wife with bound feet." PatH
Pat - you bring up an interesting side of Wang's personality. I think he takes pride in the way he is perceived in the community. If he could escort a pretty wife through the streets, Pearl writes, "other men might congratulate him." The same would have happened, had her feet been bound. (She couldn't walk on her own!) But I think we're seeing just how pleased Wang was with this wife of his. O-lan would have been a useless wife for a farmer -
"Although the practice was doubtless a means of male domination to ensure women remained chaste. Women whose feet were bound were unable to participate freely in society – to go on outings on their own, for example – with feet so severely disfigured. They frequently needed the physical support of another person if they were to walk for any length of time, and this kept them dependent on their families, subject to the will of men around them, and often all but confined to their homes."
Don't want to upset your stomach, Dana - but can't help but share a photo of what feet that have been bound look like:
(http://static.environmentalgraffiti.com/sites/default/files/images/3815048673cd91032c3dzjpg.img_assist_custom-600x372.jpg)
"In 1911, the Chinese government finally outlawed foot binding. Pressure had come not only from feminists but also from educated people concerned about how China was viewed by the outside world, as well as from Social Darwinists worried about the idea of an enfeebled nation. Even after this, however, much work was needed to undo the entrenched idea of the lotus foot as erotic and lovely. Today, although as a practice foot binding has died out, one can still see elderly women hobbling around on broken feet, all in the name of past notions of beauty."
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-foot-binding?image=3
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Are you a bit surprised that Pearl Buck portrays her female character as such a stoic silent type. Since she worked with women extensively in China - and spoke the language, I expected to hear more from her female characters... Maybe silent acceptance of whatever life had to offer was what she found. OR maybe we'll be hearing more from O-lan as her story unfolds - as Bellamarie expects..
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These feet don't look too bad actually and are quite large. The best feet were just an inch or two long. Sometimes the big toe was broken and folded back under the foot and even the arch of the foot could be broken and so the foot was folded back on itself. Imagine the pain as the bindings were tightened week by week from an early age when the bones were still soft. Ah, beauty.....
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I'm thinking that if pretty little slaves feet were bound, it was to keep them from fleeing, as well as for beauty, no? O-lan was lucky!
Did you look at the other bound feet in this link?
Chinese foot-binding (http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-foot-binding?image=3)
(http://static.environmentalgraffiti.com/sites/default/files/images/800px-ChineseLadieFootgif.img_assist_custom-600x312.gif)
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The Book Club Online is the oldest book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone. We offer cordial discussions of one book a month, 24/7 and enjoy the company of readers from all over the world. Everyone is welcome.
September Book Club Online
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
| (http://seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/goodearth/goodearthcover.jpg) |
Interest in Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, continues with the news that her never-before published, final novel is coming out in October, forty years after her death. The Good Earth is the poignant tale of a farmer and his family in old agrarian China, a depiction of traditional Chinese culture in the early twentieth century before World War II. Some critics say it should move readers to rediscover Buck as a source of insight into both revolutionary China and the United States’ interactions with it.
Let's discover together why The Good Earth remained on the bestseller list for 21 months in 1931 and 1932, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932.l
As Buck delved deeply into the lives of the Chinese poor, she opposed the religious fundamentalism, racial prejudice, gender oppression, sexual repression, and discrimination against the disabled.
She championed many of these causes when she returned from China to the US, including woman’s rights, rights for physically and developmentally disabled persons, and racial inequalities. Pearl won the Nobel Prize in literature, the first American woman to do so.
Relevant Links:
the Good Earth Timeline (http://www.pearl-s-buck.org/document.doc?id=8): |
| DISCUSSION SCHEDULE: |
| September 2-8 | Chapters 1-8 |
| September 9-15 | Chapters 9-15 |
| September 16-22 | Chapters 16-22 |
| September 23-29 | Chapters 23-34 |
Some Topics for Discussion
Sept. 2-8 Chapters 1-8
1. How did a man expect his life to change when he married in China?
2. What did his marriage preparations reveal about Wang Lung's character?
3. Did his new wife disappoint? Your impressions of O-lan?
4. Was it just a coincidence that Wang's good fortune began to change, after he bought that plot of land or was it the birth of his daughter?
5. Are there any clues as to when The Good Earth was set?
Contact: JoanP (jonkie@verizon.net)
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Good morning all! Oh what a difference a day makes......I finished reading our 8 chapters assigned for the week, and as happy as I felt in the first few chapters, I am as equally sad in the ending ones. I will resist jumping too far ahead, but I can say Pearl sure has tugged at all my emotions so far, just in these first 8 chapters.
JoanP, Thank you for the pics. It's true when they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Oh how sad I feel just looking at these pics of what disfigurement binding feet did to women, making them a handicap. Makes you almost want to be an ugly slave so you could walk on your own two feet. Who even thinks this is OK. Thank God they finally outlawed it. We women in America sometimes take for granted our freedom to think, act, work, choose our husband, and express ourselves openly.
#3. Did his new wife disappoint? Your impressions of O-lan?
I feel overall Wang was very pleased with his new wife O-lan. As every marriage, the honeymoon phase is all excitement, 1st baby born, good fortune and all is well. Then once the honeymoon phase is over, child number 2,3,...and a female is born all is not going so well for them. These are the true tests of a marriage, a love, a family and a person's character. My impression of O-lan is she is a very loyal wife, hard worker, loving mother, cares and take pride in her home and family, and although she does not talk much, she has a silent strength. Let's see as the story unfolds, just where this will get them.
Ciao for now~
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Good morning!
I agree that Wang felt himself fortunate, Bellamarie. His wife with the large flat feet turned out to be a helpful farm-hand in his field, enabling him to do so well that he was able to buy more land the next season.
We're told that O-lan was born into poverty - was sold by her family as a slave at the age of 10. Not attractive, the young lords in the Hwang household had left her alone - left her a virgin at 20. Apparently looks counted with them.
O-lan is quite an asset to Wang. I have to laugh whenever he congratulates himself on doing so well. Not sure he gives any credit to O-lan - or recognizes her contribution to his accomplishments. What did he do to deserve her?
She made no production of the whole childbirth process, This is her first child, no family or anyone to help her, did it alone - worked the fields in the morning - and managed to get a hot meal on the table for the men in the family after giving birth! In addition, she had the good fortune to produce a boy to the family. (I guess we have to recognize Wang's contribution there. ;))
I'm thinking now of Pearl Buck's first baby...also born in China in 1920. A daughter, Carol. (Pearl's mother, who had been ill, died shortly after Carol was born.) How were daughters regarded in 1920 in China? How about today?
Can you figure out when Wang Lung's story in The Good Earth was set?
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Feeling as Belamarie does about the once happy Lung Wang's life and the horrible downfall of his family and his neighbors when the drought hits them all. I was going to do a little research and find when and if that drought actually happened but decided that it didn't matter as that's what Pearl Buck put into her story. And what a beautifully written story it is.
There were a number of things that the farmers did automatically did and I am curious about some of them. For instance, Wang Lung bought from or traded his neighbor for seeds. Hmmm, must have been customary.
After reading about O'lan's housework, I was exhausted! And then after she accomplished all that (picked the bugs from the blankets while she awaited the drying of the covers for them, just one of many jobs she did in her new home). Then she joined Wang in the fields! This lady is a treasure and I think Wang is beginning to see her value.
I loved his happiness with her presenting him with a beautiful son and her plan to make new clothes for him and herself and Wang for when she presented the baby to the Ancient Mistress at the House of Hwang.
How did she know about the buying of cloth since she always served in the kitchen at House of Hwang? That she needed 24 feet of cloth and the cloth merchant would throw in 2 more feet as a courtesy? This woman is much more than Wang expected.
One thing that really brought home the slavery understanding was when Wang called his new daughter a slave. Is this what happened to most girls that were born into poverty? How awful!
The foot binding was a sorry cruelty to the women and to the baby girls. Why did the poor even think it was required of them and their daughters? Am I misunderstanding about that?
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Foot binding has always seemed so brutal.The idea of not being able to move without pain is horrible to me.
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Spare me the foot-binding. What an awful thing to do to anyone. What a price to pay for being female and upper or middle class. Surely that was no part of a peasant life. Crippling the woman of whom so much was expected.
Wang seems very pleased with his good fortune. In fact he gets nervous about it, hoping the gods won't notice. O-lan, surely finds liberation of sorts in her new role as the wife of Wang. These two are on the make, which surprises me. Peasants, it seems, could improve their lot.
How funny to hear honeymoons mentioned. That would have been a new concept for Wang and O'lan. They seem to communicate by signs and signals.
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Annie, good questions. Yes, I'd say seeds were the currency, among farmers. Worth more than money over time, I'd say. (As long as it rained. Water always trumps seed.)
I never questioned O-lan's resourcefulness. She's a survivor, a beggar as a child, until she was sold as a slave when she turned 10. I wasn't surprised to learn she could sew clothes...must have had to, or gone without. Do you suppose she was unusual, or typical of poor Chinese girls? Did Pearl Buck base her character on the Chinese girls she knew, I wonder.
We need to talk more about the term, "slave," - were all Chinese female babies destined for such a life? That's depressing, isn't it? Were there any alternatives?
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Just one word occurs when I read of this brutal foot torture - WHY?
I get it - (sort of) - that rich people did it, because tiny feet made them attractive to rich men - indicated to these men that they were from rich families.
But why would poor families do this to their daughters? Was it also to attract rich men? And if so, what became of them when no rich man presented himself? She'd have to walk around on tiny, painful feet for the rest of her life, with no one to care for her.
The really big WHY question - why was Wang Lung disappointed that his bride's feet were not bound? What does tell us about him?
Do you think Pearl Buck met many (any?) women with bound feet among the poor she cared for with her mother as a girl? She didn't comment on what she thought of the practice, except to indicate Wang 's disappointment when he noticed O-Lan's unbound feet.
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Having no recording of Pearl Buck's voice, I wondered if she had an accent. So I searched for a recording and here it is:
Her speech at the Nobel Prize awards:
http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=1400
I love her explanation of the Chinese novel and that it wasn't considered an art in China.
And I don't hear a Chinese accent unless her cadence is Chinese.
I also looked up the Droughts in China and found that one had happened in 1900 along with the Boxer rebellion and one in 1907. So was Pearl's family affected by these? Probably.
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The foot binding was a sorry cruelty to the women and to the baby girls. Why did the poor even think it was required of them and their daughters? Am I misunderstanding about that?
This was a difficult decision for poor people. It was straightforward for upper or middle-class parents; if your daughter didn't have bound feet, she couldn't get as good a husband, and getting the best husband she could determined a woman's fate. But for a poor person, it was a trade-off: bound feet, more marriageable; unbound feet, less marriageable, but more able to work, therefore more marriageable on a lower scale, and more able to help stave off poverty. So they gamed the system, hoping they had guessed right.
It's not surprising that Wang Lung would be disappointed in his bride's big feet. Small feet were really erotic, so it was just one more aspect of his bride being plain.
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Hahaha! PatH, we were posting at the same time.
So, the foot binding in the poverty stricken was a decision they had to consider. And some did and some didn't? Right. How long did it go on?I know its outlawed in the '50s but how long had it been happening. I know, Google!
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Here 'tis from Wiki: The practice possibly originated among upper-class court dancers in the late Tang dynasty or the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in Imperial China (10th or 11th century), but spread and eventually became common among all but the lowest of classes. Foot binding eventually became very popular because men found it to be highly attractive, and therefore became Chinese women's way of being beautiful and to show that they were worthy of a husband.
Demise
It was outlawed many times starting in 1847 but did not stop the practice. Then in 1902 by the imperial edicts of the Qing Dynasty. In 1912, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the new Nationalist government of the Republic of China banned foot binding, though, like its predecessors, not always successfully. In Taiwan, foot-binding was banned by the Japanese administration in 1915. Additionally, some families who opposed the practice made contractual agreements with each other, promising an infant son in marriage to an infant daughter who did not have bound feet. When the Communists took power in 1949, they were able to enforce a strict prohibition on foot-binding, including in isolated areas deep in the countryside where the Nationalist prohibition had been ignored. The ban remains in effect today.
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JoanP,
Please remind me of where I can go and put links to these lengthy histories?? Thanks!
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Re Olan's resourcefulness......(which is over the top), I think it comes from Pearl S Buck's personal fantasy about what makes the ideal woman. I have noticed in her other books that the female hero is always infinitely resourceful, knowlegeable, perceptive and a paragon of patience and understanding. I'm not kidding . Madam Wu and Peony are both the same: upper class versions of Olan.
I expect she wasn't like that herself!!
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Annie, Thank you so much for the audio link of Pearl. She has such a calming voice. I do believe I could detect a bit of the Chinese style while speaking. I closed my eyes and listened and there are times where she stops and hesitates, much like the style of the Chinese women. It's as though they always take their time to speak, either because they have not always been permitted to speak openly or maybe because they take pause and think carefully before speaking. Unlike American women who can speak quickly, with regret later. lolol
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;D
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That's why I like posting vs threads. You can reread what you said and change it if you want. :)
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Pat, I too love the writing in this novel. It's simple but makes all of the details of their lives come alive. Olan must have suffered as a slave. She was young and apparently a great worker, given what we see her doing for her new household. The staff and other slaves might well have taken advantage of her and made her do more than her share. It seems that they treated her harshly. When she is awakened by Wang Lung after she cooks dinner for his friends, she puts her arm up as if to defend herself.
Later, when she is about to give birth for the first time she reacts vehemently to her husband's suggestion that she have someone from the great house help her with the birth.
Instead of being cowed by her experiences, they have given her determination to show off her newborn son. And determination to help her husband live as prosperous a life as they can make from their land. Both of them are such hard workers.
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Wang Lung has truly prospered since his marriage, but I wonder if he credits any of his good fortune to O_lan. She who has given him a son, improved the home by cleaning and mending things, but also worked by his side in the fields. The story says she was a kitchen slave. How or from whom did she learn all those skills. And I too wonder in what period the story is set.
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Marcie, I enjoy the details Pearl works into the writing, without over-explaining. Though she is the narrator, she stays out of the story, does not give her own viewpoint. Yet I sense she has lived through the period she is writing about. I'm aware of her presence...
Dana, when do you think the story takes place? Annie looked up periods of drought in China - and found that one had happened in 1900 along with the Boxer rebellion and one in 1907.
I had to look it up to see what the Boxer Rebellion, was about, because it affected missionaries working in China at the time - as Pearl's family was. She was 8 years old at the time..
During the time Pearl was growing up in China, the country was restless and violent, and hatred against foreigners culminated in the Boxer Uprising of 1900.
"The Boxer Rebellion officially supported peasant uprising of 1900 that attempted to drive all foreigners from China. “Boxers” was a name that foreigners gave to a Chinese secret society known as the Yihequan (“Righteous and Harmonious Fists”). The group practiced certain boxing and calisthenic rituals in the belief that this made them invulnerable.
In 1900, during the Boxer Uprising, Caroline and the children evacuated to Shanghai, where they spent several anxious months waiting for word of Absalom's fate. Later that year, the family returned to the US for another home leave.
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"Pearl S Buck's personal fantasy about what makes the ideal woman. I have noticed in her other books that the female hero is always infinitely resourceful, knowlegeable, perceptive and a paragon of patience and understanding. Madam Wu and Peony are both the same: upper class versions of Olan. Dana
That is so interesting to read, Dana- that Pearl writes about the ideal women in her other books. I've read that she herself was a perfectionist in everything that she did. And it was because of this trait that she found it so hard to accept that her only biological child was not perfect. I can imagine how difficult it was to write of Olan's big healthy sons - and then the little daughter who seems to be suffering from some sort of difficulty herself. Do you remember how she was described?
"Weighing seven pounds, eight ounces at birth, she appeared to be healthy. Neither parent suspected that she was destined to experience severe mental retardation due to an inability to metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine. In fact, PKU was not even a recognized disease entity at the time."
Pearl blamed herself - had just returned to China from entering Carol in a facility in New Jersey when she began to write The Good Earth - telling acquaintances there that her daughter was in a boarding school in the States. She could not bring herself to admit that her child was not perfect...until she wrote The Child Who Never Grew in 1950, 30 years after her birth. Carol Buck died in 1992.
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Wang Yung is very pleased with Olan. I think he gives her as much credit as men in his era/area could give an "unworthy" woman. Both are hard working and seem to pleased with each other. I am enjoying the book, again and find it hard not to read ahead. I also started reading Yung Fu. It is set in the same time period and has an introduction by Pearl Buck.
Sally
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I'm enjoying the book too, Sally. (I confess to reading ahead too...too hard to stop.) In some ways, O-Lan is easy to understand...you can tell from her unquestionning response to Wang's wishes, that she is ready to do what he wants, with no concern for her own feelings. I love the way the two communicate, with few words. Still, I find her inscrutable - how does she really feel about...well, about anything?
Wang is easier to understand, though sometimes he has mixed reactions - he wants to do the right thing, and yet he has this pride to want to look good in the eyes of his neighbors. Maybe we all do...
What do you think of Wang's religious beliefs, his recognition of the small earth gods in the temple? - When he is experiencing good fortune, he is compelled to burn incense before them ...to celebrate his marriage, the birth of his first son, etc. At other times, he skimps...but when times are bad, he rejects them altogether, shakes his fist at them, claiming they are unsympathetic. When he rejects the gods, do they punish him? Or does he reject them because they rejected his needs?
Is this Pearl Buck's estimation of the Chinese famers' sprituality? I keep forgetting she's the daugher of a Christian missionary. She must have some opinion regarding Chinese religious beliefs, don't you think?
Sally, do you find any reference at all to religious beliefs in China in Yung Fu? (Can you remind me of what that is? I remember when you said you were ordering it...)
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I am so excited the library called and I now have "The Exile" which I will begin reading along with The Good Earth. The book's binding is very worn and tattered and I noticed the copy right is 1936. When my hubby picked it up for me the guy who works at the library was curious about the book because it is so worn and old. My hubby mentioned I was in an on line book club for seniors. The guy said his wife was in a book club also, but could tell ours was more distinguished, I suppose is what he meant. lolol I like to think we are "distinguished."
I get the feeling that Wang worries that he will be punished if he enjoys his blessings of good fortune too much. Sort of like you must always remain humble and appreciative, but do not boast or find too much joy, lest you will be punished. Don't we all feel that way at times. Like you want to pinch yourself to see if it's real, and then begin to feel a bit guilty for your good fortune?
Interesting, I was sitting here typing and my church bulletin was sitting on my table and I glanced and saw this scripture on the front: Psalms 128: 2 "What your hands provide you will enjoy; you will be blessed and prosper."
Wang and O-lan indeed have prospered for the work of their hands, yet then mother nature blows in and wipes away everyone's harvests. I found it appalling how Wang's uncle came begging and when he had nothing more to give the uncle decided to shame Wang publicly. I really do not like this uncle. So...is this story true? Did China indeed experience the famine due to the weather? Even the great House of Hawg? My heart went out to the people of this village. I grew up a very poor family of seven children and knew what true hunger pains felt like. If it was not for rice being prepared a million ways, I am certain we would have gone to bed many nights with empty bellies. We relied heavily on our land to provide us with food to freeze and can for the winter months. This chapter reminded me how quickly the weather can change and effect just the simple needs of life.
Ciao for now~
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JoanP asks: how does O-lan really feel about anything? It's interesting that the story is told completely from the point of view of Wang Lung's thoughts. We see her, but have no notion of what she's thinking except for how she acts. There are clues. When Wang Lung suggests that she might get help during childbirth from someone in the great house, she gets angry:"None in that house!" She felt ill-used there, had no one she could turn to as a friend. And she looks forward to going back, showing off her son, in new-made finery, showing herself as a success.
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I got the impression O-lan did not want anyone from the House of Hawg to help with her delivery because she saw them as "slaves" unworthy to help with her birth, or to see her baby before she could present him in exceptional fashion. Is it just me or does any one else get the impression O-lan saw her son as almost royalty. I felt as though she did not and would not accept anyone seeing her first born son as anything less than the fine silks she dressed him in. I have no idea where this story is headed but for some reason I see O-lan and Wang becoming very wealthy and of high esteem. Beating all odds! She may be silent, but clearly a force to be reckoned with. IMO
Ciao for now~
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Let's do, let's add "distinguished" to "cordial" in the description of our bookclub, Bellamarie! :D That is quite a description of "The Exile" copy your library lent to you! The 1936 edition! I can see why the librarian was impressed. Please share any nuggets you pick up when reading of Pearl's mother's life in China. We look forward to that.
I had forgot O-lan's outburst at the suggestion that she ask for help from the Hwang household, Path! BUT she didn't voice the reason for her anger, did she? As you say, she had no friends there, was treated badly for ten years. I didn't get the feeling that she regarded her first-born son as royalty, though - or the women at the Hwang house as unworthy to help her. I thought that through her marriage and hard work with Wang, she had achieved some sort of respectability and wanted to arrive at the big house with pride - with her head held high. Which she did. Did you notice how things weren't going so well with the idle Hwangs, as the Lungs were rising, due to their hard work?
Wang's uncle and his family are suffering from shortages at this time as well, due to their idleness. Is anyone working as hard as Wang? Is the author making a point of this?
When the drought occurred, even hard-working Wang was unable to coax the land to provide for his family. No use appealing to those two earth gods in the temple. I'd love to know what they looked like - in their fading red paper dresses.
" Did China indeed experience the famine due to the weather?"
Annie noted the drought of 1905, which coincided with the Boxer Rebellion in China when Pearl and her family had to leave China.
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Have you noticed any reference to Wang and O-lan's little daughter's physical condition - other than that she was tiny? I may have missed something. I was looking for some information on how John Lossing Buck reacted to the birth of his daughter and her condition, to see if there were any parallel's between Pearl's husband and Wang. I knew that Pearl wrote The Good Earth in China, after placing Carol in an institution in New Jersey. In attatched article, Pearl's daughter, Janice, tells her mother's story when writing of Carol and John Buck.
Caroline Grace Buck was born to (John) Lossing Buck and Pearl Sydenstricker Buck in 1920. Weighing seven pounds, eight ounces, she appeared to be healthy. Neither parent suspected that she was destined to experience severe mental retardation due to an inability to metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine.
Buck did not see Carol again for three years (after leaving her in NJ), feeling guilty but also confessing in private that, at times, she wished her daughter would just die.
"I left her all alone for three years and that, I know now, was wrong for me to have done. It was wrong for her and for me. After all, she had never been separated from me before and for it to be so sudden and so complete was hard on us both. True I paid a woman friend to go and see her, and she reported to me each month, but it was not the same as visiting her myself. I vowed I would go back and see her at least once a year."
After years of an unhappy marriage, Pearl divorced her husband in 1935 As seen by Pearl S. Buck, Lossing had withdrawn from her and Carol well before the divorce, effectively making her a single parent.
According to Buck, because her husband thought that sending their retarded daughter to an expensive, private institution was a waste of money, she was compelled to meet all the expenses herself. In his authorized biography of Pearl S. Buck, Theodore F. Harris wrote: “She was alone in her care for the child. It became entirely her responsibility to provide for the child's future”
Buck herself had this to say:
. . I was in the United States with my retarded child, for whose care and future I was solely responsible. For her sake I needed money, for I knew all too well the cost of lifelong care for such a child. . . . I was well paid as teachers go, but now I had to earn much more.
The Good Earth remained on the bestseller list for almost two years, helped in part by the publicity surrounding the 1932 Pulitzer Prize that it received. Grossing over $1,000,000 (Buck hoped it would make $20,000), its proceeds allowed the author to settle debts and establish a substantial (for the time) $40,000 endowment at Vineland for her retarded daughter.
Carol’s plight also influenced Buck’s literature directly. In The Good Earth, which is about a Chinese peasant who amasses a fortune by accumulating land and skillfully farming it, we read that the protagonist, Wang Lung, and his dutiful wife, O-lan, had a retarded baby girl. The child, who is never referred to by name, was a source of great sorrow and heart-felt pain to her compassionate father.
Wang Lung had, therefore, at this time no sorrow of any kind, unless it was this sorrow, that his eldest girl child neither spoke nor did those things which were right for her age, but only smiled her baby smile still when she caught her father's glance. Whether it was the desperate first year of her life or the starving or what it was, month after month went past and Wang Lung waited for the first words to come from her lips, even for his name which the children called him, "da-da." But no sound came, only the sweet, empty smile, and when he looked at her he groaned forth, "Little fool --- my poor little fool ---".
"The nameless child, who serves throughout the novel as a symbol of humanity's essential helplessness, is Pearl's anguished, barely disguised memorial to Carol" . At the time, Carol was still hidden from the public eye. Indeed, Buck did not mention Carol by name or reveal her mental deficiencies in any of her early writings, including her more autobiographical pieces.
footnote - (John) Lossing Buck and Pearl Sydenstricker were married in 1917. Although the couple remained married for 18 years, Pearl S. Buck realized early on she should not have married Lossing, who was not addicted to books and, in her mind, was not her intellectual equal. "Did you ever try to live just with a handsome face?" asked Buck. Lossing Buck was noticeably absent from The Child Who Never Grew. According to Janice Walsh (1992), this omission was partly due to the fact that the couple was already growing apart when the Carol was born. Following the couple’s divorce in 1935, there was almost no communication between Lossing and his ex-wife.
- Janice Buck Walsh on Pearl, Carol and John Buck - and The Good Earth (http://www.pkuworld.org/home/historyProfile.asp?s=2)
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I don't know if anyone has mentioned this fact.
If they did I didn't remember it. It really struck me as important and interesting.
"The Good Earth" was the first part of a trilogy and was published in 1931. Part two was called "Sons" and was published in 1932 and part three, published in 1935 was called "A House Divided".
Someone asked about the period the first book encompasses. It seems that no specific date is mentioned but the time line is defined by the mention (in later chapters) of the Railway, China's first. It was put to use in 1908.
Three years later in 1911 there was a Civil war which matches the development of the family in the three years between 1908 and 1911.
The ending of the book is approx. the time of it's publication in 1931.
(My source is of course Wikipedia).
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Joan, I will let you know about religious beliefs in Young Fu as I read more. Too soon to tell, yet.
I am wondering if any of you have read the other two books in the trilogy? They might be interesting to follow up on.
Sally
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So many things to say:
Bellamarie, your remarks pointed out to me that indeed, O-lan is ambitious. And she is certainly glad to show off to her former masters that she has managed to achieve worth, at least the worth a woman can hope for, by having a proper status as a wife, and having produced a fine son.
Famines: I'm sure there were numerous famines, regional or widespread. O-lan had already experienced one, which is how she knew to save out the corncobs, not use them for fuel, because you could grind them up and eat them. That famine must not have gone as far as this village, since Wang Lung doesn't seem to have experienced famine before.
The retarded daughter: I've skimmed through the first 8 chapters again twice to see when Buck starts to say she is retarded. When the famine starts, the daughter is still nursing, and her mother calls her "poor fool", saying eat while there is still something to eat. In chapter 9, she is not sitting up when she should, though by then everyone is weak from hunger. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Wang Lung had thought of the birth of a daughter as a misfortune; how will he handle a retarded child? A real test of character.
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Since we don't know whether to place this book in 1900 or 1907, the two dates when I found that droughts occurred, but maybe Pearl used those droughts to which she had experienced as a child, to describe the one in the book. One of those droughts was happening when the Boxer rebellion was going on. Isn't that why the Sydenstryker family moved to a larger city? The Boxer War was about the Chinese from the north hating all foreigners who were living in their midst. They wanted them all to leave China.
As to her marriage to Lossing Buck, the biographer, Spirling, says that there was an early? book entitled "A China Woman Speaks" which describes her unhappiness in her marriage from day one. The house where they live is described perfectly in that book along with her failures to attract Lossing's attention while he "worn out by his daily battle to impose rational modern solutions on problems caused by Chin legacy of superstition and obsolete belief"
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I have read the second book but not the third yet. The fool remains a fool and eventually dies, having been looked after by.....but I won't go there yet, bit of a spoiler.......
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PatH, Yes, you are sleuth, O-lan saving the corn cobs and knowing so much of how to deal with the famine is truly proof she has lived through or has been educated by someone who has lived through a famine.
"Wang Lung had, therefore, at this time no sorrow of any kind, unless it was this sorrow, that his eldest girl child neither spoke nor did those things which were right for her age, but only smiled her baby smile still when she caught her father's glance. Whether it was the desperate first year of her life or the starving or what it was, month after month went past and Wang Lung waited for the first words to come from her lips, even for his name which the children called him, "da-da." But no sound came, only the sweet, empty smile, and when he looked at her he groaned forth, "Little fool --- my poor little fool ---". "
I have not read ahead so this talk of a retarded daughter obviously had me curious. I suppose this will come to light in the future chapters and may very well be Pearl including her poor retarded daughter Carol in this book.
I began The Exile the other day and can tell you so far it is not as easy read as The Good Earth. If anything I am a bit confused with keeping up with the people and places and not even sure who the narrator is. But I can tell you from the very beginning Pearl is describing the woman much like she describes O-lan: "Out of the swift scores of pictures of her that pass through my memory I choose one that is most herself. I take this one. Here she stands in the Chinese city on the Yangtse River. She is in the bloom of her maturity, a strong, very straight figure, of a beautiful free carriage, standing in full, hot sunshine of summer. She is not tall, nor very short, and she stands sturdily upon her feet. there is a trowel in her hand; she has been digging in her garden. it is a good strong hand that holds the trowel, a firm brown hand not too whitely well kept, and bearing evidence of many kinds of labor."
She goes on with other adjectives that reminds me of O-lan. I am sensing Pearl likes her women in her novels as strong and not necessarily delicate and beautiful. Makes me wonder if she sees her main female characters through her own eyes of how she sees herself. I do know through the links provided to us, I viewed Pearl a very beautiful woman with a face of gentleness and love. This woman that is mentioned leaving her child and not going to visit her for three years does not fit with the image I saw with her holding a child with so much love in her eyes. I'm a bit disappointed just reading about a mother leaving her retarded child to a home to care for her and paying a woman to check on her, yet she herself NEVER visiting her. Oh dear me, I am devastated knowing this. She talks about needing money to provide to the care of her child, but for me the presence of a mother's love, holding a child, feeding and playing with the child is priceless and does not require a cent of money. I don't want to seem harsh or judgemental, it's just my heart is heavy after reading this of Pearl and her sweet daughter Carol. I have been a child advocate my entire life. I have taught pre school - 8th grade, I have taught religion from 3 yrs old - Confirmation, I began my in home day care and have had many children whom I have had to point out to the parents their special needs such as Asbergers, Autism, ADHA, Dyslexia, Sensory etc., etc. My children and grandchildren have been my existence in life. I grew up in a family of poor who relied heavily on harvests to get by, and had a few cousins who were mentally retarded/handicapped and we never considered leaving them to a home to care for them. We loved them and played together. Forgive me for my rant.....I've just been taken aback at the moment. Ughhh...I hope these feelings I have leave me quickly.
Got to rush off to a grand daughter's volleyball game.
Ciao for now~
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So much in these early chapters...
About the little daughter, unnamed - thanks for looking over these first eight chapters to see how she is described, Pat. Her mother is the one who refers to her as "poor little fool." Wang chews up her food for her and puts it into her mouth - from his. The little smile saves her as many daughters are sold - especially in times of draught. We're going to here more about her when we move on. Thanks for stopping when you did, Dana, remembering that some of us have not read The Good Earth yet.
Weren't you horrified to read that hunger is causing some to eat human flesh? It seems little girls would be the first to go - especially little girls who don't seem to function - a strain on any family.
Maybe it would help to learn that Pearl Buck admitted to her shortcomings as a mother and became an advocate for handicapped children for the rest of her life, Bellamarie. More on that, later. Just know she will be an advocate for these children when she returns to the US, after her divorce from her husband. It was her husband who complained of the time Pearl was spending with the child those nine years before she took her to the institution in the US. She writes this The Good Earth when she returns, full of grief for leaving her only natural child in the facility...the best facility she could find.
Thank you for sharing what you are finding in The Exile. I didn't think of Pearl's mother in the way Pearl describes her either. I thought of her more as a reader, someone who tended her flower garden and enjoyed music. Not the outdoorsy type at all. I wonder how much of her own mother Pearl wrote into O-Lan's character.
Speaking of O-lan's character, I'm beginning to wonder about her maternal instincts - wonder if the "little fool" would have been sold off by now if it weren't for the fact that the little girl was won her daddy's affection. Do you see her the same way?
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Tons of articles about Pearl's advocacy for the handicapped - but it all seems to have begin with the publication of her book in 1950 - The Child Who Never Grew which brought the situation to the public's attention...
The Child Who Never Grew," by Pearl S. Buck, is the true story of the struggle of the author after learning that her daughter Carol, born in 1920, was mentally handicapped. The 1992 Woodbine House edition contains a foreword by James Michener, an introduction by Martha M. Jablow, and an afterword by Janice C. Walsh, who was Pearl's daughter and Carol's's sister.
Jablow notes in her intro that "Child" first appeared as an article in "Ladies Home Journal" in 1950 and was shortly thereafter published in book form. Jablow notes that the book is "a landmark in the literature about disabilities." As such, I consider "Child" a fitting companion text to a book like Helen Keller's "The Story of My Life." Jablow notes that mental retardation "carried a shameful stigma" when Buck first had this story published; Jablow provides further useful historical context for the main text.
Buck writes very movingly of her heartache at the discovery of her child's plight. She documents her awareness of the stigma against people like Carol, and also tells of her search for an institution where Carol's special needs might be met. Buck passionately defends the humanity and worth of the mentally retarded, and tells what her experiences with Carol taught her: "I learned respect and reverence for every human mind. It was my child who taught me to understand so clearly that all people are equal in their humanity and that all have the same human rights."
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It's hard to imagine what a different climate the parent of a retarded child faced in 1920 than she would now. Such a child was regarded as shameful and embarrassing, not talked about. There were few resources to help in the diagnosis, care and education of the child. Buck did care for her daughter Carol for nine years, which put considerable strain on her marriage, as did the considerable cost of care after Carol was institutionalized. It wasn't a good marriage anyway, but these strains made it worse.
Here is a moving description of that time:
http://faculty.randolphcollege.edu/fwebb/buck/vmguarisco/BioPage.htm (http://faculty.randolphcollege.edu/fwebb/buck/vmguarisco/BioPage.htm)
Phenylketonuria, from which Carol suffered, was first described in 1934, when Carol was 14, and she herself wasn't diagnosed until much later. Now, babies are tested at birth, and the right diet can prevent the retardation.
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I'm very busy at the moment and don't have time to read the book but will infrequently check out all your interesting posts. A very good biography of Buck is
Pearl S. Buck : a cultural biography / Peter Conn.
New York : Cambridge University Press, 1996.
I read it about ten years ago when i had the opportunity to go on a special tour of her Bucks Co house with her dgt Janice. I thought i should learn something about PB besides the fact that she wrote The Good Earth before i went. :) Conn is a professor of English at Penn. I was very surprised at what a fascinating life she had. My mother read several of her books when i was growing up, she would have been even more surprised at Buck's life - she (my mother) of 8 generations of Calvinist Presbyterians, many of them ministers, and a president of the Missionary Society!
Thank you Annie for finding her "voice." i found it much like Eleanor R's in the pronounciation of the words and in tone. They were contemporaries and knew one another. She was also acquainted with Alice Paul (the visit i made to the house was with a group from the AP Institute who had been invited by Janice to talk about historical preservation of women's history sites), and with Jane Addams and Margaret Sanger. All of those women are my heroes.
I look forward to lurking and learning from your continued conversation about the book.
Jean
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1. How did a man expect his life to change when he married in China?
All his domestic needs would be taken care of by his wife.
2. What did his marriage preparations reveal about Wang Lung's character?
That he would be a good provider.
3. Did his new wife disappoint?
'In the dark and the woman beside him, an exultation filled him fit to break his body. He gave a hoarse laugh into the darkness and seized her.' p26
As you can see, first impressions, but your posts show there is much more than meets the eye in this book. Some heart breaking things are mentioned. The retarded child tragedy reminds me of the book and movie Last Orders, by Graham Swift. The father rejected the child immediately. The mother visited her daughter regularly in the institution for the next fifty years. On the last visit, mother pleaded with her daughter: Just for once, give me a sign that you know I'm here.
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"I read Peter Conn's cultural biography about ten years ago when i had the opportunity to go on a special tour of her Bucks Co house with her dgt Janice."
Thank you for that, Jean. Can you give us a definition of a "cultural biography? I was trying t get in touch with Janice earlier - I think she'd be 88 years now...decided to try to get in touich with Henriette, one of Pearl Book's African American adopted daughters instead. I'd love to visit the newly reopened house in Buck's County. How special for you that Janice was there when you went.
Ginny brought this site to our attention - daughter Janice had kept up with Carol Buck's progress. . It appears Carol did make progress and grow wihile at Vineland. Janice report is quite moving. http://www.pkuworld.org/home/historyProfile.asp?s=2
We'll look forward to you visits, Jean...
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The Book Club Online is the oldest book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone. We offer cordial discussions of one book a month, 24/7 and enjoy the company of readers from all over the world. Everyone is welcome.
September Book Club Online
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
| (http://seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/goodearth/goodearthcover.jpg) |
Interest in Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, continues with the news that her never-before published, final novel is coming out in October, forty years after her death. The Good Earth is the poignant tale of a farmer and his family in old agrarian China, a depiction of traditional Chinese culture in the early twentieth century before World War II. Some critics say it should move readers to rediscover Buck as a source of insight into both revolutionary China and the United States’ interactions with it.
Let's discover together why The Good Earth remained on the bestseller list for 21 months in 1931 and 1932, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932.l
As Buck delved deeply into the lives of the Chinese poor, she opposed the religious fundamentalism, racial prejudice, gender oppression, sexual repression, and discrimination against the disabled.
She championed many of these causes when she returned from China to the US, including woman’s rights, rights for physically and developmentally disabled persons, and racial inequalities. Pearl won the Nobel Prize in literature, the first American woman to do so.
Relevant Links:
the Good Earth Timeline (http://www.pearl-s-buck.org/document.doc?id=8): |
| DISCUSSION SCHEDULE: |
| September 2-8 | Chapters 1-8 |
| September 9-15 | Chapters 9-15 |
| September 16-22 | Chapters 16-21 |
| September 23-29 | Chapters 22-34 |
Some Topics for Discussion
Sept. 9-15 Chapters 9-15
1. Starving people eat human flesh to survive? Members of one's own family?
2. Can you explain Wang's father's high spirits and confidence that he will be fed, and survive?
3. What are the illustrations on those flyers handed to Wang when he learns of the coming revolution against "foreigners." Who are these foreigners?
4. How would you compare Wang and O-lan's moral and ethical standards for themselves and their children?
5. Why did Wang decide to take all of the rich man's jewels, leaving him nothing to survive? Was this out of character?
6. Does Wang seem to believe burning incense before the neglected earth gods will assure future success on his land?
Contact: JoanP (jonkie@verizon.net)
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Jonathan - love your first impressions...and then to see them change, or at least develop once the story unfolds! Wang's wife, while not a beauty, exceeded expectations of what a wife should be. Wang proved himself a good provider - until the drought. He went beyond providing for his wife, he showed the generous side - I can't forget those peaches he brought to her that first day. It wasn't necessary - he'd already provided the earrings. But it showed something more about him.
Did she ever disappoint him? Never a word from her, even if he disappointed her. Wasn't this an ideal wife?
"Some heart breaking things are mentioned"
The author never dwells on the heartbreak. It is what we've learned that was going on in her life as she wrote this story that is the real heartbreak!
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Jonathan, I agree, O-lan didn't disappoint. I can't find the passage now, but Wang Lung later thinks, relevant to the fact that the sons of the great house never violated her, that they didn't see what was there--the wonderful softness and beauty of her body. And she surprised him in other ways. She was able and willing to work very hard in the fields. She cooked and kept house to a standard he didn't expect.
Did O-lan get a good bargain? Yes. Never mind our standards, Wang Lung is a considerate husband by the standards of his culture. And he is hard-working and ambitious, will do the best he can for his wife and children.
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The descriptions of Buck coming to terms with her daughter’s disabilities really hit home to me. My oldest child, Joanie (named for JoanK) is 45, non-verbal, cannot feed herself or take care of her bodily needs without help. She can walk only with assistance. She recognizes me as a person who is part of her life, but I’m sure she has no idea I’m her mother, or even what a mother is. Like Carol, and also Wang Lung’s daughter, she has a sweet smile, and also beautiful large brown eyes, which make people love her. She also has a quality common in my family which I can best describe as the capacity for joy. We tend to get great pleasure out of everything good we see or experience, and this is definitely true for her. She is a sunny person, and enjoys her life.
Unlike Buck, I don’t have to win a Nobel Prize to take care of my daughter. Maryland is a good state to live in if you are retarded, and Joanie shares an apartment with another woman, with 24/7 supervision, 25 minutes drive away from me.
So I know full well the emotions Buck was dealing with, both the ones I felt and the ones I avoided but saw in other parents. I can’t fault her decisions, especially given the climate and resources then as compared to now.
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A definition of "cultural biography" - A cultural biography examines the impact that a surrounding culture had on a person, a group or even a product. The reason for creating cultural biographies is that nothing exists in a vacuum, which means that any person or thing can be seen as being largely the product of the society of which it is a part. Whether you are producing a cultural biography of a person, business or popular device, the approach you take will be about the same.
Read more: http://www.ehow.com/how_6121457_write-cultural-biography.html#ixzz2eGLyz3sx
JoanIt sounds to me as though ANY GOOD bio would be a cultural biography!?! At least for me, a good bio has to include how the surrounding environment and events impacts the subject. You must remember that Peter Conn is an English professor at Penn (TIC). He may understand better than I how many different kinds if biographies thre may be. :D
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I would agree that any really good biography would have to fit the definition of Cultural Biography, but I guess a lot of bios don't.
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I finished the first section and several things left an impression on me. One was the fact that in good times Wang Lung blessed the Gods & burned inscense and made them new clothes; but when times got hard he cursed & neglected the Gods. It seemed to me that he should have tried to appease the Gods. The second thing that made n impression on me was the care & support he gave his old father. The father seemed to expect it as his due. Neither man resented this situation; but just accepted it as a filial duty.
Wang Lung & Olan were good people. They both felt that they were fortunate to have each other.
Sally
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The second thing that made n impression on me was the care & support he gave his old father. The father seemed to expect it as his due. Neither man resented this situation; but just accepted it as a filial duty.
Sally
Indeed it was Wang Lung's duty; responsibility for care of aging parents is an important part of Chinese culture. That's one thing that makes china's one child policy very hard for people. In addition to caring for your parents, respect for other older people, especially relatives, was important. When Wang Lung criticizes his uncle for his improvident ways, this is a huge breach of etiquette.
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Respect for other older people, especially relatives, was important.
. Oh, I agree, both with both of you. Wang's devotion to the gods seems non-existant. When he burns incense, it seems like something he carries out for good luck - like hanging a horseshoe in the barn...but he doesn't really believe that the gods are looking out for him. But care for family elders, that's something he really believes in. His father's uncle is family, which is the only reason he gives the man anything at all. He has no respect for him, but feels he owes him because of the relationship.
Pat - I was so moved by your story - you added a whole level of understanding to Pearl Buck's concern for this daughter who doesn't really know who she is. Carol is happy where she is, she is cared for - it is the best (and only?) solution Pearl can come up with. I was wondering how we'd be understanding this story if we didn't know of the author's emotional attachment and devotion to her daughter. I found it interesting that O-lan does not seem to be as concerned for the little fool as Wang was. Just the opposite from the Buck's father-daughter relationship - or rather lack of a relationship. Of course, there's a lot that goes on in O-lan's heart that we don't know about. She keeps her feelings to herself.
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Oh JoanP, Thank you so very much for that wonderful link, that helped me feel much better after getting a clearer view of Pearl's relationship with her daughter Carol. I have a daughter who was diagnosed bipolar manic depressant and was a very difficult child/teen. Although she is married, at some point we needed to bring her back home with us, because I refused to leave her in a mental state hospital to be cared for, which would have been the only solution since her husband could not afford to miss any work. It was the best decision we could make for her and now after much therapy, classes and medication she has returned to live with her loving husband. It will always be a struggle for her, him and us because this illness is managed only as best as possible by the person staying on their medication. So my heart went out to Carol being away from her mother for three years. But....after reading the link provided, I can tell Pearl loved her daughter and with the conditions of her marriage, income etc., she did what she felt was in the best interest of her daughter and then later on she did become involved with her once again.
PatH, Thank you for sharing your own personal story with your precious daughter. I could feel the joy and love of your family and you all are very blessed.
JoanP. " I was wondering how we'd be understanding this story if we didn't know of the author's emotional attachment and devotion to her daughter. "
I do think reading the book and also knowing Pearl's own life, and now I am reading The Exile, about Pearl's mother it is heightening my senses of Wang and O-lan.
Jonathan - love your first impressions...and then to see them change, or at least develop once the story unfolds!
Yes, indeed! I find my heartstrings being pulled in many directions just in the first 8 chapters of this book. I am off to read the next chapters, can't wait to see what unfolds next for this family.
Ciao for now~
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Drought and starvation bring about drastic changes in people - as we'll see in the next chapters. Gone are the days of exuberant growth and plenty for Wang Lung and O-lan! In the background we still have questions about female infants born in China. I'd been wondering how the Chinese had viewed the birth of Pearl's daughter - and then see that she had adopted Janice, in 1925 and brought her to live in China until 1935 when she divorced John and returned to US for good. . So I imagine Pearl wasn't disturbed by the way daughters were regarded. Clearly in the story, they were viewed as burdens ...expendable, especially in times of drought and starvation.
I see the drought as something that would have occurred even if the third child had been a boy or if Wang had paid proper respect to those little earth gods in the temple in thanks for his good fortune. I wonder if Wang sees it that way or if he considers the drought punishment in some way. I loved him for loving his "little fool" - though I do fear for her when I read of those eating human flesh in order to survive. She seems to be ...well, I can't even say it. And what of the next child O-lan bears? What happened to her?
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Oh my where to begin...Chapter 9 is so heart wrenching.
pg. 59 "There was such anger in him (Wang) now as he often could not express. At times it seized him like a frenzy so that he rushed out upon his barren threshing floor and shook his arms at the foolish sky that shone above him, eternally blue and clear and cold and cloudless. "Oh you are too wicked you Old Man in Heaven!" he would cry recklessly. And if for an instant he were afraid he would the next instant cry sullenly, "And what can happen to me worse that that which has happened!" Once he walked, dragging one foot after another in his famished weakness, to the temple of the earth, and deliberately he spat upon the face of the small, imperturbable god who sat there with his goddess."
I can feel his anger, disappointment, hopelessness, despair, and loss of faith. He is a hard working man, now he is not able to not only work his land, but he can not provide a single thing for his famished family. O-lan is yet again with child, and has the baby girl. It was so touching when I read:
pg. 59 "Poor fool- poor little fool__" And once when she essayed a weak smile with her toothless gums showing, he broke into tears..."
I found myself tearing up, seeing how much Wang loves this little baby girl.
I am just appalled at this uncle who is the most despicable man created. I can't even imagine he eating his own children. Really? Then to come to cheat Wang out of their land. O-lan once again speaks up and says NO! So now they must move on to the South to try to save their lives. How does one find the strength to even move, let alone set out to walk hundreds of miles. This reminded me of the Exodus. So can we agree, their God has not forsaken them, if He has given them the wisdom and strength to move on?
Ciao for now~
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I really wish they had given 'poor little fool' a name but at least she had someone that cared about her. When I started to read about the families having to eat female children, I just wondered if i could go on reading. Cannot help but feel for Wang as land he had worked so hard to acquire and to farm is not now returning food for his family.
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I wish a better name for the little girl too, waafer. Let's refer to her as "Poor little" and forget calling her a fool.
I know what you mean about the uncle and his little girls, Bellamarie. The sad fact was that in times of extreme famine and hunger, this was a common practice. To us, it sounds impossible -
If you google the practice, you will be sickened - even more so than you are after reading what Pearl Buck has written. As a child, Pearl grew up in China, burning the infant remains she found while playing in the countryside. She wouldn't have been as shocked as we are today - it was a common practice, it seems. Here are some facts of female infanticide, minus the cannibalism.
"Female infanticide became more prevalent in the 1900’s[/b]. It was considered a disappointment to a family to have a baby girl. The most common method before the discovery of abortion was drowning the girls. This was done by plunging the baby headfirst into a pot of water until the baby died from suffocation. Another method was to suffocate a child in ashes or by covering her mouth with a paper soaked with vinegar to cut off oxygen to the body. Other methods included crushing the child and starving the child to death. In the 1900’s, infanticide was already illegal. In rural areas girls were killed soon after birth and passed off as stillbirths so that the government would not find out (Mungello). The truth is hard to believe. But girls were killed for a reason. Some girls were killed for physical defects. Most of the time, however, girls were killed because of economic and cultural reasons
Female infanticide began in China as early as 1650 but became a major issue after the One-Child Policy in 1979. http://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/340553.html
I can see, though I hate to say this - if a girl baby had been plunged into boiling water, and the family had nothing at all to eat...no, I can't type out the rest of the thought...but I can understand, sort of...
Bella commented on how much Wang loved this little daughter. Wasn't she a fortunate little girl to have such a father? What of the next baby O-lan bore - another girl? Did Wang know what really happened to her?
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I am certain Wang knew of O-lan killing their baby girl.
Pg 62 " It would be merciful if there were no breath," he muttered and then he heard the feeble cry_how feeble a cry!_hang for an instant upon the stillness. "But there is no mercy of any kind in these days," he finished bitterly, and he sat listening. There was no second cry, and over the house the stillness became impenetrable."
Pg 63 "He (Wang) said nothing, but he took the dead child into the other room laid it upon the earthen floor and searched until he found a bit of broken mat and this he wrapped about it. The round head dropped this way and that and upon the neck he saw two dark, bruised spots, but he finished what he had to do.
This is such a sad part to read. I don't even want to allow my mind to wander to the details of eating their own. God in heaven what cannibals.
How did China intend for babies to be born, and generations to continue, if they practiced killing off the female babies? Were there only certain families who were allowed to have girls/slaves? Again, how do generations continue with the one child family law and obviously it would be a boy allowed to live.
Have to go busy myself with happier thoughts, this is just a bit too grueling for me so early in the morning. Ughhh...
Ciao for now~
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What a tumultuous section! From the low point of almost dying, finally crawling away to the city, eking out a living until their fortunes change, then the climb back up.
Poor O-lan, herself starving, with the added burden of a child growing inside her. Did Wang know what really happened to the baby after she was born? He suspected, though there wasn't really proof. He didn't pursue the question, though; he didn't really want to know, and it's unlikely the child would have survived anyway--born sickly and malnourished, with a mother too starved to be able to produce enough milk. That's a heartbreaking section.
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Bellamarie, we were posting at the same time.
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As you pointed out before, Wang Lung is the narrator and we don't get into O-lan's head - or heart. I'm really trying to understand her - and I guess all the Chinese mothers who went through this heart-wrenching period. How do they stand it? I would believe that the maternal instinct is the same, no matter what part of the world. or the circumstances.
PatH - "it's unlikely the child would have survived anyway--born sickly and malnourished, with a mother too starved to be able to produce enough milk."
Ok, I can understand that - a mercy killing. But let's say for the sake of the discussion, what if the child was born healthy enough...a boy? Or even a healthy enough baby girl?
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Yes, PatH, indeed it was a tumultuous section! :(
Good point JoanP, what if it had been a healthy enough, boy or girl. I personally do not believe in mercy killings. I would have let God decide the fate of the baby, regardless of it's health or the health of the mother. I know my faith says to save the mother in the situation of which one during the birth. But in this case the baby was already born, and even though O-lan like all the others was sickly and starving, she did manage to get up and walk many miles the next day, carrying her other daughter. I'm not judging, only pointing out their situation did change quiet quickly. It makes me wonder if killing the infant daughter made Wang even more attached to their "poor little" and when O-lan considered selling her to help them make their journey back to their land, Wang would not hear of it.
From my observation, Wang allows his emotions to factor into his decisions. O-lan from her experiences from her childhood, seeing what she witnessed how the slave children were treated and what she has already lived through, she seems a bit detached from her emotions. She makes decisions without even conferring with her husband. It's as though she knows what she believes HAS to be done and without hesitation does it. I'm not saying she does not love her husband or children, I just think she does not allow her emotions to factor into life choices. Are emotions a luxury in situations like these, and so others must separate from theirs to do what is necessary, because those who allow their emotions to get in the way of making the decisions are incapable? Like the ruthless uncle, who is capable of eating his own?
A lot to ponder in this section......Ciao for now~
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If it had been a boy, I doubt O-lan would have killed it, maybe not if it had been a healthy girl. I don't like to judge her too harshly--she was weak and starving, had just gone through the strain of childbirth, probably wasn't altogether rational. But I like to hope I would have made a different decision.
That's a good character analysis, Bellamarie. We are learning more of O-lan's past life now, and it's clear that she's a dogged, stubborn survivor. She does what she has to, and she's had to do a lot in her time. The arts of begging and street survival are no mystery to her, and beatings were her normal routine.
O-lan and Wang have standards. They won't abandon his father, they would not have eaten children, and when Wang's son starts to steal, he knows he has to do something.
I don't think the uncle survived by eating children; there are hints he has some other, unsavory source of income.
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Oh my goodness, I never realized that some families ate their children during these times! It's hard to imagine. Remember how horrified we were with the tales of the Donner party?
They seemed to think they would have no trouble selling Poor Little in spite of her condition. Who would have bought her & would she have brought in much money?
Sally
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I am reading the bio by Hilary Spurling along with the book. I must confess to reading way too far into the book. Just couldn't stop! Won't mention anything further than we are supposed to read.
I find that Pearl's reaction to her daughter, Carol and her needs something very difficult to read but understandable. In the biography, I see the horrow of knowing you are going to leave your daughter in another country while you go on without seeing her for 3 years. Although the doctors in China tell her she won't get proper care for Carol unless she takes her back to the United States. At that, Pearl is so reluctant to accept what they have told her, she spends a whole year attempting to teach Carol simple things, like coloring, reading, dressing herself. Finally she sees that this is not helping the girl and she sees that her marriage is failing and she will be the only one to take care of this child, born in a country where girls are at the bottom of the list. So, she makes the trip to eastern part of the U.S. and is horrified by the care offered to the retarded children in our country.
They are made to sit all day just waiting to go back to sleep. They are not helpful places at all just repositories for these misfits. And finally she finds the place where Carol will be honored and taught whatever she can learn.
Later in the bio, we hear that Pearl was a good mother but a cool one. She made a promise to herself never get too involved with her children's lives as they grew. Unusual decision, but I think she was afraid that she had held Carol back by keeping her 9 years as her constant companion. And she didn't want to cause them to depend too much one her.
China was living in the dark ages compared to the rest of the world at that time. Pear's book, Good Earth, plus her following novels, brought China predicaments to the public eye.
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In our book, we see the family deciding to travel down to South China to save themselves from the drought, but, O-lang tells them to wait until the following day so that she can give birth to yet another child. They are in such horrible physical condition that Wang goes to his neighbor, Ching, and asks for just any kind of food for his wife, to save her life as she goes through her ordeal. The description of the family's failing health from starving is just more than one wants to read. The author really is graphic. I don't think any of us has any idea of how horrible their lives have become due to the drought.
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Annie, "So, she makes the trip to eastern part of the U.S. and is horrified by the care offered to the retarded children in our country.
They are made to sit all day just waiting to go back to sleep. They are not helpful places at all just repositories for these misfits.
This does not surprise me in the least. We have many places such as this one still ready to accept the mentally ill, or even elderly. My sister in law has been placed in a facility that advertises great care, medication monitored, activities, interaction with others etc., yet now we are learning she is sitting in her room all day by herself with her Bible, not taking her meds and not coming down to eat. How do places feel it's humane to allow this, as long as they are fed and bathed I suppose they think that's enough. Ughhh...
I am very impressed how O-lan knows just when to speak up in helping Wang make life decisions. When the uncle brings the men to cheat Wang out of his land O-lan says, pg. 67 "The land we will not sell, surely," she said "else when we return from the south we shall have nothing to feed us. But we will sell the table and the two beds and the bedding and the four benches and even the cauldron from the stove. But the rakes and the hoe and the plow we will not sell, nor the land." There was some calmness in her voice which carried more strength than all Wang Lung's anger..."
O-lan is certain they will return, and she knows that even now when they are at their most desperate point in life, they must hold on to the land if they are to have a future. I sense this land will make them rich one day.
Sally, Yes, I thought the same thing about selling "poor little," who would want a child/slave with challenges, and how could she be of use to anyone, and what would she be worth?
PatH, I was impressed when Wang took his son and corrected him for stealing. They do indeed have standards, yet I feel O-lan is willing to overlook some values, such as stealing for the sake of feeding their empty stomachs.
I remember stories my family told me about my Dad who was killed in a train accident when I was only 2 yrs old. Before I was born he had been building our home, we were very poor, so he would steal what ever materials he could to help build the house. He was a very proud man, and had strong Christian values, but then he also had children and a wife to build shelter for and so I suppose in times like these, you do what you can to provide. That house still stands and when my Mom died we girls remodeled it and sold it for a very good price. I am sure my Mom & Dad looked down from Heaven smiling at how we girls learned the sills to use a hammer, saw, and tools to do this ourselves. :)
Ciao for now~
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It's difficult for us to understand the Chinese, a totally different culture, set of values - governed by the need to survive in near impossible situations, isn't it? Pearl Buck grew up among the Chinese women, listening to their painful stories of survival. Understanding them was probably not as difficult for her to understand as it is for us. Can we compare the decisions these people are called upon to make with what we ourselves would do in the same situation?
"It's as though she knows what she believes HAS to be done and without hesitation does it." Bellamarie, do you think O-lan makes her decisions for Wang Lung? She knows he wants to begin the walk the next day - she knows she will be unable to comply with an ailing infant... Did she make the decision - for him?
"I feel O-lan is willing to overlook some values, such as stealing for the sake of feeding their empty stomachs."
I agree, Wang Lung seems to have stricter moral standards - for himself and for his children. Is this because he had a traditional upbringing, while O-lan did not?
All while reading this, and your posts, I can't help but think of China's traditional past and what has become of those moral standards today. Annie "China was living in the dark ages compared to the rest of the world at that time." I'm not sure the situation for female infants has improved all that much in the burgeoning population -
Sally - I hate to think of what a soldier would have done with poor little, had he purchased her for a few pence. O-lan doesn't press for this, because she knows that the small amount will not do the family much good.
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On the bright side, Pat observes -
O-lan and Wang have standards. They won't abandon his father, they would not have eaten children, and when Wang's son starts to steal, he knows he has to do something.
Can we talk about the father for a bit? The old man has been ailing in his room since we've met him. Now he is on this forced march south. He must be weak, hungry and still ailing. And yet, he seems in such high spirits, laughing and talking along the way. And when they reach their destination and the rest of the family must beg for money to pay for a bowl of gruel, he refuses, waits for them to provide for him.
Were you struck by his confidence that he would be cared for, no matter how difficult it would be when there is scarcely enough food to feed the children?
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JoanP, " Do you think O-lan makes her decisions for Wang Lung? She knows he wants to begin the walk the next day - she knows she will be unable to comply with an ailing infant... Did she make the decision - for him?
I don't necessarily think O-lan made the decision "for" Wang, I think she showed him that he had her support. She makes the decision with her entire family's welfare and her own at stake. She has lived through the worst of times being a slave. She knows what life would entail for her daughter if sold. She knows that in order for their family to have even the slightest chance for a future the land is their only resource and it belongs to them! She is not about to let anyone have it due to their immediate circumstances, because I think she knows they will return one day and will be able to harvest once again and have a good life from it. I think Wang was struggling with wanting to do right by his family at the time, yet he too wanted desperately to hold on to their land. He too saw their land as their only chance at a future. O-lan just spoke up and let it be known what they would sell and that the land was not for sale.
I think Wang has the luxury of keeping with his moral standards because he has not experienced what O-lan has. He does know she has seen and lived by far worse than himself, so he is willing to allow her input to the decision making for their family. I don't see him as weak because of this, if anything I see him as a wise man.
Oh dear, don't get me started on the old father....he is so lazy and entitled. Is this a Chinese custom that all elderly fathers are to do nothing but lay and sleep all day and be fed and catered to? Refusing to beg for his own bowl of rice truly irritated me. I guess the only thing that did make me have any respect for this old man was the fact he watched over the small child and he enjoyed her company.
Oh Sally, your post sent chills to me imagining "poor little" in the hands of a ruthless soldier.
This book is NOT for sissies.
Ciao for now~
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I don't know why I know this, but, the Chinese culture at that time was to honor the older parents by taking care of them. And the elderly were not expected to do anything for themselves. They could always assume that this tradition would go on. I am not sure that is isn't still the tradition.
I also remember reading somewhere that they kept pictures, altars, devoted to their dead relatives.It was the tradition.
This is why they killed or sold their girls as it must be a son who follow this tradition.
I have even heard that Chinese couples are killing their girls or?????? in today's world hoping the next child born will be a son. The oldest son must assume the couples care when they are aged.
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Well, it does seem that Father Wang depends on the tradition of caring for one's parents, though he must be aware that the family is starving. He seems to be certain that this too shall pass.
I found some information on the way elders are treated in China today - that would have changed his mind if he knew what the future held...
The deep veneration for parents and the elderly that has been a traditional mark of Chinese culture is rapidly deteriorating after decades of anti-life population control measures in the Communist state, reveal a series of recent surveys
“Like Hitler’s campaign to eliminate ‘useless eaters,’ the one-child policy has created the impression in the minds of the young that the principal hindrance to China’s development is too many people.”
“One of the many unintended consequences of China’s one-child policy * is the falling social status of the elderly,” Mosher told LifeSiteNews. “Young people, who are scarce, are prized, while the elderly, who are numerous, are despised.”
“The same government that has forcibly aborted hundreds of millions of unborn children will not hesitate to send an equal number of elderly to an early grave. The demographic logic of China’s one-child policy almost dictates that mass euthanasia will follow on the heels of mass abortions,” he said.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/chinese-respect-for-elderly-devastated-after-decades-of-population-control/
* What do you know about China's One Child policy in 1978? Annie, I can see why baby girls would not be desired if a couple could only have one child. But think about a community with only male children...
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I have been watching BBC World News lately. Last night the reporter from China was telling of the Chinese who are being forced out of their homes as the government wants to build huge condo/apartment buildings and malls where these people live. They don't own anything but the right to grow produce on the land where they live and that is always owned by the Communist government. One lady interviewed said that her parents are terrified that they will also have to move. They are old, 70 and 80's, with no place to go. I won't go into the whole story about what the government is planning for their population. Another time. This is the second time I have seen these huge malls and apartment/condo buildings that are where the government hopes to move the people to. Millions!
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"Despite the fact that it is illegal to kill newborn babies in the country, female infanticide and the failure to report female births is widely suspected, especially in rural areas."
Warning - the source of this information is really upsetting: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2179271/Innocent-victim-Chinas-child-policy-Newborn-baby-girl-discarded-bin-left-die-plastic-bag-throat-cut.html#ixzz2egEKijTh
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Annie, that is really unsettling...the huge population and the helpless elders - viewed as " useless eaters." Wang Lang's dependant father would not have been so confident that his son would put him first.
“Like Hitler’s campaign to eliminate ‘useless eaters,’ the one-child policy has created the impression in the minds of the young that the principal hindrance to China’s development is too many people.”
The deep veneration for parents and the elderly that has been a traditional mark of Chinese culture is rapidly deteriorating after decades of anti-life population control measures in the Communist state, reveal a series of recent surveys.
My son was in China when they were preparing to host the Olympics not so long ago. Huge numbers of homes of the poor, shacks really, were evacuated, and torn down for new construction. No one could tell him where all those people would be living. They didn't return to those cities though... So you have found an answer!
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Unlike most who seem to be satisfied with begging for just enough for a daily ration of rice, resourceful Wang Lung finds a way to work for his. I wonder if Pearl based his character on anyone she knew. He seems unlike any of the other male characters in the book. Either that, or she's portraying an ideal man and father. Does he seem too good to be true?
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Back to our story which tells us that our little family must go south to remain alive.Just the graphic descriptions of these starving farmers has left me horrified. I keep reading the biography and now realize that Pearl Buck experienced many of the terrible things that were happening. When she first went to China as a child and when she returned after her marriage, she really lived as a Chinese person. As a little girl, her friends were Chinese and she was one of them. So she heard all the mothers, aunties and grandmas talking about what went on in their families. Seems that they were very open about their lives, not knowing that this little white girl was like a sponge, soaking up all their stories which she would later use as an author.
As I read and really take in her Good Earth, I find myself thinking of how civilized in their own world the Chinese were but also how unaware they are of the rest of civilization.
I found this article about the continued killing of baby girls in China and India which was published in 2012! Its still going on--
http://www.lifenews.com/2012/11/02/200-million-girls-killed-in-china-where-are-the-feminists/
This is so hard to believe!
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I just wanted to add to Annie's message below that the 200 million girls killed is WORLD WIDE and touches China only peripherally in the present.
My niece is one of the over 80,000 Chinese girls adopted from China to the U.S.A. in the past 20 years. Thousands more have been adopted world wide. Because of her I know a lot about this subject.
Many girls are put into orphanages because of the "one-child" policy which was started during the Maoist regime to reduce the population. This was to stop infanticide when there wasn't enough to eat. The policy heavily favored males because they are the ones that support elderly parents. Girls go to live with the husband's family. There is no Social Security in China.
The policy was not enforced in many agricultural areas . This was told to us by our guide when I spent a month in China.
There is much discussion in the past two years about changing this one child to a two child policy. Nothing has changed yet but if the one child dies or is in any way handicapped then the family is allowed another child.
If a family decides they want extra children they have to pay a special tax. Wealthy families do this.
One can't compare China of today with the one of Pearl Bucks day without doing a lot of research. No country is without it's faults. The policy of moving great groups of people from agricultural areas to cities or other places has been going on for fifteen years. It sounds bizarre to us but the Gov't has its reasons. (I'm not agreeing, just reporting. The reasons are complex and I'm sure no one is interested in hearing them.)
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Just finished reading the book, "The Exile" by Pearl S. Buck a memoir/biography of her mother Caroline (Carie) Stulting Sydenstricker. Since I am reading The Good Earth with the book club and have never heard of Pearl S. Buck until now, I decided to read The Exile along with Good Earth. I just finished The Exile and had two important questions:
1. Why no where in the entire book does it NOT use Pearl as her name?
2. Who is the narrator of the book? I know that Pearl S. Buck is the writer/author, but the narrator is unknown.
So I googled my questions I found this:
Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker was a name given to her by her mother for many different reasons. “Pearl” was given to her because her mother said, “ You were fair when you were born; you looked like a little pearl” (Buck, My Mother’s House 7). Comfort, her middle name, was given to her because she was a comfort to her mother; and it also was the only family name to pass on to a new child in the family that had not seen an early death.
http://faculty.randolphcollege.edu/fwebb/buck/mebradbury/Mother.html
As for the narrator, all I could find is it was probably a Chinese woman.
I was so frustrated throughout this book wanting to know who is narrating it and when is Pearl born into this family. Carie gives birth to Edwin, Maud, Edith, Arthur, Comfort, Clyde and Faith. No where does it refer to Pearl being the first name and Comfort the middle. No where throughout the book does it indicate who is the narrator.
I enjoyed the book, it tugged at my heartstrings and I didn't want the story to end.
Now to go forward with this discussion of The Good Earth.
Ciao for now~
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Annie, "When she first went to China as a child and when she returned after her marriage, she really lived as a Chinese person."
I'm not sure Pearl (Comfort) actually did live as a Chinese person as a child. Her mother Carie was determined to NOT allow her children to take on any of the Chinese customs. She would teach them of their homeland America, and tell them they belong to America. She taught them all about America and what it was like to live there and even traveled to America with them to show them what it would be like for them when they would leave China to go live in America. When they got into their teens she sent them to America to live with family so they could go to college and university and continue to live their lives in America. Carie decorated their homes in China as if they were in America, she cooked American/southern meals and did not allow the children to dress in Chinese garb, she would bring back clippings of flowers from W. Virginia and plant them so her gardens would be the flowers she grew up with. Throughout the entire book of The Exile, Carie's heart is torn between her love and loyalty to America and her missionary work with the poor Chinese. JoanP you mentioned I might share a few nuggets of The Exile with the book club. I must share this because it is so beautiful. In Carie's last days these were her thoughts and words:
narrator: We wheeled her bed to the window and she lay looking out contentedly. Once she said, half dreaming, "I have had after all so many of the good things of life. I have had little children at my breast, I have had good earth to garden in, ruffled curtains blowing in at my windows, hills to look at, and valleys and sky, books and my music_and people to do for. I've had a lot of good in my life. I'd like to go on living, but this time I would give my life to America."
narrator: Now that I have come to know for myself the country she loved so well, I see that indeed she was the very flower of it. Young in spirit to the end, indomitable, swift in generosity, eager after the fine things in life and yet able to live ardently if necessary in poverty, idealistic with the true idealism that is never satisfied with mere idealism not translated into actuality_she was the very breath of America made flesh and spirit. The thousands of Chinese whom she touched in every sort of way she was America. How often have I heard them say, "Americans are good, because they are kind. She was an American." To lonely sailor boys and soldier boys and to all white men and women her hearty good cheer and ready fellowship stood for home_for America in a far country. To her children, in the midst of the most remote and alien environment she gave somehow and who knows at what cost, sometimes, an American background, making them truly citizens of their own country and giving them a love of it which is deathless. To all of us everywhere who knew her this woman was America."
I just sat for a very long time, taking in that last paragraph, thinking about the turmoil it must have been for her to love America so very much and long for it, yet she was so loyal to her husband's need to be a missionary in China, she would not deny him, his calling. She never thought she was as good as her husband when it came to knowing and loving God. And yet she failed to see she lived the Beatitudes every day, which is one of the closet ways you can "BE" with God. The Exile left me breathless.......
Ciao for now~
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Thank you so much for sharing Pearl's biography of her mother, Bellamarie. Do you know when she wrote that ...or when it was published? It sounds as if she wrote many years after her mother's death. As if she is writing an idealized portrait of her mother.
Doesn't it make you wonder why so many biographers describe Pearl's childhood spent on the streets with the poorest of China's poor? Where is the truth?
A good question...who was the narrator of this book? Why do you not think it is Pearl?
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"One can't compare China of today with the one of Pearl Bucks day without doing a lot of research."
Jude, I can't agree more. It's hard enough to figure out what was going on in China in Pearl's day without doing research. What do you think was going on? Who were the foreigners China was rebelling against? The missionaries, like Pearl's father? Who were the soldiers? Chinese? what was the second flyer Wang brought home - the one with the fat man stabbing a dead man? Did you understand any of that? Other than that Wang is frightened?
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To me the strength of PSB's books about China is that she had absorbed and was able to portray the beauty and positivity of that civilization as well as its horrors. She didn't write books about the West, but we have our horrors too. I really hate when we imagine that our civilization is any better than any other. I just don't think it is.
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The Book Club Online is the oldest book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone. We offer cordial discussions of one book a month, 24/7 and enjoy the company of readers from all over the world. Everyone is welcome.
September Book Club Online
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
| (http://seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/goodearth/goodearthcover.jpg) |
Interest in Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, continues with the news that her never-before published, final novel is coming out in October, forty years after her death. The Good Earth is the poignant tale of a farmer and his family in old agrarian China, a depiction of traditional Chinese culture in the early twentieth century before World War II. Some critics say it should move readers to rediscover Buck as a source of insight into both revolutionary China and the United States’ interactions with it.
Let's discover together why The Good Earth remained on the bestseller list for 21 months in 1931 and 1932, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932.l
Relevant Links:
the Good Earth Timeline (http://www.pearl-s-buck.org/document.doc?id=8); Comprehensive Bio of Pearl Buck and her work (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/pearlbuc.htm); |
| DISCUSSION SCHEDULE: |
| September 2-8 | Chapters 1-8 |
| September 9-15 | Chapters 9-15 |
| September 16-20 | Chapters 16-21 |
| September 21-25 | Chapters 22-28 |
| September 26-29 | Chapters 29-34 |
Some Topics for Discussion
Sept. 16-20 Chapters 16-21
1. Water seems to play a key role in the story. Not a drought this time, now a flood. Too much water. Too much wealth?
How did this new-found wealth affect Wang Lung and O-lan?
2. How long has Lung cared how O-lan's looks reflected on him? When did she become hideous to him? How does O-lan react to this?
3. What did those two pearls mean to O-lan? Why did Wang Lung demand them of her, with silver stashed all over his house?
4. Had Wang Lung ever dreamed of beautiful women before? Why now?
5. "More than one woman under one roof is not for peace." O-lan puts up with the uncle's wife, and even with Lotus...but why does Cuckoo get under her skin?
6. The water has receded at last! Back to the land. What has caused Wang Lung's passion to cool, just as the waters receded?
Contact: JoanP (jonkie@verizon.net)
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JoanP. When you read the book from the very beginning you can tell the narrator is not yet revealed. She/he speaks of Pearl, or I should say throughout the book the narrator uses the name Comfort (never Pearl). If it were Pearl herself she would use pronouns such as I, me, myself, mine etc. When I researched who the narrator was all I could find was "unknown, probably a Chinese woman" So even though Pearl wrote the book, she is using a narrator to tell the story.
The timeline for the book is primarily from the time Carie marries Andrew and leaves to go to China, July 8, 1880 until she dies in 1914. It does touch on Carie's family living in Holland and then moving to W. Virginia. Caroline was born in 1857, so she was 23 yrs. old when she began her life in China.
Here are a few highlights of Pearl:
Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker born June 26, 1892 in W. Virginia, and they left to return to China when she was 3 months old.
In 1911 Pearl returned to America, went to Randolph-Macon Women’s College and in
1914 she returned to China and found her mother sick and emaciated and stayed with her til her death.
(1914 – 1933) She served as a Presbyterian missionary, but her views became highly controversial during the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy, leading to her resignation.
1917 – 1935 Married John Lossing Buck
1935 -1960 Married Richard Walsh until his death.
1936 -The Exile Copyright by Pearl S. Buck second and third printing February 1936
During the Cultural Revolution, Buck, as a preeminent American writer of Chinese village life, was denounced as an "American cultural imperialist."[citation needed] Buck was "heartbroken" when she was prevented from visiting China with Richard Nixon in 1972.
Pearl S. Buck died of lung cancer on March 6, 1973, in Danby, Vermont and was interred in Green Hills Farm in Perkasie, Pennsylvania. She designed her own tombstone. The grave marker is inscribed with Chinese characters representing the name Pearl Sydenstricker.[11]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_S._Buck#Early_life
JoanP, " Doesn't it make you wonder why so many biographers describe Pearl's childhood spent on the streets with the poorest of China's poor? Where is the truth?
Carie protected her children and did not want them to see the atrocities of China. While Pearl did live in poor areas of China and they went through famine and poverty for a short while, they lived a better life than the Chinese. Carie opened her home to feed many. There was a time when she feared the starving people lined up outside her walk would raid her home knowing she had food. They actually had a summer home built in the hills where other Americans built so her children could be with Americans the few months of the summer. It is described as a very nice summer home, which later Carie had enlarged to accommodate her grown children when they would come to visit her. They moved around a lot because Andrew would feel the need to go to other areas of China to begin a church and the places they moved to were very much poverty stricken, but Carie would always have her organ moved to what ever home or hut they lived in, she would decorate so she could always feel America, she had great resources from her knowledge being raised in W. Va. She would teach the Chinese women to use what they had to help themselves. At some point she refused to travel to the remote places any longer because it was not sanitary for the children and she lost 3 babies. I don't mean to contradict, I am only sharing from The Exile.
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Jude, "I can't agree more. It's hard enough to figure out what was going on in China in Pearl's day without doing research. What do you think was going on? Who were the foreigners China was rebelling against? The missionaries, like Pearl's father? Who were the soldiers? Chinese?'
This link will help answer your questions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Rebellion
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#5. Why did Wang decide to take all of the rich man's jewels, leaving him nothing to survive? Was this out of character?
Did Wang take the rich man's jewels, I thought it was all his gold the man had on him. I think he took ALL his gold because he knew the wealthy man would probably survive, and at this devastating time in Wang's life he saw it as a means to return to his home, and begin a new future for him and his family. Desperate times, require desperate measures is my take on it. It may have seemed out of character, but I think Wang saw this wealthy man who had nothing on but a robe, indicating he had been lying with a slave as someone who was not worthy to respect. He had no intentions of ever killing the man, although the man had no idea Wang was not a soldier there to kill him. In a sense I found this a bit comical. You have the wealthy man who was nearly naked, begging for his life, offering gold for his life, and Wang says give me ALL your gold and then leaves him. ;)
I am off to grandchildren's volleyball games and football games, so will begin reading the next chapters in between.
Ciao for now~
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Bellamarie, thanks for the historical insight. The Boxer Rebellion fits perfectly--the drought, starving people moving to cities, followed by political unrest, then war, both with foreigners and internal.
Wang had never taken anything belonging to another before, so it was certainly out of character to take the man's gold. You're right, he was desperate, and he saw that the rich man wasn't worthy of respect. Also, the whole situation was so far from anything Wang had experienced or even understood, that it must have seemed surreal. There was no such thing as normal behavior here.
It wouldn't have done any good to leave the man some of his gold; someone else would have taken it from him.
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Funny how we read the same passages and see things so differently. I can understand how hunger, and Wang's family's hunger would force him to do something out of character. Especially when he was being forced to consider selling the pretty little twin. There was no other way to get out of the city and back to the land. sell the girl or steal the rich man, the "fat" rich man's money - all of it
When I read that section, I thought the fact that he took all of the money was what made Wang weep-
"Wang had hardened his heart to the man's despair and left him with nothing."
Maybe I'm wrong - maybe he just regrets basing his future on what was not his - as good as stealing.
I thought the fact that he left the man with nothing at all was far worse than stealing enough to get his family back home. And something he will come to regret someday...
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When she first went to China as a child and when she returned after her marriage, she really lived like a Chinese person. As a little girl, her friends were Chinese and she was one of them. So she heard all the mothers, aunties and grandmas talking about what went on in their families. Seems that they were very open about their lives, not knowing that this little white girl was like a sponge, soaking up all their stories which she would later use as an author.
As I read and really take in her Good Earth, I find myself thinking of how civilized in their own world the Chinese were but also how unaware they are of the rest of civilization.
From I have I have read in Hilary Spirling biography of PB, the above was very true. Carie evidently didn't keep Pearl from having neighborhood children as friends.
Again from the book, PB early life was inhabited by ghosts (a Chinese thing) of her dead siblings. She was the fifth of seven children but only her brother, ??????. All were born in China except Pearl. "When she looked back afterward at her beginnings, she remembered a crowd of brothers and sisters at home, tagging after their mother, listening to her sing, and begging her to tell stories". Pearl wrote, describing a storytelling session on the veranda of the family house above the Yanagtse River. But we saw none of these sights. What we saw was America, a strange, dreamlike, alien homeland where they had never set foot.
When two of the children died within two weeks of each other, Carie came close to having a complete breakdown. The doctor urged Absolam to take her family home to West Virginia where Carie might recover from the horrible grief that they that almost ended their marriage. And about 18 months later, Pearl was born in West Virginia. (I have more but have to join a community walk this morning. Will
return later.)
On pg.178-9 of the bio, there is an 1895 picture of the family-Absolom, Carrie and their 3 surviving children-13 yr old Edgar, 2 yr old Pearl, and the baby Clyde-after their flight to Shanghai. I think Clyde died of diptheria in 1888 and before the final child of the Buck's children, Grace who was born 1899 shortly after Clyde's death. Of all the children, Pearl was only one born in the United States.
An amazing thing to me is the ease that the Buck's travel back and forth between the States and China, and while in China, Absolom moves them around from one little town to another. Carrie finally stands up to him and says they will move back to Zhenjiang and there will be no more traveling from pillar to post for the family. This happened during the Boxer War.
There is just too much in this bio to write about.
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Here's a concise short bio about Perle's life and her many book titles, what a woman!
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/pearlbuc.htm
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Jude, I like your earlier post explaining that the article about baby killing was not just about China but about other countries having the same problem. You certainly have given a more modern look to the China of today and their plans for the future. The program that I watched about all the buildings and malls that are going up and aren't occupied was actually presented on BBCWorldNews last week but was also covered earlier this summer, on Sunday Morning or 60 Minutes. Can't remember the reporter.
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Good morning all.....well I read this coming weeks chapters last night and will not jump right in this morning, but I will say I am so saddened and disappointed. I can barely go on with this book. While The Exile had sad parts in it, Carie kept it hopeful and happy. The Good Earth is down right depressing, and my heart has never hurt so much reading a book as it has this one. :'(
Going to get ready for church, they are giving us CCD teacher a special Mass & blessings today. Y'all have a blessed Sunday.
Ciao for now~
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Good morning, bellamarie, we were posting at the same time. ;D. Glad to see you here and know how you feel about the book at this point. PB really pulled out her knowledge of China and the poor which she experienced while growing up. Part of that knowledge came from living among the poor as her father, Absolom, dragged the his little family to all the small towns in north China as he tried to proselytize for the Presbyterian missions he represented. And there was Carie trying to make homes of every place they traveled and lived for such short periods.
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Good morning to you Annie! It's so interesting how in The Exile while Pearl describes and speaks of the situations in China, she tells us how her mother tried to protect them from it and make their lives happy with her humor, singing and always having her organ in every hut and home. Carie does not allow them to get too close to the windows to shield them from the beggars and homeless, she home schooled them so they would know and be America. Yet, I do remember after she loses her last baby, Carie is angry and decided she will take her children with her to the poor homes so as to let them see the real world. It was as though she realized she needed to stop protecting them from what was life itself. I felt as though Carie was angry with God and all that was good after losing the last baby and so she was rebelling by taking her children to see the ugliness she had protected them from. What I like about Carie, she was never hesitant to help all the afflicted, poverty stricken people of China, but other than the times she suffered from bouts of depression after losing her babies, and her own sicknesses, she would come back with a zest and zeal for life and her faith. It's also interesting that no where in The exile they refer to her husband to any name other than Andrew. When I saw Absolom I thought, oh dear its like Comfort being used rather than Pearl. Names are vital when writing a book and I think the author should stay consistent with the names when she is writing many biographies of the same people. It could be a bit confusing for readers who do not think to go google for information like us curious avid readers here at SeniorLearn. :)
Off to my grandson's football game. Need a little fun and distance from those last chapters I read in The Good Earth. Ughhh
Ciao for now~
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I just reread a paragraph on pg123 about Wang Lung's first experience with a foreign missionary. The man that is described there is the description of PB's own father used in the bio I am reading. And the author mentions that it was in "Good Earth."
"In places where no one had seen a white man before, people treated a missionary preaching in the teahouse as a one man traveling freak show, or else set the dogs on him.
Absalom was in his element. Difficulty and danger proved that he was getting to grips at last with the practicalities of wholesale conversion."
What were the missionaries thinking? That the Chinese were uncivilized? That they had no morals? or religion?? [/b]
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bellamarie.
I couldn't agree with you more. But PB had said that her books were semi-biographical and they sure are. I see that she published The Exile in 1936. So while she is writing about her mother, she is also comtemplating completing the trilogy-Good Earth, Sons, and A House Divided. I have a copy of A House Divided but not Sons. Since they are the story of Wang Lung's family, I am ordering 'Sons' from my library today so that I read them in order. Buuuuuuut, having said that, I think I must stick to Good Earth's story first. Am becoming confused with all these titles, bios, links. ??? ???
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Oh, I hope all the information about Pearl's life as she wrote Good Earth is not confusing you, Annie! Personally, I'm loving it - and it is making the story come alive, reading of her experiences - knowing that the characters we're reading about were very possibly people that she knew - or heard about first hand! Thank you all for sharing all of your outside reading that is making this story come alive in a way that most people don't get to appreciate when they read the Good Earth without all of this information! (I just put that good concise bio into the heading for easy reference, Annie. Thank you!)
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Are you ready to move on to the next section - Chapters 16-21? I'm reluctant to talk about them. They were so painful to read. Didn't your heart bleed for the faithful O-lan? - Wang Lung considers her a "dull, faithful creature." She would do anything for Wang Lung and her family.
My memory is a bit fuzzy - I read those chapters last week before I went off for the weekend. Do you remember how the family was able to get home and replant their crops? I remember that Wang took more than enough from the rich man to get the family back home...but then I remember reading of the lump of jewels that O-lan had stolen before they left - had hidden in her bosom. Maybe Wang's stolen treasure got them back - and O-lan's stolen jewels gave them what was needed to get on their feet once they got home? I seem to be missing something. Do you think she intended to turn it over to Wang Lung - she seemed to be keeping it secret, didn't she? Why? I need to reread - to catch up with the rest of you.
When I read it, I remember thinking it was important to remember that O-lan's jewels had made it possible for what was to come next- in a way...
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Oh JoanP, indeed my heart is hurting for O-lan. I seriously could not believe the change in Wang. When he points out O-lan's appearance I just sat with tears in my eyes. She has lived through the horrors being a slave girl, and just when she is a wife, mother and companion and has some self worth, he manages to just bring her back to feeling worthless. I can barely discuss these chapters because they are so painful. All I kept thinking was, "Idle hands are the devil's work." Wang has allowed all this wealth turn him into a man even his father can not be proud of.
The gold he took from the wealthy man to spare his life, got them back to their land. Wang began buying so many things an ox, land, beds, tables and chairs everything they needed to begin seeding and harvesting their crops and things for their house. He then uses the hidden jewels O-lan has to buy more land from the great house. It's as if he could not get enough, the greed was just overtaking his good judgement.
I fear this is the last time we will see his soft, compassionate feelings for O-lan.
pg.111 (O-lan) "I wish I could keep two for myself," she said with such helpless wistfulness, as of one expecting nothing, that he was moved as he might be by one of his children longing for a toy or for a sweet. "Well, now!" he cried in amazement. "If I could have two," she went on humbly, "only two small ones_two small white pearls even..." "Pearls!" he repeated, agape. "I would keep them_I would not wear them," she said, "only keep them." And she dropped her eyes and fell to twisting a bit of the bedding where a thread was loosened, and she waited patiently as one who scarcely expects an answer. Then Wang Lung, without comprehending it, looked for an instant into the heart of this dull and faithful creature, who had labored all her life at some task at which she won no reward and who in the great house had seen others wearing jewels which she never even felt in her hand once. "I could hold them in my hand sometimes," she added, as if she thought to herself. And he was moved by something he did not understand and he pulled the jewels from his bosom and unwrapped them and handed them to her in silence, and she searched among the glittering colors, her hard brown hand turning over the stones delicately and lingeringly until she found the two smooth white pearls, and these she took, and tying the others again, she gave them back to him.
I've seen in my own family how when someone came into money through inheritances, they changed. They spent like there was no tomorrow and before you know it, they were penniless, and destroyed all their relationships with their family members. I suppose there are lessons to learn being poor and rich.
Ciao for now~
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I am saddened by this section of the book. I think fortune (good or bad) sometimes brings out the true nature in people. I feel sorry for Olan and thoroughly disgusted with Wang!
Sally
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I agree, Sally - and wonder if things will look up for Wang Lung and O-lan. What did that neighbor at the wall in the city tell Wang? -about when the rich are too rich and the poor too poor, change will come. Do we have to wait until Wang loses this new-found wealth, do you suppose? His good fortune is bringing out a side of Wang we hadn't seen before this.
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So Bellamarie, do you think Olan hid those jewels from Wang because she knew that Wang would use it to buy more land - land that he really didn't need? He did take it from her to buy land, didn't he? I was interested in his reaction when she asked him for those two pearls for herself...
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Annie - interesting to learn that Pearl's. father had been a tea house missionary. Can't imagine what the girls would have thought of his sermons! Or the stories he brought home after spending time in the teahouses! Pearl Buck had all this information stored away until just the right moment. What a place to find Cuckoo! Didn't you just know that Olan must have known this manipulating woman when they both lived in the gray house? She's trouble... Where is Pearl Buck going to take us?
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I'm not sure if O-lan kept the jewels hidden for any certain reason. She was smart enough to know to look in the loose bricks for the jewels, from living among the wealthy as a slave girl. She didn't actually hide the jewels from Wang considering they were in her bosom. She is a bright woman, she knew he would find them there. Had she really intended to hide them so Wang could not find them, she would have known a better safer place to do so. I think O-lan expected Wang would use the jewels for the good of the family. Lo and behold I don't think she ever imagined him coming back later and asking for her two precious pearls, for the likes of the mistress. That was deplorable behavior.
I loved how O-lan treated Cuckoo. She let Wang know that she would never be a slave again to such a harlot.
Sally, do you think Wang's behavior in these chapters are his "true nature," because we did not see these character flaws in the prior chapters. Or did we? He really did hate having to take care of his father, he relished the thought of lying in bed and letting O-lan be his slave/wife. He did resent his uncle expecting him to help his family out. He also was quick to go to the House of Hawng to purchase their land as soon as he had the means before the flood. He allowed O-lan to work beside him in the fields right up to her delivery and immediately after giving birth to his first son. And yes, as JoanP pointed out, why did he make the wealthy man give him ALL his gold. He had more than enough gold to get his family back to their land and still be rich. So maybe, just maybe, there were signs of his flawed character.
Good question JoanP, where is Pearl taking us? Can Wang redeem himself? These chapters appalled me.
Ciao for now~
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I think Wang will redeem himself. All of us have redemption in ourselves. Perhaps when he sees what wealth brings to his son; he will recognize the error of his own ways. I hope so anyway.
Sally
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Growing up as the daughter of a missionary, the concept of "redemption" would be a familiar one to Pearl, wouldn't it? Can we talk a bit about whether we feel that Wang Lung is in need of redemption - I guess I'm trying to ask if you feel that he has done anything morally wrong - from the Chinese point of view at this time. We're all hurting for O-lan, Wang Lung treats her with gross insensitivity....but does he consider himself in need of redemption, or was this sort of thing the norm in China at this time? Is Pearl telling it like it
is was?
Do you have any sympathy for Lotus- and the other teahouse "flowers?"
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An aside...something you are perhaps aware of, but I keep forgetting - that Wang is the family name, Lung is his given name -
First, understand a fundamental difference between a Chinese name and a western name, that is, the order of given name and family name. A western name places the given name first and the family name last...
A Chinese name places the family name first followed by the given name. Why the difference? There is some speculation on that. One possible reason is that order indicates different cultural values. The Chinese culture holds great respect for their origins and ancestors so they put family names first. Western culture is more individualistic, hence an individual's given name comes before the family name. Making sense of the difference in name order, although only speculation, helps us shed light on cultural differences.
So these sons are Wangs - of the house of Wang...and now we learn their names:
Wang Nung En and Wang Nung Wen.
Not sure it the wife took the husband's family name - is she Wang O-lan? (Not sure what Lotus' name is...a concubine is not a wife is she? I'd be real surprised if she's a Wang, but it's possible that she is considered " of the House of Wang".....)
So do we refer to Wang Lung as Lung when we speak of conversation or interaction between husband and wife - O-lan and Lung?
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Even though this may be the Chinese customs of the culture back then, I can tell Lung feels he has done something wrong because first of all, he has hidden his concubine away from his children and is ashamed when he realizes they have intruded in her section/court. Also, Lung's father points out that he is disgraced by his actions and says he nor his father has ever done this. Indicating Lung has brought shame to the family name.
Definition of moral values: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mor
mor•al [mawr-uhl, mor-] Show IPA adjective
conforming to the rules of right conduct (opposed to immoral ): a moral man.
1. of, pertaining to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical: moral attitudes.
2. expressing or conveying truths or counsel as to right conduct, as a speaker or a literary work.
3. found on the fundamental principles of right conduct rather than on legalities, enactment, or custom: moral obligations.
4. capable of conforming to the rules of right conduct: a moral being.
noun
5. the moral teaching or practical lesson contained in a fable, tale, experience, etc.
6. the embodiment or type of something.
7. morals, principles or habits with respect to right or wrong conduct.
By the definition, I feel the way Lung has treated his wife O-lan is morally wrong. Even if it is their custom to take a concubine, he has demeaned O-lan and treated her as nothing more than a slave, expecting her to heat water for Cuckoo and Lotus and cook and clean for them.
Thank you JoanP for the explanation of the name order. So, I suppose we should be referring to them as Lung & O-lan. Yes, Pearl would know about redemption, and I am almost certain she will attempt to turn Lung back into the man we came to know in the beginning. I'm not so sure I would ever see him in the same light as I did early on, but then only time will tell. Right now....he is a cad, and I am so very upset with how he has treated O-lan. Have a concubine if you must, just do not denigrate your wife who has bore your children, cleaned your house, cooked your meals, put your needs above her own and guided you in decisions that have contributed to your success.
Ciao for now~
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As I read(past tense) and really took in PB's Good Earth, I found myself thinking of how civilized in their own world the Chinese were but also how unaware they were of the rest of civilization. Especially the poor! And especially Wang Lung!
This was so true earlier in the story when Wang sees himself in a new light.
He is unaware of who the "foreigners" are.
Thinks its people like himself. New to south China. He and the other poor who live around the "wall", he thinks they are the "foreigners".
Until he gives a ride to an American woman and asks of other rickshaw drivers who she is. They tell him she is an American and he will get a big tip. She tries to speak Chinese at the end of the ride while paying him more money than he charges.
So, he tells O-lan about the overpayment. She says that she always begs from these people as they give bigger donations.
Now, Wang Lung realizes that he is not a "foreigner" to the people like himself, with dark or yellow skin and black hair. He now knows that there are white people in China who the young men consider "foreign" to the country. This is what started the Boxer Rebellion. Which wasn't a success for the Boxers.
The Japanese invade China and the missionaries, the business people, the whites and the Japanese are all the "foreigners".
But, wait a minute! What else were those young men telling the people? That they needed to rise up and take away the possessions and money of the rich. Then divide it evenly between everyone so none would be poor. That would be Communism and Mao eventually arriving on the scene.
In the meantime, we must ponder why Wang was willing to rob the fat man behind the gates(who offered all his gold]. Taking all that he had. It would seem that his character is changing. Did he think that the young men might be right and that he had a right to rob this man and use the money to enrich his life, his family's live, even his old neighbor, Ching's, life.
So, Wang and his family return to the land, buy more land with O-lan giving her stolen gems to Wang, minus 2 pearls.
So, after 7 years of very good weather and much success, the rain comes and fills the fields so there is nothing to do but wait for the water to go away. That's when Wang notices that O-lan does not take good care of herself. (Do we call this the beginning of the man's "change of life"). He finds he wants more than O-lan as his wife and Cuckoo helps him find someone for that need. And she comes with the bargain.
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I've been traveling,so had to play catch up. One strain that runs through this section is the importance of the land, and its connection to health, well-being and success. Yu lose your touch with it at your peril. When Wang Lung goes to the house of Hwang to buy the rest of their land from the remnants of the once rich family, Cuckoo tells him:
"But all this was not a sudden thing. All during the lifetime of the Old Lord and of his father the fall of this house has been coming. In the last generation the lords (b)ceased to see the land(/b) and took the money's the agents gave them and spent it carelessly as water. And in these generations (b)the strength of the land has gone from them(/b) and bit by bit the land has begun to go also."
Wang Lung goes away musing about the fall of this family, which had long been a power in the town. It comes of their leaving the land, he thought regretfully, and vows to set his sons to work in the fields.
He falls into the same trap. With all this land, he has to do more and more administrating and less and less farming. Then he meets Lotus. She knows every trick in the book, and he falls for every one of them. He drops everything for her, takes her as a concubine, ignores the feelings of everyone else, spends huge sums on her.
Finally he starts to come back to reality. She angers him by her treatment of his children, especiallyPoor Little, and after their quarrel, he never loves her quite as much as before. And one day he wakes as from a sleep:
"Then a voice cried out in him, a voice deeper than love cried out in him for his land. And he heard it above every other voice in his life and he tore off the long robe he wore and he stripped off his velvet shoes and his white stockings and he rolled his trousers to his knees and he stood forth robust and eager and he shouted,
'Where is the hoe and where the plow? And where is the seed for the wheat planting? Come, Ching, my friend--come--call the men--I go out to the land!'"
I like to think he'll now come to his senses about the other people in his life, but even if he does, he's still stuck with Lotus and Cuckoo.
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And I could say quite a lot of vitriolic things about him falling for Lotus and his despicable treatment of O-lan and everyone else, but I've babbled enough for tonight.
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Yes, from the very beginning of the book, Lung is aware that owning land is the key to success. Lung seems to think he is smarter than the Lords and others who owned land and let it go to waste while laying around with harlots, slave girls and eating the finest foods and wearing their jewels.
PatH, "He falls into the same trap. With all this land, he has to do more and more administrating and less and less farming."
A trap indeed! Where does O-lan and Lung go from here now that the rains have come and Lung is now more interested in his land than he is in Lotus. What will become of Cuckoo and Lotus? They do not seem like women who will be happy just sitting around doing nothing while Lung comes in with his dirty hands, dirty clothes and garlic smelling breath. Ironic isn't it? I can almost see these two women conniving to steal his money and leave to go elsewhere.
It's interesting how Lung thought his father was so blind and sickly that he would not noticed his behavior? Do you think it matters to him what his father feels about him? What about his teen aged sons who have become aware of their father's behavior. I was happy to see Lung defend his "poor little" and other children when Lotus was so cruel to them. So does this indicate that his children are more important to him than his wife, since he was willing to deduce her back to a slave, yet he would not tolerate Lotus being cruel to his children? We all have our breaking point, was the way Lotus treated his children, Lung's breaking point? Lots to ponder.....
Ciao for now~
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So good to have you back with us, Pat - and hope you had a great time con-celebrating your birthday with your twin. That must be so special for both of you each year!
So many good points have come up - you have me thinking of the young author telling this story. Pearl was young - 28 years old. No mentor - in China with young Janice and an unhappy marriage to a distant husband, a distant father too. Her outlet seems to be her writing, which seems to be inspired by her experiences in China. Haven't we seen that her work is mostly autobiographical? But where does her inspiration for The Good Earth come from?
Pat: One strain that runs through this section is the importance of the land, and its connection to health, well-being and success.
I was thinking of the importance of water, rain, draught, floods, - but it all comes back to its effect on the worth of the land. Let's keep in mind the title Pearl chose for her novel - the GOOD Earth. In what sense does she refer to the land as "good"?
Annie reminds us how Pearl views the "civilized the Chinese were in their own world - but also how unaware they are of the rest of civilization. I read somewhere of the importance of Pearl Buck's portrayal of the Chinese farmers and the poor at this time - importance to Chinese historians, because there was little (if any) literature at this time on these subjects. The Good Earth is hailed in China.
Annie, you reminded us of that tall American woman, one of Wang Lung's "fares" - a foreigner. He had never seen people who looked different from his people in the north before coming south. We know that Pearl and her family had fled the persecution of the missionaries in the north - had come to this very same city before leaving for America. Did anyone suspect as I did that the tall American was herself - or her mother? Had she written herself into this story?
Annie sees Wang Lung's character is changing while living with the poor in the south and asks if he now believes he has a right to rob the rich man and use the money to enrich his own life. Is this something we find difficult to accept because we are "foreigners" to the Chinese challenged to survive with little. Another theme then? - the continuing struggle between the rich and the poor. Is it too soon to consider Pearl Buck's reason for writing this story? What drove her, what inspired her?
Bellamarie sees that Wang Lung does have a conscience, a moral code - one that is universal, which tells him he is wrong when he violates that code - when he steals, when he takes a concubine... when he hurts others...
I am not sure just how "good" or how morally weak we can consider this man. It seems - to me - that his guiding principle from the very beginning is his pride, and how he appears in the eyes of others. He seems to think of no one but himself. (With the exception of his "poor little daughter.)
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Just wanted to mention the bio again which tells us that "Pearl inherited her mother's warmth, humanity and integrity, her steadfast eye and her firm mouth and her look of something rocklike, the qualities O-lan passed on to the boldest of her own children in "The Good Earth".
That would be her oldest son, Wang En.
After reading this, I began to have more hope for O-lan as she has her life changed so drastically by Wang and his concubine, Lotus and her slave, Cuckooo.
Will O-lan be more valued later in the story? Will Wang come to his senses? What will happen to their sons? Are they like their parents? Will they value the land that will be theirs as much as Wang did? The Earth that has been in the family for many generations and added to by Wang, in Wang's eyes, has always been there for his family. He credits the family's land for everything they have.
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Wang does have a conscience. Every time he does something particularly bad in the course of establishing Lotus in his household, he feels ashamed or embarrassed internally. But his conscience isn't strong enough to make him apologize or stop.
JoanP, the celebration isn't over yet. Today we go whale watching.
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He weeps on occasion too - only when he's ashamed of what he's done to O-lan. The fact that he doesn't apologize or stop such behavior might mean that he doesn't really have a conscience - maybe he just doesn't like to look bad.
Whales? I thought you two were birdwatchers...Can't wait to hear if there were any whales to watch today.
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Annie - can you point to your post where you quoted Pearl from The Exile , her book about her mother? True that she based O-lan's character on her mother, Carie?
Do you consider Lotus, known as a concubine, Lung's wife? What is the standing of a concubine in a man's household if he already has a wife? What if the concubine bears children? Sons?
So, the American woman, the big tipper in that southern city is not Pearl....Annie reminds that the American woman did not understand the Chinese language enough to. Still wond dicker with Wang for the fare price. Here I thought Pearl had planted herself in her novel. Still I wonder why she's in the story...
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I read The Exile, and I am not seeing O-lan's character based on her mother, Carie. That would be a far stretch for me to believe because O-lan is so different than Carie. Carie was an extrovert, intelligent, fun, humorous, Christian, sweet, loving woman who loved to be with people, home schooled her children and very much the decision maker for her children's upbringing and colleges/universities. O-lan for me is an introvert, dull, not very intelligent, and does not show much emotion at all. She even seems detached from her children and leaves Lung to decide for the sons schooling etc. I have not seen any indication that O-lan has any faith/religious beliefs. I have not seen her have any remorse for stealing the jewels.
JoanP, "The fact that he doesn't apologize or stop such behavior might mean that he doesn't really have a conscience - maybe he just doesn't like to look bad."
I don't have much liking for Lung and his behavior in these chapters, but I am not sure I can see him as not having a conscience. Is it possible for any one to NOT have a conscience? For me as a Christian/Catholic I see a conscience as the advocate, the Holy Spirit inside you that guides you to make moral decisions. Now, I am sure the Chinese do not have such beliefs, but Lung does believe in the spirits of the Gods and he showed it was important early on to respect them and worship them. So this indicates to me he does have a conscience, he has just allowed himself to be completely distracted with his greed and fortune. Am I seriously saying this after how angry I have been with his deplorable behavior........ :o :o :o
I don't see Lotus as Lung's wife. They did not take vows. I see her as his concubine/mistress. If she births his children I wonder if they would have his name? Interesting to find out. Guess it's time to google.
Ciao for now~
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concubinage
Concubinage is an interpersonal relationship in which a person engages in an ongoing relationship (usually matrimonially and sexually oriented) with another person to whom they are not or cannot be married. The inability to marry may be due to differences in social rank (including slave status), or because the man is already married. Historically, the relationship involved a man in a higher social status, who usually has a legally sanctioned wife and maintains a second household with the lesser "wife". The woman in such a relationship is referred to as a concubine.
Statue of Yang Guifei (719-756), the favoured concubine of Emperor Tang Xuanzong of China.
Historically, concubinage was frequently voluntary (by the woman and/or her family's arrangement), as it provided a measure of economic security for the woman involved.
Under Roman law, Roman culture under the empire came to tolerate concubinage as long as the relationship was durable and exclusive; for Roman jurists, concubinage was an honorable de facto situation.[1]
Concerning the concubine's legal status or the legal definition of her status, in ancient China for example, concubinage was akin, although inferior, to marriage. The children of a concubine were recognized as legal offspring of the father. However, their inheritance rights may have been inferior to younger children of a marriage, or they may have received a smaller inheritance. Men frequently used concubines to bear heirs when they were not able to produce sons with their wives.
In ancient China, successful men often supported several concubines. For example, it has been documented that Chinese Emperors accommodated thousands of concubines.[25] A concubine's treatment and situation were highly variable and were influenced by the social status of the male to whom she was engaged, as well as the attitude of the wife. The position of the concubine was generally inferior to that of the wife. Although a concubine could produce heirs, her children would be inferior in social status to "legitimate" children. Allegedly, concubines were occasionally buried alive with their masters to "keep them company in the afterlife."[25]
Despite the limitations imposed on ancient Chinese concubines, history and literature offer examples of concubines who achieved great power and influence. For example, in one of the Four Great Classical Novels of China, The Dream of the Red Chamber (believed to be a semi-autobiographical account of author Cao Xueqin's own family life), three generations of the Jia family are supported by one favorite concubine of the Emperor.
Imperial concubines, kept by Emperors in the Forbidden City, were traditionally guarded by eunuchs to ensure that they could not be impregnated by anyone but the Emperor.[25] Lady Yehenara, otherwise known as Dowager Empress Cixi, was arguably one of the most successful concubines in China’s history. Cixi first entered the court as a concubine to the Xianfeng Emperor and gave birth to his only surviving son, who would become the Tongzhi Emperor. She would eventually become the de facto ruler of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in China for 47 years after her son's death.[26]
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I was curious as to the life of the Presbyterian missionaries during Pearl Bucks time with her parents (!890 -1910.) That is not just her family but the group as a whole to see if her father was different than others of his profession. (He remained a missionary in China till his death in 1931.)
During the period of Pearl's girlhood we there was the Boxer revolution (!900) which was named after the young men who started the uprising and practiced martial arts, especially boxing. In that year 185 Presbyterian Missionaries and 55 of their children were killed. Roman Catholic missionaries were also killed. The Boxers also killed 2000 Chinese who had converted.
The success of the Missionaries was minimal at most and many of them left the profession, returned to their countries while others committed suicide. It was also clear that the Chinese who converted did so mainly for the chance to send their children to the Mission schools.
Missionaries were paid very little (about $500 a year). Their wives were expected to help them in all their endeavors and were not paid.
During the years of Pearl's girlhood and adolescence children in the Buck family were dying-four of the seven children died. Pearl knew sorrow from within her family and the terror of war outside her family. Though Carrie was depressed, Absolom was struck numb. Pearl was Carrie's hope of making up for all the losses she suffered. In the end of her days Carrie denounced her religion. She felt that too much was taken from her to continue in her faith.
We can see the sorrow within this family . Pearl knew the meaning of suffering and she portrayed the suffering of her characters in a way that deeply touched her readers.
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JoanP,
That quote was from the bio that I am reading at the same time I am reading Good Earth. According to the author, Hilary Spirling, "Pearl inherited her mother's warmth, humanity and integrity, "her steadfast eye and her firm mouth and her look of something rocklike," the qualities O-lan passed on to the oldest of her own children in "The Good Earth".
What do we call Lotus?? She is the second wife?? or his concubine? Googling, as we speak! And after perusing several hundred answers to my query, I chose this one but you have to read it all to understand that this still goes on in China. A link for you all: http://shardsofchina.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/sex-in-china-the-second-wife-or-er-nai/
As to where Pearl is in the novel? So O-lan is her mother or herself?? Well, she said she put herself in every book she wrote. Hmmm, of course! O-lan is a composite of Pearl and Carie!
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The above post has been sitting on my computer all night! I forgot to post it! Sorry about that!
Jude, how interesting that although Pearl saw her mother's sorrow but she chose to ignore it when she wrote about her in The Exile? Is that what you mean?
I saw some other quotes in the biography last night of people who lived and worked with Absolom and Carie. They said she was a typical missionary wife, always supporting her husband and also a pretty quiet woman. So Carie's real personality is the one portrayed by Pearl in "The Exile" as belladonna?quotes or she was both?
bellamarie, since we are depending on your understanding of Carie's personality in "The Exile" , is she portrayed as being this incredible wife and mother but also that she has much sorrow to deal with? Is that why the title? Did the real Carie hide in her surroundings as a missionary's wife? And at home, she was this wonderful mother, teacher and companion to Pear and Edgar?
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The Book Club Online is the oldest book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone. We offer cordial discussions of one book a month, 24/7 and enjoy the company of readers from all over the world. Everyone is welcome.
September Book Club Online
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
| (http://seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/goodearth/goodearthcover.jpg) |
Interest in Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, continues with the news that her never-before published, final novel is coming out in October, forty years after her death. The Good Earth is the poignant tale of a farmer and his family in old agrarian China, a depiction of traditional Chinese culture in the early twentieth century before World War II. Some critics say it should move readers to rediscover Buck as a source of insight into both revolutionary China and the United States’ interactions with it.
Let's discover together why The Good Earth remained on the bestseller list for 21 months in 1931 and 1932, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932.l
Relevant Links:
the Good Earth Timeline (http://www.pearl-s-buck.org/document.doc?id=8); Comprehensive Bio of Pearl Buck and her work (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/pearlbuc.htm); |
| DISCUSSION SCHEDULE: |
| September 2-8 | Chapters 1-8 |
| September 9-15 | Chapters 9-15 |
| September 16-20 | Chapters 16-21 |
| September 21-25 | Chapters 22-28 |
| September 26-29 | Chapters 29-34 |
Some Topics for Discussion
Sept. 21-25 ~ Chapters 22-28
1. Pearl Buck writes that Lotus is a symbol. Of what? Is the entire book a sort of allegory, Wang Lung and his family's struggles symbolic of life in China during this period?
2. O-lan suggested slaves for restless older son -as provided for the young lords in the big house. Is there a moral here, a lesson to be learned? Will Wang Learn it in time?
3. Have you noticed when Wang Lung is prosperous, he forgets the two earth gods? Is that why he depends on his uncle's protection?
4. "There is a fire in my vitals." O-lan says this on several occasions. Did anyone ever listen to her? Do you sense her isolation?
5. O-lan might have been able to handle Lotus' presence if it hadn't been for Cuckoo being there too. What does this say about Cuckoo's role in the tale?
6. O-lan now feels she is "hideous" to her husband. Was that true from the beginning? Her feet, too big, never bound. Do you think she will bind the feet of the little girl twin?
7. Always good news when the rains come, or the flood waters recede and the earth produces. Elder son pregnant with first grandchild - a boy! (how do they know this in advance?)
8. No peace in the house. What led to Wang Lung's decision to move the family into the big house of Hwang in town? Why is this a significaant move?
Contact: JoanP (jonkie@verizon.net)
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In The Exile, Carie lives in China as Andrew's wife and the mother of her remaining children (Edwin, Comfort/Pearl, and Faith and Precious Cloud whom she adopted). The reason it is called the Exile is because Carie always longed to live back home in America, yet felt she must not deny Andrew his calling to be a missionary in China, because she felt Andrew was much more a better person/Christian than she. She never saw herself as good as Andrew when it came to her relationship with God. (Although I personally disagreed) Carie is everything you described above Annie. She was a loyal wife, a loving mother to her children, a teacher, a healer, she helped everyone she could, she struggled with her personal relationship with God, always waiting and wanting Him to give her a sign. I loved Carie in The Exile, and all those in the book did too. Pearl's middle name is Comfort because it is said she brought comfort to Carie especially after losing her babies to illnesses. Carie suffered many illnesses herself and went through bouts of depression after losing her babies. She got angry with God, yet she never turned from Him. I have dropped some "nuggets" as JoanP. hoped for throughout my postings while reading The Exile, you'll have to skim back through. After I finished the book, I just sat and wanted more. Pearl did an excellent job in writing the book and I am finding I liked The Exile much more than The Good Earth, even though she won her Pulitzer Prize for Good Earth.
I feel as though I know Cari, the mother so much more than Pearl. In The Good Earth I am not seeing Pearl in any of the women so far unless it was the American lady, Lung gave a ride to. O-lan is nothing like Carie or Pearl in my own opinion.
Ciao for now~
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There's a great PSB book which deals with the place of the concubine in Chinese society, " The Womans' Pavilion", another about the empress Tsu Hsi as she calls her, "The Last Empress" and another interesting one about the Jews in China--"Peony"
All fascinating.
I have a pile of her other books I haven't got to yet, I love her style of writing and her admiration of the society, or aspects of it anyway.
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Fascinating, isn't it? I'd never thought of a concubine as a wife either - until reading some of the sources you are providing.
I looked up the word "concubine" itself, thinking there would be a clue - From the latin: con = with and cubare, to lie down That doesn't sound as if there is anything legally binding, does it? A rather casual arrangement. But when the man who has lain with the prostitute takes her home with him, that's a different story.
This link Annie provided earlier seems to point to the fact that Lotus can be considered the "second wife." (http://shardsofchina.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/sex-in-china-the-second-wife-or-er-nai/)
"I don't see Lotus as Lung's wife. They did not take vows."
Bella, you got me thinking about Wang Lung and O-lan's marriage just now. Were there vows exchanged? Does the fact that the old Lord in the big house gave his slave to Olan constitute a marriage? Or the fact that the two of them went to before the two small earth gods and lit the incense sticks on the way home?
I'm trying to see where O-lan more Wang Lung's wife than Lotus...except for the fact that O-lan bore him sons. What if Lotus gets pregnant? Does this make her Wang Lung's wife - second wife? (DId you think it strange that she has not had a child?)
Dana - can you tell if Peony is one of the girls in the House of Flowers? I thought maybe the flower name was an indication... Never thought of the Jews in China...until now.
Wasn't that a low moment - when Wang Lung took the two white pearls from O-lan? Why? He's given so much to Lotus - does he intend to give those to her as well?
Jude - I found something more on the Presbyterian missionaries that might interest you. Will go try to find that link.
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Here's the link with information on the missionaries in China - and Pearl's father from a book by Hilary Spirling - Several of you have mentioned this book... it's a long fascinating article, I'll pull out some of the missionary information...
Pearl Buck in China (Missionaries) (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/books/excerpt-pearl-buck-in-china.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)
Caroline Sydenstricker had set sail for the Orient as an idealistic young bride with only the haziest notion about what a missionary career might entail. For her it turned out in practice to mean housekeeping and child rearing in cramped, inconvenient lodgings in the poorer quarters of the more or less hostile cities where her husband parked his growing family, while he himself pushed forward into unknown territory in search of fresh converts. He drove himself on by totting up the staggering totals of heathen sinners to be saved and the pitifully thin line of men like himself standing between them and damnation, an insoluble equation that appalled and maddened him to the end of his life. When the Sydenstrickers first landed in Shanghai to join the Southern Presbyterian Mission in the autumn of 1880, they brought its numbers in the field up to twelve. Apart from a handful of foreign compounds in or near the main trading ports, the interior of China seemed to be theirs for the taking. Seven years later Absalom Sydenstricker persuaded the Mission Board to let him launch a personal assault on the vast, densely populated area of North kiangsu, setting up his campaign headquarters in the walled city of Tsingkiangpu, nearly three hundred miles north of Shanghai on the Grand Canal, where no missionary had ever settled before. “He had to himself an area as large as the state of Texas, full of souls who had never heard the Gospel,” his daughter wrote later. “He was intoxicated with the magnificence of his opportunity.” The local people received him with passive and often active resistance. A younger colleague eventually dispatched to join him boasted that for three years he made not a single convert, coming home from country trips with spit on his clothes and bruises all over his body from sticks and stones hurled as he passed. Almost overwhelmed by the numerical odds stacked against him, Absalom spent more and more time on the road.
Absalom remained as always incredulous at his wife’s inability to put the crying need of a whole nation of infidels before her own private setbacks. “I never saw so hard a heart, so unreasoning a mind as hers in those days,” he said, looking back gloomily twenty years later. “Nothing I could say would move her.”
But the immediate problem confronting Absalom on his return to Tsingkiangpu in January 1893 was not so much heathen obstinacy as the intransigence of his fellow missionaries. The younger man who had arrived as an assistant twelve months before the Sydenstrickers left was not only living in their house but had stored their possessions in an outbuilding, where Absalom found his books mildewed and his bookcases eaten by termites. In the two years of his absence his system had been overhauled and Rev. James Graham, the colleague now starting to look more like a usurper, had pointed out its shortcomings to the mission meeting, which voted diplomatically to let Sydenstricker go. Interpreting this outcome as a triumphant endorsement of his vocation as a “Gospel herald,” Absalom repossessed the house, settled his family back into it, and promptly set off with two new recruits by mule cart to stake out a fresh claim of his own in virgin territory seventy-five miles to the west. His new base of Hsuchien was a collection of straw-roofed mud houses on the edge of the immense, crowded, and poverty-stricken flood plain of the Yellow River, where he aimed to establish a network of small outstations within reach of his own post at the center, while incidentally putting as much space as possible between himself and the mission authorities, always far too ready to query his decisions in favor of crackpot schemes of their own.
Her analysis of Carie’s predicament in The Exile and elsewhere is searching, frank, and perceptive. But it is in the daughter’s fiction that the mother’s voice echoes most insistently between the lines, at times muted, plaintive, and resigned, at others angry and vengeful
Golly, this is so long - and only part of the excerpt from Chapter I in Hilary Spirling's book. Who is this woman? How does she know so many intimate details of Pearl Buck's life? Does anyone know?
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O-lan is nothing like Carie or Pearl in my own opinion.
Ciao for now~
in my opinion too.
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JoanP, "you got me thinking about Wang Lung and O-lan's marriage just now. Were there vows exchanged? Does the fact that the old Lord in the big house gave his slave to Olan constitute a marriage? Or the fact that the two of them went before the two small earth gods and lit the incense sticks on the way home?
I'm trying to see where O-lan is more Wang Lung's wife than Lotus...except for the fact that O-lan bore him sons. What if Lotus gets pregnant? Does this make her Wang Lung's wife - second wife? (DId you think it strange that she has not had a child?)
Actually the rites they took in front of the two Gods were their matrimonial vows from what I understood. Lung did not at any time, so far take any vows with Lotus. She is his concubine and according to the definition I supplied, a concubine can not lawfully become a legal wife. Pearl was specific in the first chapters when she points out O-lan is his wife. Pearl did not use any word other than "wife."
Regarding children from a concubine this is from my prior post: "Concerning the concubine's legal status or the legal definition of her status, in ancient China for example, concubinage was akin, although inferior, to marriage. The children of a concubine were recognized as legal offspring of the father. However, their inheritance rights may have been inferior to younger children of a marriage, or they may have received a smaller inheritance."
I sense Lotus and Cuckoo will fly the coop!
I was mortified when Lung asked for the pearls from O-lan so he could give them to Lotus. Then when O-lan realized Lotus had her pearls that just made tears well up in my eyes.
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I agree that O-Lan is not like Pearl or Carrie.
She is a correct portrayal of an uneducated but good -hearted peasant woman. She suffered much and expects very little
in return for all her efforts. She is not a complex personality like her author or the author's mother.
The latter two are people with many aspirations for themselves and their progeny.
Joan P -Thank you so much for adding to the further reality of the Missionary life in China.
Nothing is simple. Certainly not the life of the Buck family.
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I think nothing is clear-cut when attempting to understand another culture from the outside. It's fortunate that we have so many of Pearl Buck's novels to help. And the Internet. Bella, I am not sure if you read the link Annie put up yesterday...gives something to think about regarding second-wife status in China.
http://shardsofchina.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/sex-in-china-the-second-wife-or-er-nai/
Why do you feel Lotus and Cuckoo are going to leave? They've got an easy life with Wang Lung...besides where would they go? It would sure make O-lan happy if they left.
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Here is an article of concubines in the days of The Good Earth.
http://www.beijingmadeeasy.com/beijing-history/concubines-of-ancient-china
Annie's link pertained to second wives and er-nai, which were modern day after 1971.
Pearl has not indicated Wang Lung and Lotus were ever married. He refers to her as his mistress, and the father calls her a harlot, and when he does say to her "she a farmer's wife," she denounces it.
pg. 152 Then he was angry beyond bearing and he seized O-lan’s shoulder and he shook her soundly and said, “Do not be yet more of a fool. It is not for the servant but for the mistress.”
Pg. 155 Then when the old man saw his son standing beside a slender painted girl he cried out in his shrill cracked voice, “There is a harlot in the house!” and he would not be silent…….”Now calm your heart, my father. It is not a harlot but a second woman in the house.” But the old man would not be silent and whether he heard what was said or not no one knew only he shouted over and over, “There is a harlot here!” And he said suddenly, seeing Wang Lung near him, “And I had one woman and my father had one woman and we farmed the land.” And again he cried out after a time, “I say it is a harlot!” And so the old man woke from his aged and fitful sleeping with a sort of cunning hatred against Lotus
Pg 158 (Lung) But he laughed and he seized her small, curling hands in his soiled ones and he laughed again and said, “Now you see that your lord is but a farmer and you a farmer’s wife!” “A farmer’s wife am I not, be you what you like!”
As for the reason I see Lotus and Cuckoo leaving, these paragraphs of the chapters show Lung is no longer happy with Lotus, no longer infatuated or in love with her. It also shows she is no longer happy with him, and she has so far not been able to give him a son, which he states when she called "poor little" an idiot.
pg. 153 But after all this matter of the new kitchen became a thorn in his body, for Cuckoo went to the town every day and she bought this and that of expensive foods that are imported from the southern citites….And these cost money more than he liked to give out, but still not so much, he was sure, as Cuckoo told him, and yet he was afraid to say, “You are eating my flesh,” for fear she would be offended and angry at him, and it would displease Lotus, and so there was nothing he could do except to put his hand unwilling to his girdle. And this was a thorn to him day after day, and because there was none to whom he could complain of it, the thorn pierced more deeply continually, and it cooled a little of the fire of love in him for Lotus.
pg. 154 And so his love for Lotus was not whole and perfect as it had been before, absorbing utterly his mind and body. It was pierced through and through with small angers which were the more sharp because they must be endured because he could no longer go even to O-lan freely for speech, seeing now their life was sundred.
pg. 157 Wang Lung woke as from a sleep. He went to the door of his house and he looked over his fields. And he saw that the waters had receded and the land lay shining under the dry cold wind and under the ardent sun. Then a voice cried out in him, a voice deeper than love cried out in him for his land. And he heard it above every other voice in his life and he tore off the long robe he wore and he stripped off his velvet shoes and his white stockings and he rolled his trousers to his knees and he stood forth robust and eager and he shouted, “Where is the hoe and where the plow? And where is the seed for the wheat planting? Come, Ching, my friend_ come_ call the men_I go out to the land!” As he had been healed of his sickness of heart when he came from the southern city and comforted by the bitterness he had endured there, so now again Wang Lung was healed of his sickness of love by the good dark earth of his fields and he felt the moist soil on his fee and he smelled the earthy fragrance rising up out of the furrows he turned for the wheat.
So now my curiosity has peaked with wonder as to what is allowed if a man purchases a concubine, and no longer wants her, or she no longer wants to be there? Can she and Cuckoo sneak off into the night to be free of him? I haven't read ahead but I sure am anxious to see where Pearl is taking us in the next assigned chapters. Will the two women rob him of his money/jewels and go to another part of China to live and start their prostitution yet again? Can't wait.......
Eyes are getting sleepy, have to get up early in the morning, so I will bid you all a Good Night.....zzzzzzzz
Ciao for now~
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Pearl S Buck, A Cultural Biography by Peter Conn, 1996
1 Founded Welcome House, the first international, interracial adoption agency in the US; founded the East and West Foundation to promote education exchange; established a foundation in her name to provide medical care and education for over 25,000 Amerasian children in a dozen Asian countries,
2 Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, a Pulitzer, Howells Medal
3 Married Lossing Buck, Richard Walsh. Affair with Hsu Chih-mo a Chinese poet (died in a plane crash in 1931).
4 Spoke out about internment of Japanese Americans, led National campaign to repeal Chinese exclusion laws, active in the civil-rights movement, served on Board of Urban League, promoted modern birth control and Equal Rights Amendment.
5 Target of McCarthyism
6 Herbert Hoover kept an FBI file on Pearl Buck (over 300 pages, a portion remains classified).
7 Friends/adversaries: Sinclair Lewis, Margaret Mead, Chiang Kai-shek and Mme Chaing, Theodore Dreiser, Margaret Sanger, Eleanor Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Will Rogers, Charles Lindberg, Rose Kennedy, John Kennedy, Oscar Hammerstein II, Indira Gandhi, Henry Luce, etc.
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I think Lotus is getting older & perhaps would not find it as easy to become someone else's concubine. Cuckoo is sly and cunning. She will probably find someone else to latch onto once Lotus is no longer useful.
Sally
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Good morning, early birds!
Kidsal, it's hard to believe that this young mother's solitary writing in isolated China led to such a presence on the world stage doesn't it? Mind-boggling! Sometimes I forget young Janice, the daughter she adopted in New York in 1925... playing at her feet. Janice would be about five when Pearl was writing this story we are reading. Don't you wonder what her childhood must have been like? I'd love to read any memories that she had growing up in China!
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It seems that when the earth is productive, Wang Lung is the farmer, his old self. It's when there's draught, flood and famine we see a man we don't want to see - a man we don't like - or recognize. That's when he started to visit the teahouse, met Lotus...and brought "the harlot" into the house. Through it all, Olan is with him - the faithful wife, mother of his children, even with Lotus in their midst. Maybe the book should be called The Good Wife?
She might have been able to handle Lotus presence if it hadn't been for Cuckoo being there too. As soon as she appeared, and you realized she was Olan's superior in the big house, didn't you just know there would be trouble? We"ll have to read on to see how she'll handle the situation if Lotus no longer charms the master of the house, Sally.. I agree, she is cunning - and already has too much influence over Wang Lung. I don't want to think about where this is going. Do you see a happy ending?
It will be interesting to see what happens as Wang Lung loses interest in Lotus. Bella sees Cuckoo robbing him and running off with Lotus to start again. I think she's too cunning for that - and the bloom is off the lotus blossom. But I don't think Lung will ever be satisfied with Olan as a wife again. She is now " hideous" to him, compared to Lotus. Her feet are too big for one thing. Do you think Olan will actually bind the feet of the little girl twin?
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Hello Kidsal, it's nice to see you. I found this interesting in your post. "6. Herbert Hoover kept an FBI file on Pearl Buck (over 300 pages, a portion remains classified)."
In my timeline of Pearl, I posted earlier I found this also interesting:
(1914 – 1933) She served as a Presbyterian missionary, but her views became highly controversial during the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy, leading to her resignation.
During the Cultural Revolution, Buck, as a preeminent American writer of Chinese village life, was denounced as an "American cultural imperialist."[citation needed] Buck was "heartbroken" when she was prevented from visiting China with Richard Nixon in 1972.
I can't imagine what they have in those files that would still remain classified. Is it possible Pearl was more active in politics than we know? Did her time and activities in China, along with the books she wrote on China cast suspicion on her in a political sense? And imagine seeing Lindberg on the list of friends/adversaries! Why would Pearl be prevented from going to China in 1972? This rouses my interest to know more about Pearl.
JoanP, I don't think Lung ever truly was "in" love with O-lan, so I think their marriage will go back to being the same as before, only he may never sleep with O-lan in a marital act again. He is a man of the land and now that he has "sowed his oats with Lotus," he is ready to sow his land of many seeds, and that is where his true love is. O-lan is a smart woman, she was not looking for romance and love, I think she is happy just to be married, have children and live comfortably with her husband and family. Now as for Lotus, she is not a woman I can see laying around waiting for a dirty, garlic smelling farmer to return to her after digging in the fields all day. She is repulsed by the mere fact of Lung calling her "a farmer's wife." No, I see Lotus and Cuckoo flying the nest, before her beauty fades. Lotus's blossom had been plucked way before Lung came along. So, Sally you see Cuckoo leaving Lotus behind. I don't know why I see them together in robbing Lung, and sneaking off in the night. Maybe it's the author in me........lololol ;D
Ciao for now~
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Bella, I think the clue to the Hoover files comes in the item right before that one -
5 Target of McCarthyism (communism!) Lindbergh had the same problem...that put him on the public enemies list.
6 Herbert Hoover kept an FBI file on Pearl Buck (over 300 pages, a portion remains classified). There are tons of these files still classified.
We will have to wait and see if Wang Lung's desire for Lotus cools - after she has indicated her feelings for his children - for his poor little daughter especially. He really is attached to that one! Lotus is still beautiful to him - and desirable. He is still a man. We'll see.
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How boring would the story be without Lotus and her machinations?
Half the drama in the story comes from the invisible but oh so real pull between these two women.
To think of Lotus as a prostitute is to treat the author and the Chinese culture as simplistic.
Last night I watched the PBS "Story of Queen Victoria". Among other fascinating facts was that the British officers all had
local woman ,know as "Bibis" who had their own house and kept their half white, half Indian children with them. These homes were quite opulent and were known as Bibighars.
Different times and different customs.
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I know when in Rome do as the Romans do, apply to these Chinese customs of concubines, second wives, mistresses, prostitutes, or er-nai may seem simplistic, but....since I am appalled at Wang Lung and Lotus's behavior I refuse to see her as anything but as the links state, secondary. I personally am not so interested in Lotus or Cuckoo's characters in these chapters as much as I am interested in Lung's change in behavior, actions, thoughts and values. His mistreatment of O-lan, and how having a mistress or what ever we want to refer to her as, has turned him into a person I do not like. Lotus is who she is, a prostitute that was being paid for her services in the Tea House. She knows what she is and is now demanding to be treated like royalty for sex. In the articles I have read, concubines did not have that position she is having in this story. They were just objects to be used for the pure pleasure of the man who bought her, when and where he chose to come to her. To make her more important than this is a mis character in my opinion. It shows that even though Lung may have the wealth to purchase and enjoy a mistress, he does NOT have the status that most of the Royalty/wealthy had in keeping their concubine in her rightful place. Which is to demand nothing and be there at the man's beck and call-girl. Ooops....a little of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman just slipped out.
Lotus and Cuckoo see how Lung can easily be manipulated because of his lack of knowledge and status when it comes to what to expect from purchasing this mistress. Other men who would have knowledge of how he is allowing these to women to spend his money, demand the expensive food, jewels etc. would be laughing at him for being taken advantage of by these two harlots. He keeps allowing his shame to seep in and so he continues on allowing himself to be manipulated, and the sad part is, even O-lan can see how he is allowing his sexual desires to cause him to act like a fool. She knows other concubines would not get away with these actions. The articles state the wife sets the tone on how the concubine is treated. That is not the case in this story which goes against the customs. So Pearl has decided to deviate from the customs and make Lung out to be a fool, rather than a man of respect with a mistress, and to abuse O-lan, his wife who is suppose to hold the highest esteem in this situation. Its kind of like, you can put lipstick on a pig, but its still a pig! Or even the Emperor's New Clothes, he is exposed for who he really is no matter how many robes, stockings and shoes he puts on.
Ciao for now~
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I just spent an hour finding what I am quoting from the biography by Spirling (who presents a long bibliography for the book). I was looking for this because it does help us understand Pearl's reason for writing the trilogy. "I conceived the idea of a series of novels, each of which should reveal some fundamental aspect of Chinese life."
So does that statement cause us to look at the The Good Earth differently? That it presents a part of Chinese life,-- the struggles of the poor and the handling of monies and land by newly rich farmers??
As I was reading last night, I noticed that this book IMHO, has a sing-song tone to the way it presents the story. Each of the trilogy and her other novels had a reason behind the writing.
Another point that I found in the bio is this quote from Pearl about her narration of her books. First, I found that Carie didn't die until 1923 and Pearl wasn't with her. Just Janice and Absolom.
With frustration and anger in her heart, she wrote "The Exile" right after Carie's death. Pearl says of the book, it was narrated by "a woman I had created out of myself". When they published the book in 1936, she added to the ending, 13 years after she had written the book.
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We are leaving town tomorrow and won't be home until Monday night, so I will be missing some of this most interesting discussion. I will try to look in but don't think I will have time to read or comment.
PatH, how did the whale watching go? We did that, going out from Long Beach, back in the 1980's and enjoyed the day immensely. I hope you and Joan did also.
Do you also have a copy of Spirling's bio of PB? Isn't it interesting? I am enjoying it.
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Annie, "Another point that I found in the bio is this quote from Pearl about her narration of her books. First, I found that Carie didn't die until 1923 and Pearl wasn't with her. Just Janice and Absolom."
I am totally confused with this statement, because in The Exile, Pearl returns to China and is with her when she dies. How can she contradict herself? Which is true, her accounts in The Exile or the statement from the bio Annie is reading?
Annie, "With frustration and anger in her heart, she wrote "The Exile" right after Carie's death. Pearl says of the book, it was narrated by "a woman I had created out of myself". When they published the book in 1936, she added to the ending, 13 years after she had written the book."
Again, I am confused, because when I searched every site possible I kept reading the author is unknown, possibly a woman Carie knew. It is a bit frustrating to find contradictions from the author. All through the book I kept feeling as if the narrator was Pearl, but never did she reveal who the narrator was.
Annie thank you for the info you are supplying from this bio. Who is the person who wrote the bio, is it Pearl herself or was it someone interviewing her? Why would there be discrepancies if indeed it is Pearl writing this bio, considering she is also the author of The Exile. Nothing frustrates me more than to find inconsistencies from an author. Why with frustration and anger in her heart? No where did I feel her frustration or anger as the writer or the daughter. I am completely confused, it's like we are not talking about the same book or person. I've got some research to do to answer some questions, but then how do I trust what I am reading if these two writings of Pearl have inconsistencies? ??? ??? ???
Enjoy your time away Annie. I will be using the week end to read the next chapters, I hope they are better than these last ones.
Ciao for now~
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PatH, how did the whale watching go? We did that, going out from Long Beach, back in the 1980's and enjoyed the day immensely. I hope you and Joan did also.
That's what we did. We had a wonderful time. Didn't see any blue whales, just the spouting from one, but we saw a mother and calf fin whale, the next biggest species, surfacing repeatedly, swimming around each other. Also a lot of dolfins leaping about,one of them jumping very high out of the water. There were plenty of birds, to satisfy that side of us. JoanK saw two new ones: a pink-footed shearwater and a red necked phalarope. Plus a heap of sea lions lolling on the big base of a buoy, bellowing at us. The journey out was quite rough, but neither of us is prone to seasickness.
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Oh Pat...that sounds like a fantastic trip - even more so because it was shared with your sister - a twin, at that! You will have that memory for the rest of your lives! Happy birthday, again! :D
Bellamarie, your confusion is understandable. It has been clear that you loved The Exile and Pearl's mother Carie as portrayed in this "biography"...You seem to be considering The Exile as fact, as you would another biography...but maybe in this case, we need to remember that Pearl Buck was a writer of fiction.
I haven't read Hilary Spirling's book - but have quoted extensively from it. She included so much factual information about Pearl Buck and direct quotes too -- not available anywhere else. It's as if she spent a lot of time with Pearl - or maybe with Janice Walsh, the first adopted daughter who lived with Pearl in China. I would like to learn more about Hilary Spirling herself - and her research for this book, wouldn't you? I also think, since you have so many questions about the content of The Exile now, you ought to add yet another book to your pile - and read the Spirling book, "Pearl Buck in China" (a link) (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/books/09garner.html?_r=0) yourself. Don't shoot me! :D
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"How boring would the story be without Lotus and her machinations?"
Oh, I agree, Jude - but my attention really focuses on Cuckoo. Lotus just seems to be a painted doll - a puppet, with sly and crafty Cuckoo pulling all the strings...
Pearl Buck writes in this section that Lotus is a symbol. I forget in what sense she meant this. Does anyone remember? Is the entire book a sort of allegory with Wang Lung and his family's struggles symbolic of life in China during this period? If so, what part does Lotus play? Can't wait to hear what you all think after reading these next chapters!
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Yes, I totally think so and have thought so as I've read thru the posts here. I think you've all made this discussion a treasure. I've never seen a better one. I'm not reading the book (I read it again this summer) and I've never seen such depth. It's truly a joy.
I don't know why I persist in thinking that Wang Lung and the other characters are symbols of various elements of China. I've never seen anything to back that up, I've never seen anything at all to indicate that, but for some reason that's what I keep thinking. Sort of a mini China or Chinese history laid out in allegory. I didn't think anybody seemed to think so but me. hahahaa
But now info comes in the form of a quote in this discussion from Pearl Buck herself that that MAY be in fact what she intended! Electric shock!
Linguistically I love her phraseology:" And"...her starting the sentences with and is marvelous. I have to wonder if that's the way the Chinese really translates. Again no idea. "And he said suddenly, seeing Wang Lung near him, “And I had one woman and my father had one woman and we farmed the land.” And again he cried out after a time, “I say it is a harlot!” And so the old man woke from his aged and fitful sleeping with a sort of cunning hatred against Lotus."
That discussion is a real service, an education. If you can't read along, or are too busy to participate, you can still get a ton of stuff out of it, the research alone is spectacular (I did love bluebird's page of photos, had never seen them before), and you can learn something from it.
I do have the Spurling, if I can find it. This makes me want to read the two sequels, they, also, to me, are allegorical. Particularly about how hard a parent might work to achieve something and what the children make of it. Are they, in fact, following more the sins of the father? It's fascinating. I don't know if they are even in print, it's been a long long time since I read them.
I grew up initially in Bucks County, PA, not all that far from Pearl Buck's home, and never once visited it. I think I need to remedy that.
THIS is a masterpiece of a discussion, pat yourselves, each of you, on the back!
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JoanP, I agree, I will have to read Spirling's book. But I need to point out that the inconsistencies I pointed out do not come from The Exile. They come from sites I listed in my prior posts when I googled Pearl S. Buck. So while you are correct, I do love The Exile and Carie, I am not basing my frustration on my feelings for them.
If you will browse back through my posts I provided the link on the Timeline of Pearl and it states, she returned to China and cared for her emaciated mother to her death. A contradiction to Spirling stating, Pearl was not present in China and not with her mother when she died.
As for who is the narrator, again, I researched site after site trying to find something that would give me a clue or definitive answer to my query and all I could find is "unknown, possibly a woman Carie knew." I am not disputing any of Spirling's information, I am only expressing my frustration with the inconsistencies. Have I erred with understanding The Exile is NOT a biography, when in fact it is listed as one? :-[
JoanP., "She included so much factual information about Pearl Buck and direct quotes too -- not available anywhere else. "
Indeed not available anywhere else, and so this is why I asked who is Spirling, and why does her facts contradict the many research sites I have found in regards to Pearl and what is written in The Exile by Pearl? Why would Pearl have she was with her mother during her last days, caring for her and even quoting her last words, if in fact she was not at all there? Is that fiction?
JoanP. " I would like to learn more about Hilary Spirling herself - and her research for this book, wouldn't you?"
Absolutely, I would like to learn more.
No fear of any shootings JoanP., while I admit I have a passionate Italian personality, I am a very gentle woman, and own NO guns. LOLOL ;D ;D ;D ;D
Ginny, Hello, my pizan! I am so happy to see you join us. " I grew up initially in Bucks County, PA, not all that far from Pearl Buck's home, and never once visited it. I think I need to remedy that."
Oh my, you MUST go and visit Pearl's home, and then share with the group!!
I must get to reading the next chapters, can't wait to see where we are going next. I began Pride & Prejudice to get warmed up for Oct.'s discussion of Persuasion, and am enjoying Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy so much so, that I am laughing out loud!!
Ciao for now~
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don't know why I persist in thinking that Wang Lung and the other characters are symbols of various elements of China. I've never seen anything to back that up, I've never seen anything at all to indicate that, but for some reason that's what I keep thinking. Ginny
Thanks for coming in with that, Ginny! Perfect timing. I have sensed the same thing - on and off, since the beginning. We're been hunting down the little clues for just such a connection all along. Most recently when the Wang family was in the south and the city was overtaken by an army and the poor were left with nothing.
In the section we are reading now, Pearl Buck concentrates on Lotus - and refers to her as a symbol. Perhaps that's a hint, a clue that the entire story is an allegory. Does anyone see Wang Lung in this way? Does he represent more than just one fortunate farmer in China?
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Wang Lung as an allegorical figure? Not on your life. With his concubine Wang moves up in the world, reflecting his wealth and his leisure time. Perhaps the author wants us to see a moral in her story, but she is still telling it the way it was. Another of her wonderful books is My Several Worlds, in which she has this to say:
'How can I ever forget the trials of old Mr. Hsu, our town's rich man, whose life was enlivened and beset by his four wives, and the clamor with which they surrounded him! When he travelled on the train to Pengp'u he dared not do what he wished, which was to take only his youngest and therefore his favorite concubine with him. She was a pretty woman in her late twenties, the only one still slender enough to wear the long, tight and very fashionable Shanghai dress. Each journey he began with the determination that he would take only the youngest woman with him, but he was never allowed the luxury. It was impossible to keep anything secret, and so each woman complained until he was unwillingly agreed to take all four. For economy's sake, however, he distributed them through the train, the third and the youngest concubine with him in second class, the second in third class and his wife and the first concubine in fourth class. Alas, he still had no peace, for the three who were in the lower classed were continually around him, demanding the same food and tidbits that he bought for his favorite. The harassment of Mr Hsu made town talk, embellished with local witticisms.'
Try convincing Wang Lung that it's an allegory. More likely it wil eventually seem like a bad dream.
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The more one reads about Pearl Buck the more interesting it gets. Towards the end of her life she took on the airs of the old Dowager Empress of China, of great fame. Fact and fiction ran together to make a good story. And her own life, it seems, was a curious combination. The best biographer would have a problem with sorting the one from the other. I've really enjoyed several of Hilary Spurling's bios. Paul Scott, of Jewel in the Crown fame, and The Life of I. Compton-Burnett. And everyone thinks very highly of her two volumes on Henri Matisse, the painter.
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It was brilliant to leave it to the reader to wonder about O-lan's feelings and thinking. Never a word from her. But the jewels say it all. She dreamed of another life.
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I've just started A House Divided, the third book. I don't think they're allegories. In the introduction by PSB to the second book Sons, she says "Sons of-course is a purely Chinese book. It is totally modelled on the plan of the orthodox Chinese novel. The material is altogether Chinese and the characters are less like ourselves than in The Good Earth." She says she is writing in the style of the Chinese novel of the time, and the second book is most true to the common themes and style, but they all are how Chinese books were. I agree with Jonathan, she is telling it the way it is. Only, to my taste in book 1, Olan is a bit too perfect to be realistic. Everyone else is perfectly realistic and everyone in the other books is too, except the Tiger's lover in book 2 who's another superwoman (of a different type!),and, essentially, one woman in each book. Actually I think a weakness in her writings that I have read so far is to have a more or less unrealistic heroine. Although all the other women are perfectly realistic.
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Oh praise the Lord, Jonathon has appeared!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you.....I thought I was alone on an island of confusion all by myself.
Jonathon, " Fact and fiction ran together to make a good story. And her own life, it seems, was a curious combination. The best biographer would have a problem with sorting the one from the other."
Amen, amen, I say amen!!! Fact and fiction indeed, and good luck figuring out which is which, and who the narrator is! ???
Jonathon, " Try convincing Wang Lung that it's an allegory. More likely it will eventually seem like a bad dream."
More like a nightmare he has gotten himself in! Lotus and Cuckoo is like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. lolol Oh Jonathon thank you for coming at just the right time, before I was about to throw this book across the room and say, enough of this!
Welcome Dana and thank you for the insight of Pearl, " I don't think they're allegories."
I agree with you and Jonathon, I don't think they are allegories either, although I do feel there are lessons to be learned in The Good Earth.
I did some browsing trying to learn a little more about Hilary Spurling, and I have come to the conclusion she writes for the shock value. I think I would prefer Peter Conn's biography of Pearl.
http://www.amazon.com/Pearl-S-Buck-Cultural-Biography/dp/0521560802/ref=pd_cp_b_1
Ciao for now~
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Jonathan- We've been expecting you! Please stick around, we need you! Yes indeed, Pearl Buck's work is a combination of fact and fiction. That does account for the discrepancies in her work - even in memoirs of her own mother!
I'm not sure I agree with you about the allegorical nature of her fiction, though. I've spent the last hour reading and re-reading Pearl Buck's acceptance speech when she received the Nobel Prize. If so inclined, you might want to read it for yourself. I'd love to hear what you think - about the differences between the Western and the Chinese novel. (As Dana says, "she is writing in the style of the Chinese novel of the time" She says this herself in this speech, not just of Sons, but of the entire trilogy ...because, well, here, listen or read it for yourself)-
Pearl Buck's Nobel Lecture (http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1938/buck-lecture.html)
I came out of reading it with a new understanding - which is why I think the story we are reading is much more than one man's experience, - but would love to hear your take on what Pearl Buck had to say about her work when lecturing on the Chinese novel - -
-The people created the novel, not scholars, not writers, but they came from the simple talk of the people.
-"For the Chinese novel was written primarily to amuse the common people. I mean enlightening that mind by pictures of life and what that life means. I mean encouraging the spirit not by rule-of-thumb talk about art, but by stories about the people in every age, and thus presenting to people simply themselves."
- "The storyteller searched the dry annals of the history which the scholars had written, and with his fertile imagination, enriched by long acquaintance with common people, he clothed long-dead figures with new flesh and made them live again; he found stories of court life and intrigue and names of imperial favorites who had brought dynasties to ruin; he found, as he traveled from village to village, strange tales from his own times which he wrote down when he heard them. People told him of experiences they had had and he wrote these down, too, for other people."
- "From such humble and scattered beginnings, then, came the Chinese novel, written always in the vernacular, and dealing with all which interested the people, with legend and with myth, with love and intrigue, with brigands and wars, with everything, indeed, which went to make up the life of the people, high and low."
ps - A question to consider, a decision to make after we finish The Good Earth. Would you like to read the rest of the Trilogy when we're done - or at least start the second one, Sons - where The Good Earth leaves off?
pps Jonathan - let's save the story of the end of her life until we've finished the book or we'll leave Wang Lung in the dust! ;)
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Thanks, Bellamarie, for the link to Peter Conn's bio of Pearl Buck. I'm going to get it. I'll never forgive you, if you fling your book away now, and leave me in suspense about your feelings about the rest of the book. You have made your encounter with this book a real revelation for me. I'm baffled by it the way you are and haven't known what to say about it.
Thanks, JoanP, for the link to Pearl Buck's Nobel Prize acceptance address. You're right about getting a better understanding of her writing from it. So now we know. She was aiming for the pei hua style of Chinese narrative in her novel. The simple talk of the people.
Hi, Ginny,I hope your butting in serves as a good example for others!! What do you think? Does Buck make a good argument for the great missionary efforts in China? Or did she see the futility?
Thanks to all of you for your interesting posts. I can't believe the old man's moral indignation about the harlot. I'm convinced it's the expense he's worried about. On the other hand, I can't help feeling that Mao Tse-tung must have read that Nobel speech and felt there was a need for a Cultural Revolution in China. Didn't he have some kind of back to the good earth policy for people who disagreed with him?
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Leaving Wang Lung in the dust. Heavens no, JoanP, he's had troubles enough.
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Perhaps we need to read more of the book to decide what Pearl Buck intended to convey - to tell a story of what she has learned and experienced in China? Do the characters represent those experiences? Has Pearl written a parable, perhaps? - Shall we be watching for a moral?
The themes expressed so far: - Wang's relationship with the Earth, Wealth destroys his basic values, the position of women in his household.
Should have said "leaving Wang Lung in the dirt," Jonathan :D
Happily back working the land now that he is cured of the love sickness. What cured him? He really doesn't care what Lotus thinks of him now, does he?
Right from the start of chapter 22 the narrator refers to Lotus as a "symbol"...and Wang Lung is pleased with his status in the town because of his beautiful concubine. Also pleased with his fine sons and his good housekeeper, his wife.
Dana finds Olan too perfect, too accepting of the situation. Does she have a choice? I'm wondering why she would suggest bringing slaves into the house to cure her elder son's restlessness. What would this accomplish?
Jonathan - I think you're on to something when you speak of Mao's interest in Pearl Buck's writing of the common people.
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Oh my heavens, I am only on chapter 26 and I can barely read any further. I seriously had to stop and bookmark my page because the tears are just flowing, and I feel like my heart could jump out of my body. I am hurting so very much for O-lan. There is so much going on in these chapters, it is difficult to know where to begin discussing it.
I think I will need to take a break and come back before beginning to discuss these chapters. But, I do need to say I feel this book is more like reading my Bible, than a novel. It has all the parables, stories and events that takes place in the Old and New testaments. I realized it when the locusts came. I thought, oh my goodness, its like the plagues in the Bible! So now with that thought I will leave and come back when I can sort out some thoughts and let my feelings cease. I'm just not sure I can bare to read the next chapters, for fear of knowing what comes next for O-lan.
Ciao for now~
p.s. JoanP, I just glanced up at your post and saw this, " Has Pearl written a parable, perhaps? - Shall we be watching for a moral?"
Since I had written my post before seeing yours, I suppose I answered your question. I have always seen morals in this book from the very beginning. I can see now, why it won the awards it did. Got to go settle myself with something else for a bit.
Jonathon, I will see it to the end, but this book as I said early on, is NOT for sissies. I live in a bubble of happiness, love, faith and hope there is good in kindness in everyone, I just have to look deep sometimes to see it. The pain in these chapters are almost unbearable. I need to switch over to Pride & Prejudice with Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy's bantering to bring me back to my happy place....
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" tears are just flowing, and I feel like my heart could jump out of my body. I am hurting so very much for O-lan." Bellamarie
As difficult as her life has been, there have been many bright spots, compensations... It hasn't been all bad, especially considering her expectations when a young girl, a slave in the House of Hwang, don't you think? That's what surprised me - that she, considering her former position, would suggest providing her son with a young slave to play with, until a suitable wife came along.
I wonder how many of you consider O-lan to be the heroine of this story? I've read that many people do. I keep in mind what you said, Dana - that she is an "unrealistic heroine." We never really see her react, we see an occasional tear... We feel for her, but Olan seems to know her situation is as good as it gets - and never really expected more. Don't you think that if Pearl B considered O-lan to be her heroine, she would have kept her in the story long enough to move back into the big house of Hwang - as Wang Lung is planning to do - this time with Cuckoo as her slave? She opted not to do that, continued her story with Wang Lung...his love for the land...and his pride.
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I wouldn't make too much of Buck being documented by Herbert Hoover. Anyone who had any international connections was thought by Hoover to be a little "pink"(communist). Even the YWCA, because it was an international organization, had a file, and Jane Addams, because she was a pacifist and met with people in Europe to try to end WWI, and ELEANOR ROOSEVELT who Buck was friendly with - probably all of the women and men involved in the social issues of the time had a file.
Ginny, you will love Buck's house. Since she lived there and had her adoption agency office there, all of her furnishings are there just like they were when she lived there and they even have some of her clothing. It's not like some estates where they had to go find furnishings similar to what she might have had.
The Peter Conn book is excellent and easily read.
Jean
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Jean - I remember asking you for a definition of a cultural biography when you first spoke of Peter Conn - before reading The Good Earth. Thank you for bringing his work to our attention. Besides Pearl's pacifist" leanings, international connections with communists when in China, there were other activities which added to her fat FBI file.
Conn writes: "Buck's efforts on behalf of equality included tireless support for women's rights. She promoted modern birth control and called her friend Margaret Sanger "one of the most courageous women of our times," a person whose name "would go down in history" as a modern crusader for justice. In the 1930s and 1940s, Buck also spoke out repeatedly in support of an Equal Rights Amendment for women, at a time when opposition to it included the majority of organized women's groups.
As a highly visible proponent of international understanding and of civil rights for women and African-Americans, Pearl Buck inevitably attracted the hostile curiosity of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Buck's FBI file, which was initiated as early as 1937, reaches nearly three hundred pages, of which a little over two-thirds has been declassified. (I am still appealing for release of the other material.) The paltry gossip and innuendo in these pages would be amusing if it were not outrageous, a sad reminder of the paranoia that has infected America's domestic politics for over half a century."
I wonder if it is thought that Pearl B. wrote The Good Earth to bring attention to women's rights - (or lack of them) in China. If so, then the all the women, Lotus, the Poor Little - even Cuckoo might have been her focus - and Olan might well have been the heroine of the novel...
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The Book Club Online is the oldest book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone. We offer cordial discussions of one book a month, 24/7 and enjoy the company of readers from all over the world. Everyone is welcome.
September Book Club Online
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
| (http://seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/goodearth/goodearthcover.jpg) |
Interest in Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, continues with the news that her never-before published, final novel is coming out in October, forty years after her death. The Good Earth is the poignant tale of a farmer and his family in old agrarian China, a depiction of traditional Chinese culture in the early twentieth century before World War II. Some critics say it should move readers to rediscover Buck as a source of insight into both revolutionary China and the United States’ interactions with it.
Let's discover together why The Good Earth remained on the bestseller list for 21 months in 1931 and 1932, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932.l
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Relevant Links:
the Good Earth Timeline (http://www.pearl-s-buck.org/document.doc?id=8); Comprehensive Bio of Pearl Buck and her work (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/pearlbuc.htm);
| DISCUSSION SCHEDULE: |
| September 2-8 | Chapters 1-8 |
| September 9-15 | Chapters 9-15 |
| September 16-20 | Chapters 16-21 |
| September 21-25 | Chapters 22-28 |
| September 26-29 | Chapters 29-34 |
Some Topics for Discussion
Sept. 26-29 ~ Chapters 29-34
1. Why did Wang Lung move his family into the big Hwang House in town but keep the youngest son and his poor little fool with him on the land?
2. T"he rich, never content, always wanting more." Is this true of Wang Lung? Is this what sets him apart?
3. "Like a swarm of locusts, the soldiers came - a horde of men - poured into his court like filthy water." Is this how the "People's Revolution was viewed by the rich?
4. Why does Lotus insist that her delicate little Pear Blossom become the uncle's nephew's slave - at Cuckoo's suggestion?
5. Do you see a similarity between Wang Lung's feelings for his poor little fool and Pear Blossom? If so, why the night of passion?
6. "So Wang Lung sat, and so his age came on him day by day and year by year...Thus spring wore on again and again and vaguely and more vaguely as these years passed, he feels it coming..." Does this sound like a man content with his final days, assured that his land will remain in the family?
7. What did the last sentence in the book signify? Are you ready to pick up Sons - the next book of the trilogy?
Something to consider: How might this book have been different if written by a Chinese person - a Chinese man?
Contact: JoanP (jonkie@verizon.net)
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There's no doubt in my mind that O-lan should be seen as the heroine in the book. And that Pearl B was trying to portray the sorry plight of women in The Good Earth, from infancy on. I wondered, too, JoanP, why O-lan wasn't kept alive to return to the Big House as its mistress. Her situation is heartbreaking throughout. Wang Lung acknowledges that himself in his strong feelings for O-lan. The doctor has found her deathly ill and has told Wang Lung so.
"Wang Lung went out with the doctor...and when he was gone, Wang Lung went into the dark kitchen where O-lan had lived her life for the most part, and where, now that she was not there, none would see him, and he turned his face to the blackened wall, and he wept." (end of Chapter 25)
We've been left guessing about her feelings all along. What a stoical creature! I agree with you, Bellamarie, there's something biblical about the book that raises it above fiction and story. I'm tempted to see a saga in it. A peasant saga. I believe Pearl B admitted that while she wrote in English, she was thinking in Chinese.
It boggles my mind to go from Buck's China to Austen's England.
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I seem to remember reading somewhere that the first clause of the new constitution following Mao's successful Peasant Revolt, provided for the right of women to get out of unhappy marriages. The right to a divorce.
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Now that I have composed myself, and gotten through the tears of O-lan's death, I am ready to take on these chapters and make some sense out of what is going on. Or at least attempt to. As for O-lan being the heroine, as Dana and JoanP have suggested, yes, I can see her as just that, if indeed Pearl even intended a heroine at all. I think there can be a heroine in a story, who dies, but yet lives on making her very existence of grave importance to the rest of the story and characters she touched.
The idea of how much Lung's father loved O-lan just tore at my heartstrings. Here Lung himself has never been able to truly be in love with his wife, who did everything for him, and he feels guilty at her death bed because he can not even muster up feelings that should come normal in this situation, yet his father is so very saddened of losing her, he then dies himself. How O-lan must have felt seeing the guilt in his eyes. Yes, she knew she was ugly, large feet, and rough, dark skin. Yes, she knew she was a slave girl and felt just to be his wife and the mother of his children, was more than she could ever have expected or wanted, but as she lay dying, to see him come, and not even be able to express any love for her. was so very sad.
pg. "Well I know I am ugly and can not be loved__" When she said this Wang Lung could not bear it and he took her hand and he soothed it, a big hard hand, stiff as though it were dead already. And he wondered and grieved at himself most of all because what she said was true, and even when he took her hand, desiring truly that she feel his tenderness towards her, he was ashamed because he could feel no tenderness, no melting of the heart such as Lotus could win from him with a pout of her lips. When he took this stiff dying hand he did not love it, and even his pity was spoiled with repulsion towards it."
A heroine has many qualities deserving of the title, and as far as I am concerned, O-lan possessed every quality possible as a heroine should. She sacrificed her entire life to serving others. In her dying days she made sure her eldest son was wed. I loved how she made sure every detail and custom was followed as she lay in her bed listening to it all. I also loved how she kept her dignity to the end with this:
"There were times when O-lan woke to herself and to what was about her and once called for Cuckoo, and when in great astonishment Wang Lung summoned the woman, O-lan raised herself trembling upon her arm, and she said plainly enough, "Well, and you have lived in the courts of the Old Lord, and you were accounted beautiful, but I have been a man's wife and I have borne him sons, and you are still a slave." "After I am dead that one nor her mistress neither is to come into my room or touch my things, and if they do, I will send my spirit back for a curse." Then she fell into her fitfull sleep, and her head dropped upon the pillow.
As far as I am concerned she died with dignity, in spite of Lung, Cuckoo and Lotus robbing her of everything, including her pearls. Indeed Lung should feel horrible for ever taking them from her. O-lan would not have been suited to live in the big house where she was treated so badly. I can't even imagine her wishing to return to such a place that would trigger the memories. To many it represented, wealth, royalty and success. O-lan lived in her very own castle, and was the queen of it in my eyes. That house just may turn out to be the house of cards that comes crashing down. Did you ever want something so badly, only to find once you have it, it is no longer what it seemed to be? Can Lung earn redemption or respect in my eyes, now that O-lan has died? Not in these chapters this week.
Have to run, so much to discuss in these chapters.
Jonathon, Yes, I suppose it would boggle the mind going from Wang Lung & O-lan, to Elizabeth and Mr. Darcey, but it worked for me...helped me giggle with their secret crush on each other even thinking... "Me thinks they both protest too much." ::)
Ciao for now~
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Joan, thanks for posting that quote. I read Conn's book at least 6 or 7 yrs ago so don't have the details in my head.
Jean
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I agree, there is much of interest in Peter Conn's "cultural biography," Jean. We are experiencing the revolution first-hand in the final chapters in The Good Earth.
'I have called this book a cultural biography, and I should explain what that term means. I have tried to situate Pearl Buck's career in the many contexts that are needed to understand her development and her significance. This has involved a continuous act of negotiation between her life and the social and political circumstances that surrounded her. Consequently, along with Buck's biography and writing, readers will find in these pages a good deal of information about both Chinese and American history and literature." Peter Conn
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There's no doubt in my mind that O-lan should be seen as the heroine in the book. And that Pearl B was trying to portray the sorry plight of women in The Good Earth, from infancy on. Jonathan
I'm hesitating to go so far as to call Olan a "heroine"... so quiet, submissive. It does take grit and determination to raise a family, to keep the household together, at any cost. If that was Pearl B's intent - to "portray the sorry plight of women" in China - and she used the character of Olan as an example of what life was like at the time, maybe as an example of the unhappy woman, Olan could be considered the novel's heroine.
I sense she had other intentions - including this one - but something else she was trying to show. The poverty to riches to poverty. "The poor are poor until the rich get too rich" - remember that quote? It seems that when the poor become rich, they become fat, idle and lose their values somewhere along the way. (Though that did not happen to Olan, did it?) "That house just may turn out to be the house of cards that comes crashing down." I can see that coming, Bellamarie.
What of Wang Lung? Would you consider him a hero, if not a flawed hero, when his pride gets in the way. What will become of him when he moves into the big house in town and rents out his land, leaving the good earth behind? The Good Earth is the title Pearl B. chose for this book. Can it be left behind?
I can see Wang Lung returning - but oh those sons! What will become of them?
Dana- I just picked up a copy of Sons - the second of the Wang family trilogy. The first sentence picks right up from where we end here. Is anyone interested in continuing on with a group discussion of the next book? I'm so curious about what will become of those sons...and Wang Lung too.
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I think the "downfall" of Wang Lung's house is because of the fact that he left "the good earth" and got away from his roots and values. He let his wealth get in the way of training his sons to work and respect the good earth. His family is in for a downfall and I am not sure if they have enough character to overcome it.
Sally
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JoanP, I would love to continue if others are willing to read Sons. I had no idea another book picks up from this one.
It's interesting how heroine and hero have been mentioned. While I think I could see O-lan possess what I would consider qualities of a heroine, I personally never once even thought about a hero or heroine in this story. I never even considered Pearl intending there to be one. Not every story has a hero or heroine, and personally I don't see this story intending for there to be either one. I in no way see Wang Lung as a hero. He has done nothing heroic in my view. What he has done so far in this story has shown me he is a weak man. He could not respect and honor his wife, taking care of his family is normally what every man should do, rising from being poor to wealthy is not heroic because anyone who works hard and makes good decisions financially can accomplish this. He submits to blackmail from his uncle and that wretched wife and nephew, rather than stand up to them because of his fear of losing his money and possessions. That is not heroic. So, nope, no hero in my eyes.
Do you think when Wang Lung moves into the great house he will stop caring for his land? His land has always been in his heart and soul. It will be interesting to see what happens when they move.
I found this very interesting as their customs:
pg. 195 : Once she lay dead it seemed to Wang Lung that he could not bear to be near O-lan, and he called his uncle's wife to wash the body for burial, and when it was finished he would not go in again, but he allowed his uncle's wife and his eldest son and his daughter in law to lift the body form the bed and set it into the great coffin he bought. But to comfort himself he busied himself in going to the town and calling men to seal the coffin according to custom and he went and found a geomancer and asked him for a lucky day for burials. He found a good day three months hence and it was the first good day the geomancer could find, so Wang Lung paid the man and went to the temple in the town and he bargained with the abbot there and rented a space for a coffin for three months, and, there was O-lan's coffin brought to rest until the day of burial, for it seemed to Wang Lung he could not bear to have it under his eyes in the house.
Do you suppose he could not bear to have O-lan's coffin in the house because he treated her so badly that the guilt would overcome him. Or that he feared her spirit returning to haunt him as she suggested. He had no problem allowing his father's coffin to remain in the house until the burial day.
I also thought it interesting how white was the color of mourning. pg. 195 "and for his children, and their shoes were made of white cloth, which is the color of mourning, and about their ankles they bound bands of white cloth, and the women in the house bound their hair with white cords.
Ciao for now~
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Bellamarie,
I don't think there is a hero or heroine in this story either. I don't think Wang Lung was as despicable as you seem to feel that he was. He did take care of his wife and children and even showed some feelings for "poor little fool". He took care of her when he couldn't trust anyone else to do so. I think we westerners tend to judge others by our standards and have a hard time understanding other cultures. I don't condone his behavior; but think that in his own culture; he was considered an "honorable" man. Olan had a much better life with him than she would have if she had not married. Remember that she was willing to sell little fool back early in the story.
Sally
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Salan,
I don't thing that O-lan was talking about selling "little fool". I believe that when she mentioned selling a girl, it was the female half of the twins. Anybody know?
Has no one mentioned that when Lung Wang planned O-lan's funeral he went to the Taoist priests and the priests from the Buddhist temple. Was that the tradition of the Chinese at that time? And he paid them to chant all night before the ceremonies of the funeral. It seems there was a very thin thread of religiosity throughout the lives of the Wang family. The two small statues in the little temple were addressed when one was in need or when one was angry. That seems to have been the extent of the Wang's religious feelings. At one time he says, "I must stick a little incense before those two in the small temple. After all, they have power over earth."
After looking back into the story, I think their gods were credited with all the good things and all the
bad things that happened but credited they were.
I am not ready to place "hero or heroine" titles on any of the characters in this story or tale that PB as told us. I do think she is one of the best story tellers of her time. And that she had some reasons for telling her tales to us. Her experience of living as a child in China, living as a young care giver and finally as a wife has been spread out for us to read in all of her books. I do agree that women's rights or lack of them is shown in most of her stories. She was a gift to the Chinese. They cried in China when she died and "wondered who was going to save them".
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b]Sally[/b], I haven't gotten to the point of seeing Wang Lung's redemption or honor, just yet. I agree, he did take care of his family, but I was pointing out his actions he has done, that would not make him a "hero" in my eyes. Some of the things he has done I feel would be considered despicable by any culture or standard. And yes, I am sure some in his culture does see him as honorable. Taking care of your family is expected, and any man worth the soil of the earth should do that. It's all the rest of the things he did, and how he treated O-lan that has given me pause. Even Wang Lung's father was disgraced by his actions. Yes, O-lan did indeed have a better life being his wife than living as a slave. But she deserved far better treatment than what he gave her. She helped him earn all his wealth, and risked her life and the unborn baby's life by working all day in the fields along side him. Yes, she was willing to sell one of their daughters, for the sake of the rest of her family, and she even killed the newborn. (Which I did not agree with) That showed us what sacrifices she was willing to make for Wang Lung and her family. When the doctor was trying to swindle them for more money to save O-lan's life and the price was more than Lung wanted to pay, O-lan accepted she was not worth him and the family losing their wealth to save her life.
You may be correct in saying by their culture his actions would be seen honorable, and I just may be measuring him by my own culture's measuring stick, but I would like to think I am measuring him by what every man/woman is expected by their Gods or mine. This is why I feel Lung has turned away from their Gods, and yet he curses the Gods for anything that goes wrong. I don't know if he realizes his life is no longer in sync with who he was before his greed took over. If and when that happens is when redemption and honor may be a possibility. How or what could bring him to this enlightenment? O-lan's and his father's death has not, his wretched uncle's family has not, if anything he pumps their pipes with opium behind their backs to keep them quiet. Knowing Louts was tempting his son with the desires of his youthful needs did not awaken him, he just sent the son away. Floods and locusts, droughts and famine....still he curses the Gods.... so what will it take?
I am hoping that in the last chapters something will happen to bring Wang Lung back from this life of greed, but I'm thinking once bitten it's hard to turn away from all he has, if anything he wants more. He wants to be the LORD. The Gods, just may bring a wrath down on him. I am anxious to see how life goes once they are all living in the great house. It just may not be so great. I am sensing old age may be his awakening....no one can stop age or sickness which he has yet to deal with.
I said earlier this story reminds me of reading my Bible.......its like in the beginning God gave Adam his partner Eve, (Wang Lung was given O-lan). God gave them all they needed to live in the garden of Eden to be happy, (Wang Lung had good soil, harvests and plenty of silver and gold and his family) but Lucifer tempted them with the Apple, (greed and lust was Lung's temptation) and they disobeyed God, so they ate of the apple (Lung gave into the temptation of his lust & greed) and we all know where that led Adam and Eve, and we can all see where it is leading Wang Lung. Wang Lung has indeed disobeyed their Gods and has not only has taken a bite of the apple, he wants the whole entire orchard, to be LORD of the great house! (just as Lucifer wanted God's position to reign over Heaven) Money and greed is many a man's downfall. Every person desires to have more and be successful in life, and I believe God provides us with knowledge, skills and means to accomplish such. It's when we are never satisfied, and allow the power and greed to overcome us, and we begin turning away from our own moral values and God, that we then begin being unhappy, troubled and find ourselves no longer the person we were.
While I know everyone does not believe in an organized religious faith, I think its fair to say we all live in a society that expects and wants everyone to live by some basic human laws, regardless. Is this story showing us how when human beings no matter what their culture, begins living outside of their own basic values, they will indeed suffer and bring about the suffering of their loved ones? Money is the root of all evil, and many a man/woman have destroyed their lives, and the lives of their loved ones, by their greed for money, power, lust and the finer things in life.
I have said I have seen morals throughout this book....I just wonder what is left to discover. As I said before, I don't see any heroes or heroines in the story, just as Adam and Eve were no hero or heroine in my opinion.
Cable guy is here and needs to boot me off the internet so gotta run. Sorry for such a long post.
Ciao for now~
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One of the reasons the Chinese people were so grateful to Pearl Buck was the way she recorded the practices of the peasants and the farmers who worked the land. No one else was observing and documenting their lives at the time. Annie asks about Olan's burial service- the fact that Wang Lung asked for the services of the Taoist priests and the priests from the Buddhist temple. I have not answer - except it seemed to me that the bereaved husband wanted to cover all his bases...and called on all the gods he could think of to give Olan a proper burial. I noticed "white" the sign of mourning too.
Reminded me of the "red" when marriage, births, and the new year were celebrated.
We've arrived at an interesting point - the idea of a hero/heroine in a novel? Here's one definition of a heroine - (there are others very similar) Does this definition change your mind?heroine
1. A woman noted for courage and daring action.
2. A woman noted for special achievement in a particular field.
3. The principal female character in a novel, poem, or dramatic presentation
Do you think O-lan fits this definition
Annie, I think O-lan suggested selling the poor little fool to a big house - back in chapter 14 when the family was living in the southern city where the family was desparate. She suggested it - Wang Lung considered it - asked the poor uncomprehending child if she's like to go to a great house where there is food and drink and warmth. Then he cried out - is there no other way! He wept. He knew what kind of life she would have... Miraculously, the soldiers swept through the city and Wang Lung came upon the rich man, took his money and they were all able to escape. I hate to think what would have happened...
Bellamarie - I'm wondering if you see Wang Lung as Job - being tested? Famine, drought, despair... Should he have accepted it all as the will of his gods? Money might be the root of all evil - but poverty and desperation also lead men to behave in ways outside their basic values too.
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Sally, you've got me thinking of Wang Lung's attachment to that poor little girl. I don't think she would have survived in any other household at this time when girls were considered extra mouths to feed, worth only what they could bring from others. And this one is handicapped as well. Do you think that Wang Lung's feelings for her are unusual...unlike those of other men for daughters at this time. Especially during famine, flood and drought. In my mind he stands out for loving and caring for her as he does.
Bellamarie is interested in reading the second book of the trilogy - Sons
I believe you are reading A House Divided, Dana - the third volume of the trilogy that began with The Good Earth and Sons, is a powerful portrayal of China in the midst of revolution. Would you be interested in discussing Sons - or are you past that? I picked up my copy of Sons - and from the very first sentence, I see the continuation of The Good Earth.
I guess I shouldn't refer to that because I'm not sure if you are all finished with the book. There's much to discuss in these final chapters...and the very last sentence of the last paragraph in The Good Earth sets us up for what is to come. Are you ready to move on?
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Thanks for setting me right, JoanP, about selling "poor little fool" when they were living in such dire straits in the south. I had forgotten. There is so much to discuss in this book that we could probably continue with just "The Good Earth" for another month. And, I have reserved "Sons" at my library. Hope it arrives before we make a decision to read and discuss it!
Yes, bella, I agree that this story seems to be told with the same cadence of the Bible stories. Remember we thought we heard that cadence in PB's speech when she received the Pulitzer prize.
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JoanP, " 3. The principal female character in a novel, poem, or dramatic presentation"
By this definition, then I am to assume every story ever written with a female in it, would have a heroine in it. hmmm...just not so sure I am ready to change my mind even with this. But it makes for a good argument, for anyone who does see O-lan as a heroine. Thank you JoanP. for the post.
Yes, Annie! I forgot about listening to the speech, and indeed the same cadence of the Bible stories was heard in her speech, that is what captured my interest.
JoanP. Now that you mention it, I can see Wang Lung being tested in the ways of Job.
"Money might be the root of all evil - but poverty and desperation also lead men to behave in ways outside their basic values too."
But Wang Lung has managed to live through the poverty and desperation, if anything he has stored his money and harvests for such conditions. His only desperation I have seen in these past chapters, is he is desperate to hold on to the hidden silver, gold and jewels he has in so many different places, so robbers should they come will not find them. He is so desperate to hold onto his materialistic things, that he is allowing this horrible uncle and his family live in his house and send his daughter away for the fear the nephew would sexually harm her. He is willing to move into the great house to be away from these horrible people, so his own son and daughter in law will not take his grandson and move away from him. His lust and greed are his driving force in these past chapters.
JoanP, "Do you think that Wang Lung's feelings for her are unusual...unlike those of other men at this time."
Yes, I do think Wang Lung's feeling for "poor little" were unusual for those of other men at this time. That is the one good quality in him that gives me hope, he can be redeemed.
I have not read next week's assigned chapters which will reveal what is to come next. I am going out of town for the week end tomorrow at noon to enjoy the beautiful fall weather in Frankenmuth, Michigan. It's an annual thing my hubby and I have done for years. I will finish the chapters and be ready to discuss them on Monday.
Ciao for now~
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OK...keep an eye on the schedule in the heading. This is the last week - We're scheduled to finish up on Sunday but can keep the lights on for you.
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Enjoy your weekend, Bellamarie, and come back with another long post. You've come through with such amazing insight into the book and its characters. So have you all. Like Annie, I feel we could spend another month with this book
I was away myself for a few days earlier in the month, walking in the hills around St. Huberts, N. Y. I even made it to the top of Giant Mt. overlooking the Ausable Club with its fine golf course. On an earlier occasion I picked up a golf ball at the summit, believing that a hook or a slice had carried it that far (4600 ft). This time I picked up a penny up there and have already mounted it on a little stone that came from another hill I climbed. It makes a fine paperweight. Now, The Good Earth has made me realize that I may be picking up things left to placate or pay tribute to someone's gods. It has been interesting to read about the gods in the lives of the Chinese peasants.
Olan is certainly a heroine in my book, in the sense of deserving our sympathy and interest. She plays the role assigned her by her fate so well.
And what fun it has been getting to know the peasant Wang Lung. The salt of the good earth he loves so well. The world is his oyster. He has succeeded beyong his wildest dreams. Job should have enjoyed his blessings. He has nothing to regret. There is no need for an awakening in his old age, as Bellamarie suggests. He gets his just desserts. A third wife.
O-lan. Lotus. Pear Blossom. Each comes along at a new stage in Wang Lung's life. Each meets a new need in his physical, emotional and aesthetic development. A brilliant portrayal of marital rites in China. That's what makes it such a wild prelude to reading the Jane Austen book.
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Jonathan, you made me wonder - Pearl Booth, such an avid reader as a girl. She must have read Jane Austen, don't you think?
Did you notice that Lotus is referred to as Wang Lung's "wife" now - I counted three times. I'm having more trouble counting little Pear Blossom - and understanding what is between these two. I'll bet we hear more of her in the second book of the trilogy - Sons. What will become of her?
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Jonathon, Oh my, a third wife? Now you have piqued my interest. Only I dare say, I never have seen Lotus as his wife, only his mistress out of pure respect for O-lan and by the definition of concubine. So, who is this Pear Blossom you have mentioned? Do they actually take marital vows? Oh I can't wait to see how Lotus accepts this.
"Olan is certainly a heroine in my book, in the sense of deserving our sympathy and interest. She plays the role assigned her by her fate so well."
You have almost convinced me when you point out, "she plays the role assigned her by her fate so well." She always has had my sympathy and interest from the very beginning. I sense that is why I am so hard on Wang Lung. My heart still hurts at the mere thought of how she was treated and unloved. Taking those pearls from her to give to his harlot, was like taking the only thing she had to cherish in secret, to make her feel special.
I have New York on my bucket list of places to visit. Your post only entices me even more to see some of the beautiful sites this state has to offer. Mountain climbing is not in my future, but seeing the beauty of mountains is definitely a must. Good for you for making it to the top!
(I fear dear Elizabeth has her eyes on Mr. Wickham, as a distraction of her true feelings for Mr. Darcy. Why is the obvious so difficult for others to see?)
JoanP. Thank you for pointing out the schedule, and leaving the lights on for me. I don't want to be left in the dark. You all will hear my voice.......hello......hello......is anybody there??? ;D I am off to begin reading the last chapters. I happen to have a night of nothing to do, so I just may finish them tonight.
Ciao for now~
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Well, I've finally gotten back on schedule after a magnificent week of whale watching, birding, beach sitting and general yakking with JoanK. What a magnificent duo birthday celebration!
I've got so many comments I don't know where to start, so I'll begin with a total irrelevancy:
I fear dear Elizabeth has her eyes on Mr. Wickham, as a distraction of her true feelings for Mr. Darcy. Why is the obvious so difficult for others to see?
Bellamarie, I'm still enjoying the thought of reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time. Just wait: there are some twists and turns to come, and some magnificent scenes ahead.
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One thing that strikes me is how anesthetic Wang Lung is to the character of the people around him. He doesn't seem to realize what his sons are like until some incident calls it to his attention, or one of them tells him what another son really wants. Doesn't he have eyes in his head?
He's even worse with O-lan, never seems to get what drives her. But since one of the points of the book seems to be the fact that women in China are not actually persons unless they manage to make it so by some means, either by being high-born, a respected elder of some importance, so beautiful they can write their own ticket, etc, that makes sense.
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Wasn't that heart-breaking when Wang Lung seemed to have forgotten the existence of his second son, Pat? Not easy for the second son in any age...the first is a tough act to follow. ( I had four sons, I know this first hand...in hindsight.). Don't they call Prince Harry the "spare heir"?
So we're coming full cycle as the farmer moves his family into the enormous Hwang house in town. I'm wondering why he stayed down on the farm with son#3- Does he sense the significance of such a move? Does he like the idea of his sons in the house...reflecting well on himself? His pride has always been an issue - though his heart has always been in his land. to
By the way, the Wangs don't own the big town house...they're only renting, right? It's the land they own. Is that important to remember? I think so.
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I finished the book and have so many thoughts running through my mind. Pearl did a fantastic job in educating her readers of the life, culture and customs of ancient China, along with the devaluation of the female species. I learned things I never knew and found upsetting, knowing how females in China, seem to be good for birthing sons, cleaning, satisfying the male lust, and serving to their every need. I can hope in modern day China things are better.
Keeping with the feeling this was like reading my Bible, the last chapters of the book for me was even more revealing in comparison with the Bible. I went to bed after finishing the book and woke up and my hubby asked, how did the book end and what did you think of it? This is what came to me:
I saw the last chapters as the Seven Deadly Sins and the reason for the unrest, and division in the great house. Wang Lung is constantly seeking "peace" in his old age, but it eludes him. He decides to be an envious old man/father, instead of giving the young maiden Pear Blossom to his son, which would have been the right thing to do after his son asked for her, Wang Lung sees the beauty and youth in Pear Blossom and his son, and then realizes his own age has faded, [pride], and decides to capture his last season of lust & love with the girl who is young enough to be his daughter, [which in my eyes would be incestuous.] It brought him the satisfaction of showing himself, and his sons he is still virile enough to lay with this young girl, but what it actually did was make his son [angry/wrath] and turn away from him, the other son saw this as an approval of taking a concubine for himself, and the other son is busy with secretly deciding how he will sell off all the land, and split it among his brothers once his father dies.[greed] "The Good Earth," ......in the end the sons have no intentions of ever respecting the good earth, from which all their riches and social status came from, their greed can only see all the silver, expensive food, [gluttony] and gold and the things it will buy for them. I suppose they learned nothing of the fact the wealthy lived in the House of Hawng and did exactly as they are doing, [sloth] being lazy, not working the land, and was robbed of everything, leaving the house empty and destroyed. So while Wang Lung thought by spoiling his children and giving into their wants it would make them stay close to him, it only taught them to resent him, hate each other, and plot behind his back and leave him and sell off his generations of land. Sins of the father......
So now that the next book is titled "Sons," it makes me wonder if Pearl picks up with the same Biblical cadence, hence Cain and Able. Ultimately once Cain kills Able God decides: "When thou farm the ground, it shall not yield good crops to you! Thou shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth!" (Genesis 4:10-4:12)
Indeed this is how I see the ending of the trilogy. So I suppose I will have to read "Sons" to see if my theory is correct.
Some information I wanted to share:
The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, is a classification of vices (part of Christian ethics) that has been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct Christians concerning fallen humanity's tendency to sin. In the currently recognized version, the sins are usually given as wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.
1. Wrath…anger, Anger is an emotion related to one's psychological interpretation of having been offended, wronged, or denied and a tendency to react through retaliation. Wrath or anger, usually associated with violence, violent reaction, or acting out.
2. Greed….Greed is the inordinate desire to possess wealth, goods, or objects of abstract value with the intention to keep it for one's self, far beyond the dictates of basic survival and comfort. It is applied to a markedly high desire for and pursuit of wealth, status, and power.
3. Sloth….laziness, Sloth is defined as spiritual or emotional apathy, neglecting what God has spoken, and being physically and emotionally inactive. Sloth can also indicate a wasting due to lack of use, concerning a person, place, thing, skill, or intangible ideal that would require maintenance, refinement, or support to continue to exist.
4. Pride…Pride is an inwardly directed emotion that carries two common meanings. With a negative connotation, pride refers to an inflated sense of one's personal status or accomplishments, often used synonymously with hubris. With a positive connotation, pride refers to a satisfied sense of attachment toward one's own or another's choices and actions, or toward a whole group of people, and is a product of praise, independent self-reflection, or a fulfilled feeling of belonging.
5. Lust…Lust is an emotion or feeling of intense desire in the body. The lust can take any form such as the lust for knowledge, the lust for sex or the lust for power. It can take such mundane forms as the lust for food as distinct from the need for food. Lust is a powerful psychological force producing intense wanting for an object, or circumstance fulfilling the emotion.
6. Envy…Envy (Latin: invidia) is a resentment which "occurs when someone lacks another's quality, achievement or possession and wishes that the other lacked it."
Bertrand Russell said that envy was one of the most potent causes of unhappiness.[2] Not only is the envious person rendered unhappy by his envy, but they also wish to inflict misfortune on others. Although envy is generally seen as something negative.[3] However, psychologists have recently suggested that there may be two types of envy: malicious envy and benign envy - benign envy being proposed as a type of positive motivational force.[4][5]
7. Gluttony….Gluttony, derived from the Latin gluttire meaning to gulp down or swallow, means over-indulgence and over-consumption of food, drink, or wealth items to the point of extravagance or waste
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins
Cain, Able and Seth the first born sons of Adam & Eve.........Coincedence that Wang Lung and O-lan had 3 sons?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogies_of_Genesis
After reading the story of Cain and Able, I could see how the two sons living in the great house have already killed their relationship as brothers over their wives jealousies, and their own greed to possess their father's inheritance. One son sees the father giving his brother the rite to know all his financial information, which angers him because now he can no longer spend on a whim and want.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain_and_Abel
The story of Cain & Able
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the first and second sons of Adam and Eve. For other uses, see Cain and Abel (disambiguation).
"Abel", "Cain", and "My Brother's Keeper" redirect here. For other uses, see Abel (disambiguation), Cain (disambiguation), and My Brother's Keeper (disambiguation).
Cain slaying Abel by Peter Paul Rubens
Cain and Abel (Hebrew: הֶבֶל ,קַיִן Qayin, Hevel) were according to the Book of Genesis, two sons of Adam and Eve. Cain is described as a crop farmer and his younger brother Abel as a shepherd. Cain was the first human born and Abel was the first human to die. Cain committed the first murder by killing his brother. Exegeses of Genesis 4 by ancient and modern commentators have typically assumed that the motives were jealousy and anger.[1] Although the Cain and Abel story is found in the Quran, the text refers to them simply as the sons of Adam (Arabic: ابني آدم), and neither of them is mentioned by name.
Later in the narrative, God asks Cain, "Where is Abel thy brother?" Cain replies, "I do not know: Am I my brother's keeper?"
After this, God said to Cain, "What hast you done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth out to Me from the ground! So now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou farm the ground, it shall not yield good crops to you! Thou shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth! (Genesis 4:10-4:12)
Motive….The Genesis narrative does not give a specific reason for the murder of Abel. Modern commentators typically assume that the motives were jealousy and anger due to God rejecting his offering, while accepting Abel's.[1] Ancient exegetes, such as the Midrash and the Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, suggest something even more sinister behind the killing.[20] They supplement that the motive involved a desire for the most beautiful woman. According to Midrashic tradition, Cain and Abel each had twin sisters whom they were to marry. The Midrash states that Abel's promised wife, Aclima, was more beautiful. Since Cain would not consent to this arrangement, Adam suggested seeking God's blessing by means of a sacrifice. Whomever God blessed, would marry Aclima. When God openly rejected Cain's sacrifice, Cain slew his brother in a fit of jealousy and anger.[21] Analysts have described Cain's relationship to his sister as being incestuous.[22]
Seems Pearl not only covered all the seven deadly sins, but has included the Cain & Able story by the brothers hating each other, and she even managed to include the incestuous relationship of Wang Lung and Pear Blossom. IMO
I am sure as I think more about this book as the days go by I will see so much more Pearl wanted us to see in this great story. For now I must go pack to be ready for my weekend away.
I can't wait to see what you all have to post regarding the last chapters. I have enjoyed this book and discussion more than any I can remember. The insights will remain with me forever! I will begin my search to find "Sons." How can I not read the last book to see where Pearl takes these sons.
Ciao for now~
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Bellamarie,Without rereading the ending of the book, I remember thinking that we also have the story of the Prodigal Son included here.
Parable of the Prodigal Son
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Prodigal son" redirects here. For other uses, see The Prodigal Son (disambiguation).
"The Return of the Prodigal Son" redirects here. For the painting by Rembrandt, see The Return of the Prodigal Son (Rembrandt).
The Return of the Prodigal Son (1773) by Pompeo Batoni
The Prodigal Son, also known as Two Sons, Lost Son and The Running Father is one of the parables of Jesus. It appears in only one of the Canonical gospels of the New Testament. According to the Gospel of Luke (Luke 15:11-32), a father gives the younger of his two sons his inheritance before he dies. The younger son, after wasting his fortune (the word 'prodigal' means 'wastefully extravagant'), goes hungry during a famine. He then repents and returns home, where the father holds a feast to celebrate his return. The older son refuses to participate, stating that in all the time the son has worked for the father, he did not even give him a goat to celebrate with his friends. His father reminds the older son that everything the father has is the older son's, but that they should still celebrate the return of the younger son as he has come back to them. It is the third and final part of a cycle on redemption, following the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin.
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Yes!!! Annie, I totally agree with you, and I was going to add the parable of the Prodigal Son, but due to lack of time, I decided I would wait for the next book to see where it all goes. I'm sensing that the young son will return from the military and things will be enlightening when he comes, and Wang Lung welcomes him back. Imagine how the two sons who have remained in the great house all this time will feel? Can't wait to read "Sons".
Ciao for now~
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Congratulations, Pat and Joan, on your magnificent week. You must have had a glorious time. Many happy returns.
Thanks to you, Bellamarie and Annie, for the key to a fresh interpretation of The Good Earth. So much to think about. I'm fascinated by the vision of Wang Lung seen through the eyes of the Christian missionary.
I''m still impressed by his strong instincts. I see him redeemed if only for seeing a mother in Pear Blossom for Poor Fool, after he's gone.
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I wander among many sites.
In the Huffington Post I came upon this article by Celeste Ng, an Asian writer:
"It's difficult for me to explain how much I hate Buck's "The Good Earth".....
"While there is some truth in the books portrayal, it perpetuates a lot of stereotypes about the Chinese....the book has shaped a lot of people's perception of the Chinese, the one lesson in Chinese history that they will read in their lives.
"It is a story of a partnership in marriage and family. It is NOT a portrait of China."
So various points of view exist.
I personally am not too fond of this book because of the stereotypes. I found the performances in the movie brought it out of the stereotypical and created real people.
However this is not to say that I am not a fan of Pearl Buck. The other two books in this trilogy gives the first book some back-up and heft. The sons are more real than their Mother.
The author wrote a blockbuster that brought her the fame and money she needed when her first marriage fell apart.
I thought Buck's "The Pavilion of Woman" was a wonder.
This book tells of a woman, Madame Wu, who at the age of forty, after twenty four years of marriage, tells her husband that their physical life is over and she wishes him to take a second wife........
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"So various points of view exist. "Jude
This is so important to remember -thank you, Jude. It is easy to look att he story Pearl has written throught the eyes of one's own faith - or national laws and practices, but Pearl Buck has stated on several occasions as we have seen - that she has written a Chinese book - Her book is not to be judged on Western standards - as some of us seem to be doing here - where it's against the law to take underage girls - we call this "rape." Or to take mulitple wives. We call it "bigamy." But remember this story takes place in China. There were no such laws - civil or moral.
"I'm fascinated by the vision of Wang Lung seen through the eyes of the Christian missionary." Jonathan
But we have to remember that this is exactly what Pearl Buck says she is trying to avoid. Did she accomplish it in her portrayal of Wang Lung and his three marriages - or the killing of the baby daughter, the sale of the twin daughter - or even the custom of older men taking concubines, as Wang Lung did with Pear Blossom? Do you see Pearl Buck judging with these practices by western standards - or was she portraying them as they were - common practices in China at this time?
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Here's an excerpt from a rather interesting article called Re-Reading Pearl Buck's 'The Good Earth' (http://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/re-reading-pearl-bucks-good-earth) published by the Asia Society's Center on U.S. China Relations:
"Buck guides her readers away from regarding China as a cohesive unit, a misperception still all too common today. Driven by famine to seek refuge in a southern city, Wang Lung and his family find themselves adrift in an alien culture, where language, food, and behavior all differ from those of their home.
What’s perhaps most remarkable about The Good Earth is that many of the issues Buck raised 80 years ago are topics of discussion in present-day China. Wang Lung struggles with social mobility. He finds that having money means little to those around him if it is not accompanied by a change in his dress and behavior. During their time as refugees in the city, he and his family cling to the bottom of the social ladder, struggling to keep their heads above water in the face of indifference from those around them — an experience shared by the millions of migrant workers now residing in China’s urban centers. Official corruption, a plague to today’s Chinese government, makes an appearance when a magistrate steals funds intended to pay for dike repairs; when the public discovers his deed, the man commits suicide. And the lives of Chinese farmers remain precarious, as dependent on good weather as they are on hard work.
In a straightforward but highly detailed manner, Buck has composed a classic account of rural Chinese life."
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Have you finished the last chapters of the book? I agree about the biblical cadence...it seems Pearl B. did this deliberately, doesn't it?
"So Wang Lung sat, and so his age came on him day by day and year by year...Thus spring wore on again and again and vaguely and more vaguely as these years passed, he feels it coming..."
I loved this...She seems to know something about the aging process.
Can we talk about Pear Blossom? She seems to play a significant part in his last days.
What did the last sentence in The Good Earth tell you?
For those of you considering a follow-up discussion of the second Book in the Trilogy - here are the opening lines in Sons
"Wang Lung lay dying. He lay dying in his small, dark, old earthen house in the midst of his fields, in the room where he had slept as a young man, upon the very bed where he had lain on his marriage night."
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You're tempting us here, JoanP. I'm glad Wang Lung got to die in the old earthen house, as he wanted.
There are some striking aspects to the attitude toward death. People are comforted by buying their coffins ahead of time, and keeping them in the house. The burial has to wait for a propitious day--with O-lan, that meant three months. I hope the coffins were air-tight. Well before the three months were up, Wang Lung's father died too, so they were buried at the same time. It seemed particularly pathetic that as soon as O-lan was dead, Wang Lung felt a horror toward her body, didn't want it in the house, so had the coffin stored in the temple. But when his father died, he had the coffin put in his (W. L.'s) room, and it was a comfort to him. What does that say about his feelings for O-lan? It could be taken several ways.
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Way off topic for a few sentences ::) Does anyone here remember when we discussed Eco Burials?? Several of the links that were up, covered making your own pine casket and using it for other household things 'til it was needed, like a coffee table or adding temporary shelves for holding things like clothing, sheets, towels,etc,etc. There were also brocaded body holders (looked like a lens case). Also offered were lessons on how to prepare a body for burial. New ways to be buried at sea while increasing our reefs. And we have many burial grounds that are for natural burials only throughout the USA. 'Nuff said! Just a little reminiscing?
Now back to the book!
JoanP,
You asked if PB wrote "The Good Earth" with a cadence, purposely. Hmmm, I feel like we need to remember her own cadence in her speech when she received the Pulitzer, would tell us that she thought in cadence. What was that quote? "I write in English but I think in Chinese." Her growing up years were spent in China. She spoke Chinese before she spoke
English. Maybe that's where that cadence came from??
I was able to download "Sons" on iPad at my library today. I was taking a class on how to download audio books and regular books. So, I too, have a copy of "Sons". But I have a f2f book to read plus "Remarkable Creatures" is on my reserve list at the library, our November discussion.
Finished the book and thought the end dragged on forever. And then, I read the first sentence of and the old man was still alive! Gadzooks!
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Cadence: yes, I wonder about that. And there are recurrent phrases. The one I remember is "this and that", which is used a lot in the last part of the book. I would bet it's the equivalent to some useful Chinese phrase.
Buck says she is writing a Chinese story. The only other American writer I've read who did that was a science fiction writer, Cordwainer Smith. That's a pseudonym; in real life he was, among other things, the godson of Sun Yat-Sen, and a US army expert on Chinese affairs in WWII. His stories (nothing to do with China) are supposedly written in the traditional narrative style of Chinese stories. It's quite different from Buck, who is linear in time--things happen in order. Smith has a sort of mythic style, with a kind of foreshadowing of the story, setting up the framework, then filling in. But he also has the cadence.
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I'm enjoying very much "A House Divided", as I did "Sons". In fact I think The Good Earth is about my least favorite of all her books that I have read. As others have said, the characters are rather stereotyped, unlike those in her other books. I mostly love reading about the old Chinese customs in her books, and the history. You can see how revolutions happen that's for sure..
My favourite book so far , like Jude, is The Pavilion of Women. A House Divided is shaping up pretty well though! I find I can only take so much of her style at a time which is why I've been reading her books for a long time and still have a pile to read.
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The characters are rather stereotyped (in The Good Earth), unlike those in her other books. Dana
Dana, do you think that the characters in The Good Earth were stereotyped - intentionally? That they were supposed to represent a rich man, or a poor, a first-born son or grandson, a woman born into the wealthy class with bound feet - or the slaves who depended on their beauty to survive? I could understand that, but when I consider Wang Lung - he's much more than a stereotype, isn't he?
Without giving away too much, can you tell us where A House Divided picks up? Clearly The Good Earth ends with the brothers assuring Wang Lung that his land will not be sold...but there's that understanding grin exchanged between the two of them that makes me wonder if they mean it. A House Divided sounds as if they go ahead and sell the land after Wang Lung's death... Maybe you can't tell us if that is so... :D
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PatH - maybe I have to go back and reread what makes a Chinese story... "the traditional narrative style of Chinese stories." Can't believe I've forgotten already. I thought it meant that Pearl Buck intended to tell her story from a Chinese prospective - not from her American experience - or from her missionary father's Christian experience...which would eliminate all that we think about the validity of a marriage with a concubine or two... Will go recheck that post in which we talked about this.
Not sure I would take comfort waking up and night and bumping into my nice coffin, airtight no less. This seems to be a Chinese thing. I wonder what Pear Blossom things of this custom? Does she wonder about her position in the household once her protector, Wang Lung is buried in the family plot?
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Very interesting to read all your views on the book. I must admit I found myself bored at the beginning, but the book has grown on me as we went along. Now I think it's quite impressive. Perhaps it's the truth of it that impresses. It sounds authentic, reflecting what the author herself observed and experienced growing up in China. Experience in the sense of soaking up sights and sounds and stories.
I don't like the word stereotype applied to any character in the book. Least of all to Wang Lung. Each of the three wives brings out the best in him, whether as provider, lover, or protector. Poor Fool brings out so much emotion in him. As far as I can see, each son is given a distinctive character.
And then there is O-Lan. Her individuality comes through loud and clear. But the author felt she hadn't done her justice. Buck writes in her book My Several Years:,
'MY mind could not rest after I had finished The Good Earth and almost immediately I began to write another novel, The Mother, in which I portrayed he life of a Chinese peasant woman....'
About The Good Earth she wrote: "When it was finished I felt very doubtful indeed of its value...." And thereby hangs a Nobel Prize!!!
Has anyone read The Mother? She did write it.
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I suspect second wives saved many marriages. There's an honesty about it that seems very refreshing. The immorality of extra-marital affairs is so tiresome.
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Jonathan, I agree with you wholeheartedly. "Stereotype" doesn't quite fit the characters Pearl has described. As soon as I read your post, I went to my Library catalog...which carries quite a few of books by Pearl Buck - but alas, no "The Mother." Since you have the book, can you tell me if she spends any time on the "poor little fool?" Not about a mother's relationsip but the father. I was so struck with Wang Lung's devotion to that little girl, right to the very end. I got the feeling that Pearl had written an ideal relationship between the father and the handicapped daughter - to make up for Lossing Buck's indifferenve towards her. It was unusaul for a Chinese father to be this attached to a daughter too...
Back later!
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The Book Club Online is the oldest book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone. We offer cordial discussions of one book a month, 24/7 and enjoy the company of readers from all over the world. Everyone is welcome.
September Book Club Online
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
| (http://seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/goodearth/goodearthcover.jpg) |
Interest in Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, continues with the news that her never-before published, final novel is coming out in October, forty years after her death. The Good Earth is the poignant tale of a farmer and his family in old agrarian China, a depiction of traditional Chinese culture in the early twentieth century before World War II. Some critics say it should move readers to rediscover Buck as a source of insight into both revolutionary China and the United States’ interactions with it.
Let's discover together why The Good Earth remained on the bestseller list for 21 months in 1931 and 1932, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932.l
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Relevant Links:
the Good Earth Timeline (http://www.pearl-s-buck.org/document.doc?id=8); Comprehensive Bio of Pearl Buck and her work (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/pearlbuc.htm);
| DISCUSSION SCHEDULE: |
| September 2-8 | Chapters 1-8 |
| September 9-15 | Chapters 9-15 |
| September 16-20 | Chapters 16-21 |
| September 21-25 | Chapters 22-28 |
| September 26-29 | Chapters 29-34 |
Some Topics for Discussion
Sept. 26-29 ~ Chapters 29-34
1. Why did Wang Lung move his family into the big Hwang House in town but keep the youngest son and his poor little fool with him on the land?
2. T"he rich, never content, always wanting more." Is this true of Wang Lung? Is this what sets him apart?
3. "Like a swarm of locusts, the soldiers came - a horde of men - poured into his court like filthy water." Is this how the "People's Revolution was viewed by the rich?
4. Why does Lotus insist that her delicate little Pear Blossom become the uncle's nephew's slave - at Cuckoo's suggestion?
5. Do you see a similarity between Wang Lung's feelings for his poor little fool and Pear Blossom? If so, why the night of passion?
6. "So Wang Lung sat, and so his age came on him day by day and year by year...Thus spring wore on again and again and vaguely and more vaguely as these years passed, he feels it coming..." Does this sound like a man content with his final days, assured that his land will remain in the family?
7. What did the last sentence in the book signify? Are you ready to pick up Sons - the next book of the trilogy?
Something to consider: How might this book have been different if written by a Chinese person - a Chinese man?
Contact: JoanP (jonkie@verizon.net)
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For those folk who wish to read more books by Chinese writers, may I suggest these:
Waiting-by Ha Jin (I went to a lecture by him in S.F. Just superb.)
Balzac and the Little Seamstress- by Sije Dai
Sunflower and the Secret Fan- by Lisa See
To understand sexual mores in China in Pearl Bucks era, see the wonderful Chinese movie: "Raise the Red Lantern".
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Jonathon, "I suspect second wives saved many marriages. There's an honesty about it that seems very refreshing. The immorality of extra-marital affairs is so tiresome."
As a happily married American woman for 41 yrs, with God as our center, I can't disagree with you more about, "second wives saving many marriages." All it probably has done is left one in the dark, or very hurt, if found out, and the other with a huge secret of adultery, or a lifetime of earning back the love and trust they have broken, if not divorced. Considering how China treats women, devalues them, and tortures them by binding their feet to be beautiful, uses them for slaves and prostitutes, it is hardly a culture/custom I can see a standard to follow where women are concerned. Obviously coming from a Male dominant point of view, concubines, mistresses, harlots, prostitutes or what ever label is used to provide a married man with more than one woman to satisfy his lust would be acceptable, especially in a culture like China who places little to no value on a female. Why would it matter how it would make a wife feel, knowing her husband prefers another woman/women to sleep with because of his lust. China or not, I can not accept this. Guess I believe in the sanctity of marriage, and the vows two people take when they make their promise in front of God to become one in union. Call me, tiresome and old fashion.
Jonathon, And then there is O-Lan. Her individuality comes through loud and clear. But the author felt she hadn't done her justice. Buck writes in her book My Several Years:,[/b]
'MY mind could not rest after I had finished The Good Earth and almost immediately I began to write another novel, The Mother, in which I portrayed he life of a Chinese peasant woman....'
About The Good Earth she wrote: "When it was finished I felt very doubtful indeed of its value...." And thereby hangs a Nobel Prize!!!
So, I was not alone in feeling this way about The Good Earth. I did not ever feel Pearl did O-lan justice throughout this story. I felt as though O-lan deserved so much more, and that is why I was so hard on Wang Lung. Not only was there "poor little" I kept feeling "Poor O-lan" I am like Dana, I will think The Good Earth will be my least favorite of the trilogy. It was very slow to get into and if I were not in the book club discussion group, I am not sure I would have continued reading this book, I know I would not have finished it in this time frame. I saw from the first chapters where this story was headed, stereotypical indeed, poor family, makes it rich and turns away from their morals, values and their Gods! But, I will say..... the knowledge of the Chinese culture, customs, rebellions, and conditions enlightened me, so with that being said, I can see why Pearl earned her Pulitzer Prize.
Thank you JoanP for an excellent discussion. YOU deserve an award for keeping us excited, engaging and enlightened with this story. As always with this group of great avid readers, I give you all kudos for a great discussion! Thank you for leaving the lights on.....
Ciao for now~
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Sons is the second of the trilogy. In it you see how much the three sons differ from their father and roots. A House Divided gets into revolutionary times. I agree with Jonathan that concubines perhaps were a way of making marriages work. Olan to me is pretty unrealistic--the uncomplaining mother earth figure. Concubines seem to have had an established place in society and were certainly recognised and even honoured family members, buried in the same gravesites.
Perhaps the characters aren't stereotypes, Joan, I think my feelings are affected by the biblical cadance of her writing! Which tends to make you think you're reading something very profound and universal when in fact you may just be reading something very unrealistic wrapped up in fancy language..
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Remember that Olan murdered her new born baby girl. She wouldn't have committed this act had it been a boy. She was also willing to sell "poor little"; so she was not without blame.
Sally
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I just brought home "Young Fu of the upper yangtze" and the introduction is written by Pearl Buck in 1972. Her first paragraph reads:
To understand and enjoy a book about a country and its people, is is always necessary to know something, however general, of their history and their ways of living and thinking, which is to say their culture. At the present moment in our world this necessity is especially true in regard to China, one of the oldest countries.
She writes a brief history of China up to when she was youngster and then she writes:
Of course there were periods of chaos as one dynasty merged into another, and it was in such a period of change that I lived most of my long life in China, beginning when I was three months old, when my parents took me to China with them, where I lived until I was more than 40 years old. It is in this period that Elizabeth Lewis has placed her story of Young Fu.
What kind of period was it? It was a period of revolution, struggle and wars. The old empress, Tzu Hsi, died in 1909. Immediately contenders for the Imperial Throne rose up, each with his private army, to fight all others, one by one. These contenders, bold ambitious
men, were called 'tuchun'. Each ruled temporarily in his area until another drove him away.
Meanwhile, the people waited until one final conqueror would prove himself victor over all the others and become the first emperor of a new dynasty. Such periods were always dangerous, for robbers roamed and rascals thrived. This book tells of such troubles. People's lives and businesses were always unsafe, and there was often little difference, if any, between a bandit and a soldier. People were killed in their homes and shops, and only the very poor were safe.
Young Fu's life, so well portrayed by Elizabeth Lewis, was in the years of turmoil, after the old empress died. In this disorganized period he did his best to live an honest, hardworking life, and it is his story that is here told with faithful attention to the difficult and dangerous times in which he lived. To understand the vast, complex China of today, one must try to learn about its past. The story of Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze is a prologue to modern China.
Sorry for this long quote, but I now better understand the invasion of Wang Lung's home in the city, his fear of this uncle and the uncle's connection to the gangs. The wars that are mentioned as being close or far away. When PB writes in the "Sons", she writes about most of what she told in this quote. She begins to tell us more about China's history.
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Bellamarie, I share your values and your beliefs, by way of inhertance and conviction, and am shocked by some customs accepted as the norm in other cultures. For that reason I was surprised by the authors non-judgemental treatment of her subject, given her missionary background. Of course she describes things that leave every reader feeling angry, but she does succeed at what she set out to do, as can be seen from another quote from My Several Worlds:
'At this period of my life and of China's history I was keenly aware of the Chinese peasant, his wonderful strength and goodness, his amusing and often alarming shrewdness and wisdom, his cynicism and his simplicity, his direct approach to life which is the habit of a deep and natural sophistication. It seemed to me that the Chinese peasant, who comprised eighty-five percent of China's population, was so superior a human group, that it was a loss to humanity that he was also voiceless because he was illiterate. And it was this group, so charming, so virile, so genuinely civilized in spite of illiteracy and certain primitive conditions of life that might very well be merely the result of enforced mental isolation from the currents of modern thinking and discovery....'
As much as he detested his uncle, Wang Lung still saw the protection provided by his uncle's connection with the criminal element. Very shrewd.
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Thank you ALL for enriching this discussion - well beyond the two covers of The Good Earth.
Annie quotes Pearl Buck herself -
"To understand and enjoy a book about a country and its people, is is always necessary to know something, however general, of their history and their ways of living and thinking, which is to say their culture."
I think we've found that to be true first-hand while reading and posting our thoughts about the book. We've considered her story through the eyes of our own beliefs and value systems - and I think we have come to understand there are differences among the illiterate Chinese - as Sally has pointed out, and as Jonathan quoted the author again from her My Several Worlds.
I've not yet started Sons beyond the opening lines in which I learned that Wang Lung is still alive - living back on his land again. Wang's sons can't be identified as illiterate peasants, I don't think. This should be interesting to see how they compare to their father as time goes by. Do you intend to read on - or are you swamped? We can consider leaving this discussion open for further observations on The Good Earth - and also comment on Sons rather informally right here. And your thoughts on House Divided too Dana. Or how about a General Discussion on Pearl Buck and her works.
Jude thank you for the suggestions for further reading. Some of them are familiar, others not. Can you fill in on Sunflower and the Secret Fan- I'm intrigued at the flower names...can you tell something about them. Am I wrong in concluding that they are names given to the teahouse girls?
I'll add
"Raise the Red Lantern" to my Netflix list - along with the 1938 Academy Award winning "The Good Earth" - really curious to see how the screenwriters and producers viewed the story. I wonder how well they understood Pearl Buck...and wonder too what PB thought of the film!
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I found too, that there are so many good ways to interpret this book, most of which would never have occurred to me. It was a very rich discussion, and I'm glad to have experienced it.
Thank you, JoanP, for such a good discussion.
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Jonathon, good to know we share the same values and beliefs and I agree, Pearl did indeed accomplish what she set out to do, "Of course she describes things that leave every reader feeling angry, but she does succeed at what she set out to do"
I absolutely LOVED The Exile, and it may have spoiled me so much so with getting to know Carie, that I just could not find anything much enjoyable about The Good Earth. The Good Earth ripped at my heartstrings from the beginning to the end. I have a handicapped cousin who "poor little" reminded me. He like "poor little" is an adult with an adult body, yet a mind trapped in an age of a very young child, unable to comprehend much. My aunt & uncle passed away, and his sister has found him a place to live that is for mentally challenged people, and she brings him to her home for visits. It's heart wrenching, and for Wang Lung to look out for "poor little" and make arrangements for Pear Blossom to care for her after he is gone was the most moving, loving, caring, decent thing I saw him do throughout the book. Caring and providing for his family was his duty, and it was also his goal to become rich and live a wealthy life.....but always loving and caring for "poor little" is something he could have abandoned at any time, and he didn't. Thank you Pearl for giving us readers that to remember.
I have begun reading Sons, and am anxious to see how the three sons manage their more modern lives, compared to the poor dirt farmer their father was at their ages. This youngest son returning home a respected military man is going to prove interesting.
JoanP. I would like to keep this discussion open as an extension into discussing Sons, if others are up to it. I am happy with what ever is decided.
I am off to begin Persuasion, and finish up with Pride & Prejudice.....so Mr. Darcy has finally revealed his love to Elizabeth, in such a way that she could never find the least bit acceptable or romantic. Shame on him!!! Yet me thinks, Miss Elizabeth has herself in a quandary, realizing she has been a bit too harsh in judging Mr. Darcy, without all the information first. Hmmm... so the pursuit begins.
Ciao for now~
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Naturally the book leaves one wanting to know more about China, so I've started reading Simon Winchester's, The Man Who Loved China, which has been on my TBR shelf for a while. The man is Joseph Needham, the brilliant Cambridge scientist, who falls in love with a student from China, and takes her to the movies: (('The Good Earth had just arrived and Sidney Franklin's rendering of Pearl Buck's epic novel offered Gwei-djen a chance to wallow in homesickness and nostalgia, and weep...p 38)
I'm also waiting for Peter Conn's biography. I'm hooked. Thanks for the great discussion. Raise the Red Lantern I remember as an excellent film.
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Bellamarie, anyone who has had a handicapped person in their life must be strongly moved by poor little, and Wang Lung's devotion to her. You just know that Buck was putting her own feelings into that.
I delight in thinking about you reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time. You've got some wonderful scenes still to come, and a lot of suspense.
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Jonathon, I began Sons because I want to see where the three sons of Wang end up. I too would like to read Peter Conn's biography. It's on my do read list!
PatH. Oh my goodness!!! I just finished Pride and Prejudice and couldn't be more pleased with the ending. Wow, there sure were some unexpected turns in the last chapters. So Mr. Darcy did not disappoint me or Elizabeth, with his kindness and generosity. I can see this will be one of my all time favorites of Jane Austen. Now on to Persuasion.
Ciao for now~
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A quote from the back of "Sons" by Pearl Buck in one of her lectures.
"Now Sons, of course, is a purely Chinese Book. It is modeled on the plan of the orthodox Chinese novel, the material is altogether Chinese, the characters are less like ourselves than in the first book (The Good Earth), and the situations are medieval to the American mind."
I am halfway through the book and enjoying it. We see and hear more of Pearl Blossom.
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What about Poor Little?
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Well, since Pearl Blossom has been asked by Wang Lung to take care of her, yes she is there. She is 40 years old and has white hair and she now has a friend. Well, sort of.
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You're way ahead in your reading of Sons, Annie. I've been deep into Persuasion and Remarkable Creatures - though the time clock on my library copy of Sons is ticking. I'm happy to learn that Poor Little has lived into her old age. So much more than so many other Chinese girls could expect - healthy or handicapped. Thanks to Wang Lung's planning!
Have we come to any conclusions regarding Pearl Buck's motivation in writing this trilogy? Yes of course, there's the money to pay for Carol's care in the US -
but isn't she trying to introduce China to the world? For what purpose? To understand China better - or to bring about reform? We know that daughters are still considered undesirable in China today...and we know that other reforms have not taken place as hoped. Is it enough to understand old China and it's practices to understand China today?
Just read an article this morning in today's Washington Post on failed reform -
No Reforms in China on Horizon (http://www.pottsmerc.com/general-news/20131003/no-reforms-in-china-on-horizon)
"After Xi Jinping took over as head of China’s Communist Party in December, some liberals dared to hope that change was in store for the world’s most populous nation.
...Xi’s signature initiative so far has been what he has called a “thorough cleanup” of the party, with cadres told to “take baths” to purify themselves of greed, extravagance, laziness and hedonism, to reconnect with the grass roots and to firmly adhere to Marxist ideology.
...In reality, Xi’s family has been able to accumulate assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a Bloomberg News report. But he is clearly aware that the party’s image has been tarnished by lavish displays of wealth.''
The message I took from The Good Earth -"the poor remain poor until the rich get too rich." The poor are forced to resort to desparate measures to survive, the idle rich resort to extravagance. Did Wang Lung see this just in time to save himself? Is he the only one in the novel with a set of morals that we can relate to? What of the future - is there any way to resist the cycle?
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JoanP. The poor are forced to resort to desparate measures to survive, the idle rich resort to extravagance. Did Wang Lung see this just in time to save himself?
Wang Lung may have seen this in his dying days, but not in time to save his sons, as far as the ending of The Good Earth. I'm reading Sons, so maybe it will prove me wrong. Wang Lung dying in his farmer's house, reminds me of a sinner confessing at the last hour of their death.
Ciao for now~
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Okay, so I have gotten through the first five chapters of Sons, and it has basically entailed the sons needing to divide the inheritance of Wang Lung. The third son who is a Captain in the military has come home asking for just silver and no land or houses so he can leave and go back to what he wants to do. The eldest brother says this is not an option because after he spends all his silver, he could easily come back and demand land, or he could marry wanting a home, and his sons or grandsons could actually come back to the family demanding their inheritance of land or homes. So the third son says to give him the farm house and what ever land intended, and takes his silver and leaves. He does not even stay to honor his father's death by waiting the 3 yrs of mourning.
The sister in laws continue to fight so their husbands decide to divide the great house and put up gates to keep them from having to deal with each other........where oh where is this book taking us?
Is anyone else reading the book? If not I will finish it at my leisure, without posting. It makes me no difference, since I have begun Persuasion with the group. JoanP. if you need to close this discussion I have no objection.
Ciao for now~
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I wondered what would happen to Wang Lung's concubines as the sons went about dividing their inheritance. They chose Liu the grain merchant, Wang the eldest son's father-in-law and the employer of WangII as the arbiter of the task. I thought this was a excellent choice and learned a lot about how the Chinese handled such matters.
I found it interesting though, that Wang's concubines were taken care of, though Wang Lung's own daughter, his poor little fool, was left nothing! If it weren't for Pear Blossom, not sure what would have become of her. I'll bet you noted the discussion regarding the concubines, Bella...they weren't real wives. I wonder what Olan would have received, had she outlived her husband. It seems her wifely status would have meant more than 20 pieces of silver per annum...
Another thing that troubled me...Pear Blossom and poor little are allowed to continue to live in Wang Lung's earthen home where they had been living until his death...BUT the land and the house are given to Wang Lung's Third son as Liu has directed. I fear for Pear Blossom's safety...but once the mourning period is over, hopefully the young land owner will be off with his fierce entourage...and leave her in peace.
I haven't read further.
Does anyone remember which young man was eying Pear Blossom before Wang Lung had claimed her? Was it his youngest son or that nephew of his?
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The drunken nephew eyed Wang Lung's daughter, that is why he sent her off to the home he contracted her to marry for fear the nephew was going to possibly rape her.
Wang the third son was in love with Pear Blossom, and I read how he left because he realized he was in love with her. Isn't it interesting how the third son stepped up and added 5 extra silver to Lotus's monthly income because she whined and caused a horrible fuss about deserving more than Pear Blossom, and it's to come out of his income, AND....he then said to give Pear Blossom 20 silver monthly from his income before sending his to him, noting she is taking care of "poor little' and wanted to make sure Pear Blossom and "poor little" had a place to live and an income.
So is it possible once Wang the third son gets his adventuresome days behind him, he may return to the farm and Pear Blossom and he end up together. I don't sense he would be cruel to her at all, even though she has a huge fear of all men.
Yes, JoanP., I did indeed highlight in my ebook when they said, the concubines were not considered wives.
Ciao for now~
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So is it possible once Wang the third son gets his adventuresome days behind him, he may return to the farm and Pear Blossom and he end up together.
I've read on - and see that Wang the third son, now known as Wang the Tiger has such grandiose plans, it seems unlikely he will ever return to the land. He confesses to his brother that while he dreams of sons of his own, he "cannot stomach women." (Does he include Pear Blossom?). And we can't forget that Pear Blossom fears all men...surely this includes one as fierce and surly as Wang the Tiger.
Have you figured out what Wang Tiger's great "cause" is about? It seems he has no plan for reform..or revolution....he seems to want to raise an army to expand his own personal fortune, has hopes to rule the nation. Greed? Didn't he use the word, king, when revealing his aspirations to Wang the Second?
I sense Pearl B. is revealing her characters' emotions in Sons - in a way she only hinted at in The Good Earth. I enjoyed the humor in the struggle between the brothers' wives...and the sensitive, sympathetic way she portrayed the weak and spoiled son of Wang the Elder, so unfit for military life. Not sure how Uncle Tiger will handle him. With disdain or with mercy? Will he make him or break him?
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Yes, seems Wang the Tiger aspires to be Lord of a nation! Wow, I thought his father had big dreams to own the House of Hawng, but that is little potatoes compared to the Tiger's dreams.
I feel so sorry for Wang the eldest's son, being sent off to be a soldier when he had absolutely NO desire to live that sort of life. Of all people who should understand his son's feelings, it should be Wang the eldest, since he is also a sensitive, non combative type person.
I did find it very odd that Wang the Tiger expressed how he could "not stomach women", when earlier we learned how he loved Pear Blossom, and was so upset when his father denied him to have her, and took her for himself, he left and never returned til his father's death. In order for him to have "real sons" from a "real wife" seems he has no other alternative than to marry one day.
Seems you and I, JoanP., are at the same place in the book. Can't wait to see where everything goes from here.
Ciao for now~
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It occurred to me when reading of Wang the Tiger's old General, that the same may be true of those who sacrifice their lives for a good cause...too much success leads to corruption and downfall - in every profession. Wang the Tiger describes his "cause when he set out-
"At first, I dreamed of noble wars against a corrupt ruler, for so the old general said his wars were. But his victory was too easy...
Now there are no honorable rulers and people cry out under the cruelties and oppression...
As in the old days, good brave fellows banded together to punish the rich and to protect the poor, so we shall do also."
Wang the Tiger has these lofty intentions. Do you think that once he accomplishes them, he will turn soft...and fat from overindulgence? I'm wondering if PB is writing of this endless cycle in China. So far, the Tiger is strong, well-disciplined and determined.
I'm seeing hIs strong attraction to Pear Blossom when he returns to his town with his army - though he avoids her. Also, his strong desire to have sons of his own. He realizes Wang the Second's happy home is due to his boisterous wife. Somehow I don't see such a wife in Wang the Tiger's future - but I can't see him with Pear Blossom either.
Bella, I had high hopes that Wang the Tiger would make a man of the Eldest's weak second son, didn't you?
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"Now there are no honorable rulers and people cry out under the cruelties and oppression...
As in the old days, good brave fellows banded together to punish the rich and to protect the poor, so we shall do also."
Now reading this, gave me an Aha! moment. Is Wang the Tiger seeing himself as a Robin Hood!
I think I agree, Wang the Tiger probably will not end up with Pear Blossom because she would be beneath him as a wife. Although, he seems to be the one son who takes the most after is mother O-lan, so it does make me wonder if he could accept Pear Blossom a possibility. Or, he may just watch over her and "poor little" making sure they are being properly taken care of.
I'm ready to read on to see where he is headed. It would be a good thing, if Wang the Tiger would be an influence on Wang the Eldest's son and teach him to be a stronger person. If not, I can see him running off not being able to handle being a soldier. A person never knows their own strengths until they have to use them.
Ciao for now~
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I am reading "Sons" when I can and am quite far ahead of both of you. Have been busy reading "Remarkable Creatures" and looking forward to starting the discussion on Nov.1.
So, I can dwaddle along and enjoy "Sons" this week. ;) ;)
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I am on chapter 10 of Sons, Wang the Tiger has now formed his own army. I found it very interesting how when the two brothers went out to sale their father's land, a farmer and his wife are renting the land, and are thrilled to know they have the opportunity to purchase the land. The farmer tells them to give him a day to decide, so he can talk to his wife. They discuss it, and he tells the Wang brothers he will purchase the land. This reads almost exactly like when Wang Lung the father, and O-lan were excited about getting the opportunity to purchase their first land.
Why do you suppose PB has shown us a cycle here? Then I noticed the old fat General is lazy and doesn't do anything with his men anymore, the Lord in the House of Hawng got fat and lazy, Wang the eldest has gotten fat and lazy. Wang the Tiger is now the new army, and two of the Wangs sons are being trained in their uncles army.
Pear Blossom is very upset about the knowledge the sons are selling off the father's land, and tells Wang the eldest to be careful because Wang Lung is not far away, even though he is dead. This gives him pause and worries him. Is this a sign the son's greed and lack of respect for the "good earth" their father made them promise not to sell, is likely going to bring them ruin, the same way those living in the House of Hawng lost everything?
Life does come full circle, passes on to generations, and if the generations to come afterwards do not value and respect what their parents and grandparents build and leave to them, does this show there will be nothing left for their heirs?
Food for thought in these chapters, as it is revealing how the sons are aspiring to be noble.
Annie, I just got the book "Remarkable Creatures" at my library. I don't like to read ahead because I enjoy the surprises in each of the assigned chapters. I have never read this author so I am excited to begin Nov. 1
Ciao for now~
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I have finished 15 chapters in Sons - finding Pear Blossom's position of interest. All three of Wang Lung's sons fear her...and will listen to her when she makes a request. Actually, it is their father they fear - and seem to sense Pear B's communication with his spirits. Do you get this impression? She attracts the weak and vulnerable...Wang Lung's poor fool and now Wang the Second's handicapped son. Will this community continue to grow out in the earthen home on Wang Lung's land?
How far ahead have you gone, Annie? Your thoughts?
By now you know what has become of Wang the Eldest's second son...poor boy. I wonder why Wang the Tiger wanted two of his brother's sons in his army? Is it simply because he has no sons of his own?
I see the poverty-riches-poverty cycle, the poor in poverty until the rich get too rich cycle repeating itself, Bella. Seems to be the moral of the story...with ONE EXCEPTION - Wang the Tiger is becoming more successful and richer, with each turn of the page. Yet he is disciplined and keeps tight rein on his army...even tighter on himself. Will he eventually fall into the pattern?
I wonder about the Leopard's girl.. Wang the Tiger has captured this wild thing and now doesn't know what to do with her. Will she be his downfall?
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JoanP., I haven't gotten to the Leopard girl yet. Sounds ominous. I don't think the Wang brothers are so much fearful of Pear Blossom, as they are of the fact she points out their father still has power from the grave.
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Finished the book late last night. Wow! PB sure left the best for last! I won't discuss anything until I know for sure you have finished it, so I don't give anything away, but it sure was worth the read.
I've come to the conclusion The Exile is my favorite so far, Sons is second and, The Good Earth is my least favorite, but is a must read, in order to understand Sons.
I do like how PB added the poor farmer in the last chapters of the book, showing the beginning of where the Wangs began, and how when you are poor and striving to prosper you work hard and hold on to the land to live by.
As the sons begin selling off their parcels of land to help them achieve their personal goals, I was worried it would bring them all to ruin. I must say, each son had a goal for his career and their own sons, yet in the end it was all about being wealthy, respected and success.
As parents you think you have the perfect idea of what you want for your child, and you work so hard and steer them to that path you have chosen for them in life......then as they become adults, they surprise you and want something entirely different from your dreams you had for them. Parents seem to always want "better" for their children, but then who is to say "better" has to be so different, than what you, yourself had growing up? I look at my two sons, who are grown and have families of their own, and I see how living a modest life, with their wives and children, with enough money to afford the things they like, seems to be their success and happiness. Much like my husband and me. At one point as they were growing up, I felt like Rose Kennedy, and thought my two sons could be JFK and Bobby Kennedy. Now, I see the aspirations I had for them, was mostly just about being a part of our close knit, loving family, who like the Kennedy family, gathers together for holidays/Sundays, watch sports on TV, play board games, cook big traditional meals, and go out to the back yard and play some football.
I do love how PB had all three Wang brothers be there for each other when one needed money, support and family. Even though at times each one was jealous of the other for whatever reason be it ones success, the rightful heir, having sons, having a family of their own, etc., etc. they proved, that when times got tough, they could always turn to each other for help.
Okay, going to go check in on Persuasion discussion and will check back here once I know all who are reading Sons is finished and ready to discuss chapter 15 - the end.
Ciao for now~
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Just in from five days in sunny CalifornIA. A beautiful place to visit. I carried Sons with me ... Reading whenever I could, especially on the five hour plane ride.
This is really Wang the Tiger's story, isn't it? How different his life might have been had he married as a young man...and had the son that he craves. Why didn't he? Because he loved Pear Blossom? I've read 23 of the 29 chapters and am still waiting/hoping for those two to get together. (Even though the Tiger has two wives - and two babies, one a son, one a little girl he is taken with!)
Is anyone questioning how Pearl Buck acquired her knowledge of war, armies ? She's the daughter of a missionary. Who would have given her the inside story of military maneuvers?
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Here is a thought- provoking article on war, not just the Chinese wars we're reading about in Sons Pearl Buck and the Cycle of War (http://www.vpr.net/episode/30656/pearl-buck-cycle-war/) -
"Pearl Buck also wrote eloquently about observing seeds of violence in the relationship between the colonial West and the Chinese people. As a child, she was accepted in Chinese homes. She became especially sensitive to the negative effect that colonialism and its aggressive policies had on Chinese attitudes toward white people and the West. After the Western powers defeated the Chinese in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, she saw how the Chinese hated and feared white people, feelings they hid from white adults but not from her. She says, "I learned the other side of the victory the white men had won and I knew then what my life has taught me since, that in any war, a victory means another war, and yet another, until some day inevitably the tides turn, and the victor is the vanquished, and the circle reverses itself, but remains nevertheless a circle."
Heartbreaking to read about Wang the Tiger's unhappy little boy, isn't it? The Tiger's inability to connect with this little boy... And yet his belief that this son will never fail him. Another cycle...remember how Wang the Tiger had rejected Wang Lung's plan to keep him on the land? He ran away! Will this sad little son of Wang the Tiger do the same? Isn't this predictable?
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Yes, JoanP., this has been a book of cycles. It truly shows us how everything in life, comes back around. My heart hurt, reading how much Wang the Tiger cherished that little son of his, yet the son just wanted to play with his sister, and be with his mother. I think PB is also showing us that when we want something so badly, and we finally achieve getting it, we must not be so selfish, as to try to possess it, or keep it all to ourselves. I felt if Wang the Tiger would have been a family, with the little son, and the wives and daughter, the son would have enjoyed being with his father more.
Oh the scenes of Wang the Tiger learning about the betrayal of the Tigress, was chilling! Egads...he did not hesitate, to take care of her. I sensed when she finally did submit to him, she was going to betray him. I was expecting her to kill him in his sleep. But to be plotting to use an army of men to overtake him, was the ultimate payback, yet because of the loyalty of the nephew, he was able to ward that off. That nephew turned out to save Wang the Tiger's life more than once.
How fun to spend time in California, I have never been to the state. Close as I got was Laughlin, Nevada. We were just miles away from the California border, and contemplated continuing to drive, but were short on time. Our vacation was actually in Vegas, but we drove to Laughlin to visit friends.
Enjoy the last chapters of the book...... Ciao for now~
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Well, I've finished Sons - and as I feared, I feel left hanging. Too many unanswered questions. What is to become of the House of Wang...the three sons of Wang Lung...and his grandsons, especially Wang the Tiger and his only son? A farmer? A warrior?
And what happened to China, the battle between the warlords - and the effects of the Revolution?
I admit to being disappointed when Pear Blossom told Wang the Tiger she was off to the nunnery when the fool died..."and Wang the Tiger saw her no more." She was the only character in the book who did not act out of self- interest. I thought the two would make a pair...a statement on the virtue of self- denial or something like that. Pearl Buck did not give us such a love story, but rather the harsh reality that was life in China.
What did you think of Sons? Could it stand alone? Would it make sense without having read The Good Earth first? Does it leave you wanting to learn more of Wang the Tiger and his son? Or did it end on just the right note?
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The Third Book in the trilogy - A House Divided focuses on Wang Lung's grandson - (he's got a name in this book)- 19 year old Wang Yuan, and his difficulty adapting to the change in China following the Revolution. As we saw in Sons, he hates war, but his father's hopes and expectations are a force he is unable to ignore in the period of unrest at the start of the People's revolution. He is trapped then between his father's survival and the reality that everyone else is adapting to modern ways.
I read that at one point this boy is sent to school in America for his safety...where he studies agriculture.
People who have read A House Divided gave it the highest rating and claim that only as a complete set can the reader view the transformation of the Wang family and the transformation in China, as PB intended. Though I'm not sure about when I will read this last book in the trilogy, I think I'll always regard the experience as incomplete until I do.
What are your thoughts about reading this last book in the trilogy?
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JoanP.,
Well, I've finished Sons - and as I feared, I feel left hanging. Too many unanswered questions. What is to become of the House of Wang...the three sons of Wang Lung...and his grandsons, especially Wang the Tiger and his only son? A farmer? A warrior?
And what happened to China, the battle between the warlords - and the effects of the Revolution?
I didn't feel left wanting to know more. I felt the moral of the stories, The Good Earth and Sons, is it showed life is a cycle of all things, family, harvests, wars, rebellion, deceit, jealousy, lack of morals, faith, society etc., etc. As much as we work for success, goals, higher achievements, rising above our parents, ultimately, it comes back to the basic necessity, the earth, and God is in control of all things, even mother nature, which provides our basic needs, water & food. From the very beginning of reading The Good Earth I saw the beginning of time, Genesis, as in Adam and Eve in the Bible. The ending of Sons leaves me seeing...there will always be times of feast & famine, war & peace, generations, etc. Sons, recounts, Ecclesiastes in the Bible....there is a time for everything.
I may choose to read the third book House Divided, but at this point I have had enough of the Wang family. I don't think Sons could stand alone. You need The Good Earth to understand where the sons came from. and their background of their parents to appreciate Sons.
Thank you Annie and JoanP. for sticking it out with me, reading Sons. The Exile at this time, will remain my favorite, of PB's books so far.
Ciao for now~
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Thank you, JoanP and Bellamarie, for continuing to give brief summaries of Sons. I've been following along. Although I'm not ready to continue reading the series immediately, I did want to know more about it, and your conversations make me more likely to pick up the books in the future.
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I finished "Sons" last night and like JoanP, I felt that I must read "A House Divided" before I can put away the Wang family. I wil request it once more (I had it earlier) from the library and try to find time to read it. IMHO, the saddest line in this book was, "But I chose you" rendered by the Tiger's son. Very sad and ignored by his father.
So, on to "Remarkable Creatures" which is proving a book well worth our time. A nice bit of HIStory and HERstory in the 19th century. Very surprising and very well researched. Hope you will join us!
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That was a poignant moment between father and son, Annie. A There were several heart-wrenching scenes between theses two- the Tiger never quite understanding his son.
We'd have to read A House Divided to learn if they ever found one another...understood one another. I wonder if the damage to Wang Yuan's self-confidence wasn't too great for him to lead a happy, freer life in modern China, after his strange, isolated boyhood.
Bella, the cycle of rich/poor seems to be broken now as the rich warlords are on the verge of being overcome by the people. I think it would be fascinating to read of the early days of communism in China. How will the Wangs manage without their lands? I just cannot imagine them without it. I think I'm going on with the final book in the trilogy, while Sons is still fresh in my mind.
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You're quite welcome, Pat -I'm sure you would enjoy them. The problem is finding the time! So many books! So little time!
To add to the pressure to read faster, I've just received word that Pearl Buck's last novel has been published.- The Eternal Wonder (http://www.amazon.com/The-Eternal-Wonder-Novel-ebook/dp/B00CX4WMWK?gclid=CP_Iv4PkrboCFUGd4AodhnoAbw)..
She wrote this at the end of her life, 40 years ago while living in Vermont, in her home, where she died. The manuscript has recently been discovered in a storage unit in Texas. That is a story in itself ...More here about this strange discovery-
http://www.npr.org/2013/05/25/186318860/a-lost-and-found-wonder-pearl-s-bucks-final-novel
Must run!
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The Book Club Online is the oldest book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone. We offer cordial discussions of one book a month, 24/7 and enjoy the company of readers from all over the world. Everyone is welcome.
September Book Club Online
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
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Interest in Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, continues with the news that her never-before published, final novel is coming out in October, forty years after her death. The Good Earth is the poignant tale of a farmer and his family in old agrarian China, a depiction of traditional Chinese culture in the early twentieth century before World War II. Some critics say it should move readers to rediscover Buck as a source of insight into both revolutionary China and the United States’ interactions with it.
Let's discover together why The Good Earth remained on the bestseller list for 21 months in 1931 and 1932, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1932.l
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Relevant Links:
the Good Earth Timeline (http://www.pearl-s-buck.org/document.doc?id=8); Comprehensive Bio of Pearl Buck and her work (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/pearlbuc.htm);
| DISCUSSION SCHEDULE: |
| September 2-8 | Chapters 1-8 |
| September 9-15 | Chapters 9-15 |
| September 16-20 | Chapters 16-21 |
| September 21-25 | Chapters 22-28 |
| September 26-29 | Chapters 29-34 |
Contact: JoanP (jonkie@verizon.net)
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Thanks everyone! Hope you enjoyed the Pearl Buck experience as much as we have. This discussion will be moved to the Archives later today - Feel free to explore the Archives of our past discussions at any time.