The Good Earth

The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck (Pulitzer Prize Winner, 1932)

After we finished the trend in books highlighting the lives of hardworking farmers in the Great Plains, and a couple of years with the trials of the wealthy, the Pulitzer committee became enamored of another genre that won for several years in a row: White people writing about non-White main characters and communities. Now, this trend didn’t entirely end with this round of books, but it did seem to have its heyday for the Pulitzers during this time period. We had The Bridge of San Luis Rey (which I actually quite loved) about a community in Peru, Scarlet Sister Mary about a Gullah community, and Laughing Boy about a young Navajo man. And then the one that really endured, The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck, about a farmer in pre-revolutionary rural China.

Many of you have probably read The Good Earth in school, although not all. And some of you probably skimmed it—I have a vague recollection it was discussed, but honestly I had no memory of the story itself. The story covers the life of a farmer in the village of Anhwei, Wang Fun, starting from his wedding day. He has become engaged to a slave girl, O-Lan, in the wealthiest house in the town, and goes to gather her. He has almost no money, and is counting his pennies for his haircut, a cup of tea, and some bits of meat for his wedding feast. There is no wedding so to speak—he simply gathers her from the house, and they return home where she has to cook for his father and friends. The next day they begin work in the fields.

Throughout O-Lan is described as broad faced, plain, and dull, with few words to say and wide feet that were never bound. However, she is an invaluable woman on the farm: working the fields with Wang Lun, even when pregnant and the day after giving birth, makes small amounts go a long way, and helps make it possible for Wang Fun to save up and buy additional land. They prosper, then suffer through a famine when they are forced to go the city with others to beg, and travel home where they are again able to use the land to prosper, gain additional land, and become the wealthiest family in town again. Wang Fun eventually takes a concubine he spoils, builds a large house, has his sons educated, and buys the house O-Lan was once a slave in, throughout holding on to the knowledge and belief that it is all possible because if one has land, the Good Earth, one can have enough and can always rebuild.

Supposedly, the book is credited with building sympathy for China and making it possible to ally with China in the coming World War and fight against Japan. I find this hard to believe for a few reasons. First, the Sino-Japanese War, including some of the atrocities and the Rape of Nanking, happened in 1937, several years before we entered the war, and several years after this book appeared. We got involved because of Pearl Harbor; we allied with China because they were already fighting Japan. The second reason is that I actually found the character incredibly unsympathetic. And I mean that in a very literal way. I didn’t particularly like him, but also found the way he was written as if to emphasize the foreignness and make it challenging in identifying and sympathizing with him.

Almost all of the relationships in the book are written as being transactional, with no familial love. Wang Fun dotes on his third child and oldest daughter, referred to as The Young Fool, who is unable to speak and simply smiles when she sees him or is in the sun, but otherwise there is almost no caring. His father, who lives with them, wants them to have another child so one of the children can be in his bed and keep him warm. His children have no names, only Eldest Son, Middle Son, and Youngest Son – the latter of whom is neglected – and there is never any indication of an appreciation of them or their personalities. Each child is considered only as what they bring to the field or the family’s future. Even his relationship with his friend is based on exchanges of services and loyalty, more than affection. Now, I have no doubt that the responsibilities of children and what one owes to neighbors and parents, etc, has a part to play in Chinese villages as it does in all societies. But that doesn’t mean all aspects of love and tenderness are absent.

The book also has very little dialogue, only what is absolutely necessary. There are hardly any discussions and so almost no one besides Wang Fun has a personality. The only other characters we have glimpses of are the concubine he eventually marries and the woman who sold her who joins the household as well, neither of whom are shown as caring about anyone other than themselves or having real thoughts or personalities. We spend all of our time in Wang Fun’s head, which is why we know that he thinks of almost no one but himself. And we certainly don’t get to know his family.

This is a shame because the most interesting character in the whole book is O-Lan, who we only know in glimpses and asides. In fact, I would welcome a retelling and reboot of this book, by a Chinese author, telling the tale of O-Lan. (This is assuming that the book is authentic enough to village life it would be worth retelling and not scrapping.) O-Lan in most ways makes Wang Fun’s success possible. She works in the field with him and takes care of all of the economizing and housekeeping. When the famine comes, and they are looted, she shames those who come and convinces them to leave. She gives birth during the famine and suffocates the already too-small infant they cannot feed or care for quietly, an unimaginable tragedy that is barely touched on or thought of. In the city, she knows how to find work and how to beg. She listens to gossip and knows when there will be a riot and how to get what they need to go home. And when they rebuild, she again knows how to rebuild their home and provides the money Wang Fun needs to buy more land. There are flashes of personality and wants, but only flashes. Her story would be a much more interesting one.

I think this book ends the cultural appropriation series of Pulitzer winners, at least for now. Interestingly, in this case Pearl S. Buck did get some pushback and questioning on why she was writing about Chinese communities. Her answer was that of course she would write about China, it was what she knew. And this is true. She grew up in a missionary family that lived in China, and then went back as a missionary when she was an adult. It was what she knew and what she seemed to have loved based on her efforts to return and stay. So the choice of a setting makes sense. But the fact is that she didn’t write about westerners in China; she wrote a book about a rural Chinese man and his family and town. And, in fact, did it in a way that I found quite othering. It is somewhat surprising that it has endured for so long. If your own school is thinking of it for a curriculum, may I suggest someone from this list instead?