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The Good Earth

© Sarah White

"The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck was published in 1931 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. At the time it was heralded as one of the first popular novels to explain Chinese culture to the world at large.

But this book is about so much more than China, and that makes it Classic American literature, and classic world literature, as much as the fact that Buck was an American does.

"The Good Earth" follows the life of Wang Lung, a Chinese farmer, and his family that grows and prospers by living off of and respecting the land.

More than anyone else in the book, Wang respects the land and sees the value of the land, buying up farms and becoming very successful, finally moving into the old home of the family that used to be the all-powerful land owning clan in the area.

His children, predictably and tragically, do not share their father's respect for the land. They want to sell the land after he dies because they do not understand that everything good in their lives -- their money, education, comfort, relaxed way of life, their wives -- all come from the land.

To Wang, there is nothing if there is not respect for the land first. The most important things are the land, family and elders. You must respect all of them.

What a wonderful message this book has for all people and all times. It is not a Chinese book or a book of the 1930s. It is about old times but it doesn't feel like an old book. Or, I guess I should say it does feel like an old book, but like a history or a guide for life left behind by some old culture that was far wiser than our own.

If you respect the land, it will protect you. That is a line I wrote in my reading journal when I read this book, probably almost two years ago. But it still resonates because it is so powerful and true and right.

This is a wonderful story told lovingly (as Buck did love what she called her adopted home of China, which was obviously a huge influence on the content and style of her work). It beautifully depicts the Chinese countryside, but it is not romantic. We leave the book knowing that farming is hard work (as is raising a disrespectful family) but feeling a great respect for those who would devote their lives to the land, to bringing food forth from that good earth to feed the multitudes.

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