the good earth book report

The Good Earth

60 pages • 2 hours read

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-7

Chapters 8-14

Chapters 15-26

Chapters 27-34

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Summary and Study Guide

A measure of the quality, prescience, and veracity of Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth is that, nearly a century after its first publication, the book remains required reading in literature, world history, and social science courses. The novel is a simple, straightforward narrative about 50 years in the life of Wang Lung , an uneducated farmer in eastern China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While this era period was one of continual political turbulence in China, Wang Lung’s personal struggle centers on securing good harvests, purchasing more land, and building a lasting foundation for his growing family. To accomplish this, he must work around tempestuous nature, unscrupulous relatives, opportunistic soldiers and brigands, and other common people who, like him, are just trying to survive. His greatest ally is his wife, O-lan . Like the land itself, she is fertile, dependable, and completely accepting.

Growing up in China in the 1890s as the child of Christian missionaries, Buck watched many of the changes she writes about firsthand. The first of a trilogy, the book received a Pulitzer Prize in 1932 and was the bestselling novel in the US in 1931 (the year of its initial publication) and 1932. Buck received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1938, largely because of The Good Earth trilogy.

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This guide refers to the 2016 Simon and Schuster paperback edition.

Content Warning: Throughout The Good Earth there are numerous references to opium use and frequent references to sexual abuse. In addition, the book refers to cannibalism during a famine and an instance of infanticide.

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Plot Summary

On his wedding day, 20-year-old Wang Lung leaves the small farm where he lives with his widowed father and walks to the nearby village to meet his bride for the first time. Mistress Hwang has arranged the marriage, selling one of her kitchen maids, O-lan, to Wang Lung’s father. The newlyweds walk silently to the farm, where Wang Lung tells his bride to prepare a feast for his friends and relatives. While he serves the meal she prepares, he makes her wait outside with the ox. After everyone leaves, he takes her to his bed. While Wang Lung doesn’t find O-lan attractive, she’s the perfect wife in other respects: deferential, hard-working, loyal, and clever. When she finishes her housework, she joins Wang Lung in the fields. Although pregnant, she works beside Wang Lung until the birth. She delivers a boy, and O-lan presents their son to the House of Hwang, where she lived for 10 years as an enslaved woman. She tells Wang Lung that the Hwangs face financial difficulties. He responds by using their saved money to buy part of Hwang’s property. O-lan bears a second son.

Wang Lung experiences a series of events he considers evil omens. After arguing with his aunt, Wang Lung sees Uncle , his father’s shiftless brother, approaching him. Reminding Wang Lung of his social obligations, Uncle extorts some silver from him. Then, O-lan gives birth to a daughter, and a drought descends upon the land. Wang Lung has saved enough money that, despite the drought, he buys another piece of Hwang farmland. However, the drought is so severe that it results in famine, and the family becomes so malnourished that O-lan—who is pregnant again—can’t produce milk. Uncle appears with strangers who ask to buy Wang Lung’s property for a pittance. Instead, O-lan offers to sell their furniture. Wang Lung and O-lan plan to go to a city and beg for food after the baby comes. Wang Lung hears the new baby cry once and fall silent. O-lan tells him the baby is dead and asks him to take the body to the cemetery.

Weak with malnourishment and struggling to walk, the family passes the village on their way south and, for the first time, sees a “fire wagon,” or train; it takes them 100 miles to the city. Many migrants gather for rice each morning, and the family can eat again. O-lan teaches the boys to beg, and Wang Lung pulls a rickshaw—but they can’t earn enough to return home. Wang Lung hears street prophets calling for a revolution. He isn’t interested because nothing they say pertains to farming. Soldiers randomly conscript men to serve on civilian crews for the military. Wang Lung hides during the day and finds hard, menial work at night. A revolt occurs in the city one night. Wang Lung and O-lan hear that the great house behind the wall where they shelter is open. O-lan quickly disappears into it, and Wang Lung follows. The fearful lord of the house comes out of hiding and offers Wang Lung gold if he’ll let him escape. Wang Lung takes the gold.

Using the gold coins, Wang Lung leads his family back to his farmhouse, which is in disarray. As O-lan restores the home, Wang Lung replants his fields. One night in bed, Wang Lung realizes that O-lan has a pouch tied between her breasts, full of precious gems she found in the ransacked great house. Leaving her with two small pearls, Wang Lung uses the jewels to buy the remaining Hwang land. He engages his trustworthy neighbor, Ching, as his steward. They enter seven straight years of excellent harvests. O-lan gives birth to fraternal twins, a girl and a boy—but the delivery is difficult, and O-lan never fully recovers. Tired of merchants mocking his illiteracy, Wang Lung sends his two older sons to school.

Disaster strikes the land in the form of a lingering flood. Wang Lung, however, has stored food and funds. Discontent because he can’t work the land, he goes daily into the village to patronize a new teahouse that’s also a gambling establishment and bordello. Cuckoo—the sales agent who sold Wang Lung the last of Master Hwang’s land—is a madam there. She takes Wang Lung to Lotus , a beautiful, tiny sex worker. Smitten, Wang Lung returns to Lotus each day. Uncle, his wife, and their son—the remains of Uncle’s family—move into Wang Lung’s house. Uncle’s wife figures out that Wang Lung has another woman, and Wang Lung overhears her telling O-lan. He decides to move Lotus into the farmhouse. He adds a courtyard and three additional rooms. Lotus comes to his house, accompanied by Cuckoo as her servant. O-lan is emotionally devastated but doesn’t complain. The arrangement creates multiple problems for Wang Lung, however. His father loudly proclaims that Lotus is a “harlot.” O-lan, who Cuckoo mistreated when they were both in the House of Hwang, treats the intruders with passive aggression, so Cuckoo and Lotus complain to Wang Lung. When the eldest son, who agitated to go south for better schooling, calms down, Wang Lung discovers it’s because the boy has been going to see Lotus every day. Wang Lung beats him and drives him from the house. Once the flood recedes, Wang Lung returns to farming, which relieves him of his obsession with Lotus. He betroths his older sons to carefully selected young women. Wang Lung attaches his second son to a grain dealer, his eldest son’s future father-in-law. The second son will become a grain dealer to help Wang Lung move his harvests to market.

Noticing O-lan’s growing difficulty completing her chores and continual swollen stomach, Wang Lung sends her to bed and summons a physician. They discover that O-lan is dying. Bedridden and approaching death, O-lan orchestrates the return of the elder son and his bride. After the elaborate wedding, O-lan dies. Wang Lung seals her body in a casket, leaving it in a temple for three months as he awaits the date predicted by a geomancer (one who bases divination on geographic features). Meanwhile, Wang Lung’s father also dies. He buries them both in a private hilltop cemetery.

Wang Lung’s oldest son complains that Uncle’s son watches his new bride with lust. Wang Lung explains that he can’t remove Uncle’s family because Uncle is a member of the Red Beards, an outlaw group. As long as Uncle remains with them, the family’s house is safe from the gang. The eldest son suggests that Uncle, his wife, and his son receive free opium because, as they have substance use disorders, they’ll become docile. Wang Lung employs this tactic when Uncle’s son sexually assaults the twin daughter. Uncle and his wife quickly develop an addiction to opium. Their son continues to leer at the women servants. Wang Lung’s oldest son suggests that he buy Hwang House and move all but Uncle’s family there. This is a completion for Wang Lung, who ends up owning the house he went to years ago to buy O-lan. Over time, the family and servants end up in Wang House. Uncle’s son approaches Wang Lung for money so that he can join the military and fight in the war. Wang Lung’s daughter-in-law gives birth to the first grandchild, a boy. Within five years, his two sons father seven children, all living in the 60-room city house. Wang Lung’s old friend Ching and then Uncle die. Wang Lung buries them in the hilltop cemetery.

Soldiers come to the village and billet (lodge) with area residents. Uncle’s son is one of the soldiers. He brings a rowdy group of men into the Wang House. To pacify Uncle’s lusty son, they let him take a servant girl as his “concubine.” When they leave a month later, the girl is pregnant. Wang Lung marries her to one of his field workers. When Uncle’s wife dies, Wang Lung buries her in the cemetery. The youngest son asks Wang Lung for permission to join the military. Wang Lung offers to get him a wife instead, thinking of 17-year-old Pear Blossom, the youngest of the servant girls. Wang Lung becomes infatuated with the girl, even realizing how inappropriate it is. She briefly becomes his “concubine,” and his younger son runs away to join the military. Yearning to enjoy the land again, Wang Lung moves with his elder daughter, Pear Blossom, and several servants back to the farmhouse. He tells his oldest son to procure his casket, which he keeps with him at the farm. His older sons visit him there. One day, he overhears their plan to divide and sell the farmland once Wang Lung is gone.

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THE GOOD EARTH

by Pearl S. Buck ; illustrated by Nick Bertozzi ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 4, 2017

A finely rendered showcase for a classic tale.

Illustrator Bertozzi ( Becoming Andy Warhol , 2016, etc.) adapts Buck’s ( The Eternal Wonder , 2013, etc.) Pulitzer Prize–winning novel of a man’s fluctuating fortunes and existential crises in early-20th-century China.

For years, farmer Wang Lung has worked the soil, pulling forth bountiful harvests, and now the sale of his excess crops has funded a fateful purchase: a slave from the great house in town to be his wife. O-lan quickly proves invaluable: cooking fancy cakes like those she served to the local lord and lady, sewing clothes, and working the fields alongside her husband, stopping only to bear children. O-lan’s steady hand helps during high times, when Wang Lung purchases land from the great house, and during low, when famine drives the family south to a big city where they live as beggars and Wang Lung runs a rickshaw. On the streets, Wang Lung witnesses class tensions that boil over into a riot—during which O-lan manages to multiply their fortune. Once settled back on the land and having grown prosperous, the family faces the struggles of the nouveau riche: a son ashamed of their bumpkin roots, Wang Lung's discontent with his plebeian wife driving him to take a concubine, fears of good fortune being snatched away by jealous spirits (or family members). The half-dozen or so borderless panels per page propel the story along, flowing in brief scenes of survival, domesticity, society, and legacy. Bertozzi beautifully distills Buck’s text into poignant snippets, zeroing in on details such as the anguished clench of O-lan’s fingers as she bears the news that Wang Lung is pursuing another woman. The black-on-gray chiaroscuro lends the work an engraved look, perfectly capturing the story’s timeless subject matter while also underscoring the antiquity of the depicted world, where women are slaves. Even within this foreign worldview, Buck and Bertozzi convey rich moral complexity and universal concerns.

Pub Date: July 4, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-5011-3276-6

Page Count: 144

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: April 17, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017

GENERAL GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMICS

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BOOK REVIEW

by Pearl S. Buck

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by Peter Kuper ; illustrated by Peter Kuper ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 5, 2019

Gorgeous and troubling.

Cartoonist Kuper ( Kafkaesque , 2018, etc.) delivers a graphic-novel adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s literary classic exploring the horror at the center of colonial exploitation.

As a group of sailors floats on the River Thames in 1899, a particularly adventurous member notes that England was once “one of the dark places of the earth,” referring to the land before the arrival of the Romans. This well-connected vagabond then regales his friends with his boyhood obsession with the blank places on maps, which eventually led him to captain a steamboat up a great African river under the employ of a corporate empire dedicated to ripping the riches from foreign land. Marlow’s trip to what was known as the Dark Continent exposes him to the frustrations of bureaucracy, the inhumanity employed by Europeans on the local population, and the insanity plaguing those committed to turning a profit. In his introduction, Kuper outlines his approach to the original book, which featured extensive use of the n-word and worked from a general worldview that European males are the forgers of civilization (even if they suffered a “soul [that] had gone mad” for their efforts), explaining that “by choosing a different point of view to illustrate, otherwise faceless and undefined characters were brought to the fore without altering Conrad’s text.” There is a moment when a scene of indiscriminate shelling reveals the Africans fleeing, and there are some places where the positioning of the Africans within the panel gives them more prominence, but without new text added to fully frame the local people, it’s hard to feel that they have reached equal footing. Still, Kuper’s work admirably deletes the most offensive of Conrad’s language while presenting graphically the struggle of the native population in the face of foreign exploitation. Kuper is a master cartoonist, and his pages and panels are a feast for the eyes.

Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-393-63564-5

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019

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A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT

by Mark Twain ; adapted by Seymour Chwast ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2014

Chwast and Twain are a match made in heaven.

Design veteran Chwast delivers another streamlined, graphic adaptation of classic literature, this time Mark Twain’s caustic, inventive satire of feudal England.

Chwast ( Tall City, Wide Country , 2013, etc.) has made hay anachronistically adapting classic texts, whether adding motorcycles to The Canterbury Tales (2011) or rocket ships to The Odyssey (2012), so Twain’s tale of a modern-day (well, 19th-century) engineer dominating medieval times via technology—besting Merlin with blasting powder—is a fastball down the center. (The source material already had knights riding bicycles!) In Chwast’s rendering, bespectacled hero Hank Morgan looks irresistible, plated in armor everywhere except from his bow tie to the top of his bowler hat, sword cocked behind head and pipe clenched in square jaw. Inexplicably sent to sixth-century England by a crowbar to the head, Morgan quickly ascends nothing less than the court of Camelot, initially by drawing on an uncanny knowledge of historical eclipses to present himself as a powerful magician. Knowing the exact date of a celestial event from more than a millennium ago is a stretch, but the charm of Chwast’s minimalistic adaption is that there are soon much better things to dwell on, such as the going views on the church, politics and society, expressed as a chart of literal back-stabbing and including a note that while the upper class may murder without consequence, it’s kill and be killed for commoners and slaves. Morgan uses his new station as “The Boss” to better the primitive populous via telegraph lines, newspapers and steamboats, but it’s the deplorably savage civility of the status quo that he can’t overcome, even with land mines, Gatling guns and an electric fence. The subject of class manipulation—and the power of passion over reason—is achingly relevant, and Chwast’s simple, expressive illustrations resonate with a childlike earnestness, while his brief, pointed annotations add a sly acerbity. His playful mixing of perspectives within single panels gives the work an aesthetic somewhere between medieval tapestry and Colorforms.

Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-60819-961-7

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013

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Add your guide, you are here:, the good earth.

"The earth lay rich and dark and fell apart lightly under the points of their hoes. Sometimes they turned up a bit of brick, a splinter of wood. It was nothing. Some time, in some age, bodies of men and women had been buried there, houses had stood there, had fallen, and gone back into the earth. So would also their house, some time, return into the earth, their bodies also. Each had his turn at this earth. They worked on, moving together --- together --- producing the fruit of this earth --- speechless in their movement together."

The simple raw imagery of THE GOOD EARTH won Pearl S. Buck the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1932. Its poignant portrayal of a poor farmer's life and his bond with the land is as relevant to our own ancestral roots as it is to rural China. Wang Lung, the central figure around which the entire narrative revolves, is a man of many complexities depicted by his relationships with his wife, his father, his children and his village. His land is precious, its value equating to his own self-worth. Although steeped in the ancient traditions, he reflects certain enlightened thinking at times that may be more for the author's emphasis of injustices than a true depiction of the average Chinese peasant in the early 1900s.

Wang Lung's story begins as a young man seeking a wife to cook, clean and bear his children. O-lan, a slave's slave from a wealthy household, comes to live and share his life in the subservient fashion that traditions dictate. Initially their marriage brings satisfaction to both, although for vastly different reasons. Wang Lung has a sense of fulfillment in having such a wise and competent woman to raise his children and maintain his home. And even though women are still considered "slaves" by their men, O-lan has found a better life than she's ever known; she is well-cared for and Wang Lung is kind. Together they bring five children into the world and work their thriving farm.

But just as the life of a peasant is harsh, so are the traditions that mold marriage and family. Women are little more than chattel, necessary for procreation and to serve the household needs. A girl child is an unwelcome birth and can even bring shame to families unable to produce a boy. During hard times young girls were often sold into slavery or worse. For all the compassion that Pearl Buck feels for these people and the beauty she finds in their simple lives, her outrage at the conditions of the women is apparent. Although Wang Lung's thoughts are a bit more liberal than we might expect, he still maintains his distance, displaying neither open affection nor love for the woman who shares his life.

". . . she was like a faithful, speechless serving maid, who is only a serving maid and nothing more. And it was not meet that he should say to her, 'Why do you not speak?' It should be enough that she fulfilled her duty."

"Sometimes, working over the clods in the fields, he would fall to pondering about her. What had she seen in those hundred courts? What had been her life, that life she never shared with him? He could make nothing of it. And then he was ashamed of his own curiosity and of his interest in her. She was, after all, only a woman."

As the years pass, Wang Lung's family suffers abject poverty and famine but their strength of character sustains them through stark conditions that we would find inconceivable. Reduced to begging in the city, Wang Lung steadfastly refuses to sell his land. Then as China experiences the first rumblings of revolution, the cycle of prosperity returns and Wang Lung eventually becomes the wealthy landowner that he once envied and despised. But his evolution from a proud hardworking peasant to the decadent life of an idle lord is disheartening. Pearl Buck eloquently portrays the sad disintegration of this man and his family as they become alienated from the land and the noble values it imparted.

Reviewed by Ann Bruns on January 22, 2011

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

Publication Date: September 15, 2004
Genres: Fiction
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Washington Square Press
ISBN-10: 0743272935
ISBN-13: 9780743272933

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The Good Earth

Introduction to the good earth.

The Good Earth was written by Pearl S. Buck, with the setting of the early 20 th century in China. It also has two more volumes as the sequel to the rural Chinese story . The first book was published in 1931 under the title of The Good Earth. The series also won the Pulitzer as well as Noble Prize, for the author in quick succession. The novel proved a huge success after it was transformed into various movies and plays. The story revolves around a family facing hardships and the transformation of the rural setting.

Summary of The Good Earth

The story is about a young man, Wang Lung, in rural China who preparing to find a bride. His father advises him to visit the local Hwang family mansion to ask for a slave girl. After having some money and spending it lavishly on his maintenance and food, he visits the Hwangs and asks them for a slave girl. They propose that he take O-lan. Eventually, he marries her and takes her home after both agree to marry despite a slight disability in O-lan’s feet.

Both husband and wife start their agricultural work on their land. They also have a son, giving them happiness and resolution to work harder. On the other side, the Hwang family faces difficult times due to their patriarch being a womanizer and the matriarch being an addict. Soon Wang Lung is able to purchase some of the Hwang fields and enjoys farming with considerable income. Although they have another son, Wang Lung’s relatives start borrowing money from him and he is forced to lend. Meanwhile, he continues exploiting the Hwang, purchasing more of their fertile land. When their daughter is born, Wang Lung also faces acute drought , leading to a severe famine that causes severe disruption in the family.

During the famine, O-lan kills the second girl, still, food is hard to come by and the family continues facing hardships and is unable to feed the children. When winter becomes too unbearable, he migrates to a southern city where they become beggars. Wang Lung rents a rickshaw to earn his living. They get enough to eat, but they hardly make both ends meet. When Wang Lung has some money, he tells his family and plans to return to their estate.

Later, they try to sell their daughter when riots erupt in the city and they also join the other people and plunder the wealth of a rich man. Wang Lung lays his hands upon the gold coins while his wife plunders jewels after which all of them return to their estate. Soon they purchase all the fields from the Hwang family after which they start to settle down, having two more children. Now as a landlord, Wang Lung has laborers to work on his fields with a good harvest every year and more money in his reserves. Sadly there’s a flood, which disrupts his income, making him feel the dreariness of life, but routine again settles on him.

He is fed up with O-lan and starts finding fault in her after seeing a local prostitute, Lotus, a beautiful woman. He uses his money to purchase her. He regrets spending the money when O-lan falls sick. Wang finds his uncle and aunt in his house after which he moves to another house, leaving the big Hwang house for his relatives. During this time, his wife dies after which his sons decide not to farm their lands. After O-lan’s death, Wang’s father dies as well. He entrusts the land to his second son as the quarrel also deepens enmity among the brothers and soon causes a rift wider enough for them to sell the family land and divide the money.

Major Themes in The Good Earth

Man and Earth: The Good Earth shows man’s natural relationship with the earth and farming. Not only man is dependent on the earth in terms of food and security but also he is linked with the earth in his social relations, morality, and status in the area. At first, Wang Lung is loyal to his father and has good relationships, he depends on the land for the livelihood that he earns during the harvesting season. The Hwang family, having large tracts of land, is stable because of having more land in the area than any other person. In contrast to them, others have fewer lands or none that force them to work in their fields, making them have less contact with the earth. This leads to moral as well as social decadence. Finally, their removal from the social fabric while having more land raises Wang to have a good status after he replaces the Hwang family by purchasing their lands.
Wealth and Values: The Good Earth presents the story of a traditional Chinese rural setting in which the increase of wealth is shown as causing the elimination of traditional values. Wang Lung is courteous, humble, and down-to-earth sincere before he becomes a rich man, replacing the Hwang family. However, when he becomes a rich man, he wins Lotus, the local prostitute, and becomes arrogant ignoring his wife as well as children. Soon he becomes aware that as his children have grown up in luxury, have become lazy and disobedient. He also sees his status slipping from his hands before his eyes because his children have left their traditions and values of hard work after gaining wealth.
Gender Oppression: Gender oppression is seen through the character of O-lan and Lotus. Although it is not clear about the condition of the Hwang family in terms of gender discrimination and oppression, beyond that mansion everything is against femininity. Wang Lung marries O-lan only because she is a slave and has bound feet. However, when he has achieved the status of the Hwang family, he is attracted to Lotus, a local prostitute. This leads to the disintegration of the family, and his relations with Lotus also deteriorate. It shows that female characters are at the receiving end.
Migration and Prosperity: The Good Earth also shows the theme of prosperity associated with migration and vice versa . When Wang Lung does not see any future in his own land due to drought, he migrates to a southern city. Although whatever he gets in terms of wealth, is plundered. Yet he becomes rich enough to return as a wealthy person after the riots in the south. Migration and reverse migration, thus, show prosperity associated with it.
Progress : The progress is seen through Wang Lung as he wants to prosper and works very hard to purchase a piece of land. His family grows and he faces an uncertain future in the wake of a drought. He goes for green pastures to the southern town, begs, works very hard, and finally falls upon the plundering mansion to collect gold coins while his wife gathers all the jewels. When this progress is achieved, they return home and live a comfortable life for a while. However, he finds himself in love with a prostitute, Lotus, a sign of newly acquired wealth while his children go astray as they grow older. The newly won prosperity soon takes its toll on the entire family until it is too late for Wang to turn back.
Significance of Simple Living: The novel presents the theme of simple living as pious and morally good. When Wang Lung is a poor young man, he had to struggle hard to earn his bread , he is sincere, patient, and hard-working. Even when he marries, he stays loyal to his wife, O-lan, who also stays loyal to him. However, as soon as they get wealth from the southern town and purchase the Hwang family mansion, they start a lavish lifestyle as well as inhabit to the point that Wang Lung keeps a prostitute, Lotus, while his sons marry and start living recklessly. The second son tries to fulfill his father’s dream. This shows the value of simplicity in rural China.
Decadence of Aristocracy: The novel shows the theme of the decadence of aristocracy through extravagant life. Although the Hwang is a traditional family and has been almost ruling the farming community , when Wang Lung becomes rich, he also turns to the same extravagant habits and starts destroying the wealth he has earned with hard work as well as savings that took from the plunder in the southern town. It shows that he is on the same path as the rural aristocracy.
Family Life: The theme of family life is seen at first through Wang Lung’s plan to marry after his father’s insistence. The reason is that his father has married to have a family and knows that if his son does not marry, he will not see his grandchildren, and the traditional family life will come to an end. That is why Wang Lung goes to the Hwang family mansion to get a slave girl to have a family life. The family stays together through thick and thin, but by the end, the unearned wealth plays havoc with the family life and disintegrates it. Wang Lung brings Lotus, while his sons split apart to have their own families.
Social Position: The theme of social position is through Wang Lung who is poor and has no money to get a good girl at the start. That is why he stays contented on his feet-bound wife, O-lan. However, as soon as his social status rises with his hard work and d plundered wealth from the southern town, he starts showing his true colors.

Major Characters of The Good Earth

Wang Lung: The protagonist , Wang Lung is not a traditional hero in the classical sense but a common rural farmer in China whose main ambition is to do what his father demanded. He agrees to marry a slave girl his father tells him. With his economic and social standing in the village, he marries O-lan, a slave girl from the Hwang family, who is the only aristocratic family in the village. He has children and is hard-working with good stamina. Soon he becomes prosperous enough to bear some months of drought. During the severe famine, he migrates to the southern town where he works as a rickshaw driver and beggar until he gets gold and jewelry from the plunder. Then returns to their land as a rich man. When he takes over the Hwang family mansion, he wins Lotus, the village concubine, and loses his control over his sons who have separate families. Soon he learns that it is the land that keeps the family united which he has built with much effort. Now that they have stopped tilling the land, the family is witnessing disintegration.
O-lan: Wang Lung’s wife, O-lan contributes significantly to his wealth in terms of hard work and children. She stays with him through thick and thin when he is poor and yet has to tolerate his brief period of infidelity when he contacts Lotus. Despite having no beauty and having bound feet, she fulfills her duty as a mother and wife in every way. She also takes care of his mansion, his land, and his family. Also, as opposed to the wayward behavior of Wang Lung on some occasions, she remains pragmatic. For example, when the occasion demands, she does not hesitate from sacrificing her own child for the greater good of the family.
Wang Lung’s Father: A relic of the past and glory of the rural setting’s simplicity, Wang Lung’s father is very old and is treated as a burden on him. Despite his fragility and constant cough, he values the presence of a woman and married life in the rural setup. That is why he constantly pushes his son to have a family. He scolds at his disappointment when his son has an affair with Lotus, the local concubine, and dies shortly after O-lan’s death.
Wang Lung’s Uncle: A very greedy and ethically disobedient person, Wang Lung’s father’s brother. He sees the extended family’s fall and rise, and comes to him to borrow money, believing it his familial right. His careless attitude could be seen in his clothes as described and when it becomes too awkward for him to carry on with the invading drought, he shifts to Wang Lung’s house, showing his presence in the house as a security against the robbers. Soon Wang Lung seeing his addiction tries to get rid of him.
Nang En: Nang En is the eldest son of Wang Lung, he is the favorite of his parents who want him to be a scholar to assist them in future contracts about their produces from the fields. However, he soon turns to reckless life after finding himself in the Hwang mansion and rich quite early than expected and easily loses control of his temper. His obsession to look more prominent in the family costs Wang Lung good fortune.
Nung Wen: Nung Wen is Wang Lung’s second son with ambitions of becoming a successful merchant. He is the only son who wants a good and hard-working wife. Finally, Wang Lung puts him in charge of the land to keep him busy and help him achieve his dream.
Youngest Son: Like his elder brother, he is also arrogant and lazy. He, later, announces to join the armed forces, leaving his lascivious brothers behind to enjoy life.
Eldest Daughter: The loving one but unaware of her circumstances, she faces tragic situations without knowing due to her mental health condition. Wang Lung desires to be with her to see her happy and safe.
Second Daughter: The second daughter is very beautiful and wise as she realizes the reason for her mother’s illness. She understands that her father is not paying attention to her mother because of her bound feet.

Writing Style of The Good Earth

Like her other novels about foreign lands, this book is also very simple in language as well as style . Pearl S. Buck has used short, crispy, and concise sentences with occasional use of repetitions and ellipses. The diction , too, is very simple, sometimes formal and sometimes informal, yet appropriate and direct. For literary devices , the author turns metaphors and similes, making the book a simple read.

Analysis of the Literary Devices in The Good Earth

Action: The main action of the novel comprises the life of Wang Lung and his family until he takes over the Hwang mansion and becomes the rich man of the village. The rising action occurs when Wang Lung returns to his village as a rich man, while the falling action occurs when he hands over the full house to his uncle.
Anaphora : The following sentences show the use of anaphora , i. At night he knew the soft firmness of her body. But in the day her clothes, her plain blue cotton coat and trousers, covered all that he knew, and she was like a faithful, speechless serving maid, who is only a serving maid and nothing more. (Chapter -2) ii. Out of this body of his, out of his own loins, life! (Chapter -2) iii. For my father it is not fitting to enter your room–for myself, I have never even seen a cow give birth. (Chapter -3) These examples show the repetitious use of “serving maid”, “out of this body” and “for my.”
Allusion : The use of allusions is given in the below examples, i. Yesterday he had said to his father that if this brazen, glittering sunshine continued, the wheat could not fill in the ear. Now it was as if Heaven had chosen this day to wish him well. (Chapter -1) ii. But what sort of schools these were he had no way of knowing, beyond the fact that they were called such names as “The Great School of Western Learning” or as “The Great School of China,” for he never went beyond the gates, and if he had gone in well he knew someone would have come to ask him what he did out of his place. (Chapter -12) The mention of Heaven, China, and Western learning in the above examples are some notable allusions.
Conflict : The novel shows both external and internal conflicts. The external conflict is going on between the circumstances and Wang Lung, while the internal conflict is going on in his mind about his situation and the situation of his relatives when they come to borrow money from him.
Characters: The novel, The Good Earth, shows both static as well as dynamic characters. The young man, Wang Lung, is a dynamic character as he shows a considerable transformation in his behavior and conduct by the end of the novel. However, all other characters are static as they do not show or witness any transformation such as O-lan, his father, the Poor Fool, and his uncle.
Climax : The climax in the novel occurs when Wang Lung comes back to his village having a lot of wealth.
Imagery : The use of imagery is given in the following sentences, i. The children’s bellies were swollen out with empty wind, and one never saw in these days a child playing upon the village street. At most the two boys in Wang Lung’s house crept to the door and sat in the sun, the cruel sun that never ceased its endless shining. Their once rounded bodies were angular and bony now, sharp small bones like the bones of birds, except for their ponderous bellies. The girl child never even sat alone , although the time was past for this, but lay uncomplaining hour after hour wrapped in an old quilt. (Chapter -9) ii. Beneath their feet the mud was thick and speared through with needles of ice and the little boys could make no headway and O-lan was laden with the girl and desperate under the weight of her own body. Wang Lung staggered through with the old man and set him down and then went back and lifted each child and carried him through, and then when it was over at last his sweat poured out of him like rain , spending all his strength with it, so that he had to lean for a long time against the damp wall, his eyes shut and his breath coming and going quickly, and his family stood shivering and waiting about him. (Chapter -10) iii. Running about the streets every day and all day long, he learned to know the city after a fashion, and he saw this and that of its secret parts. He learned that in the morning the people he drew in his vehicle if they were women, went to the market, and if they were men, they went to the schools and to the houses of business. (Chapter -12) These examples show images of movement, color, feelings, and sights.
Metaphor : The following sentences are good examples of metaphors, i. A small soft wind blew gently from the east, a wind mild and murmurous and full of rain. (Chapter -1) ii. But between all these thoughts which were in his mind every day there ran weaving and interweaving the new thought of what his life now was, and it occurred to him, suddenly, thinking of the night, to wonder if she liked him. (Chapter -2) iii. All else at that New Year sank into insignificance beside this visit. (Chapter -5) iv. And as family after family finished its store in the small village and spent its last coin in the scanty markets of the town, and the winds of winter came down from the desert, cold as a knife of steel and dry and barren, the hearts of the villagers grew distraught with their own hunger. (Chapter -8) v. 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. (Chapter -9) These examples show that several things have been compared directly in the novel such as the first shows wind compared with something soft, the second shows thought as a wave, the third shows a year with something trivial, the fourth shows winds as a knife, and the fifth shows the sky as something cold and clear.
Mood : The Good Earth shows a very pleasant mood in the beginning but turns out tragic, sorrowful as well as ironic, and didactic or moralizing in some places.
Motif : Most important motifs of The Good Earth, are birth, religion, death, and life.
Narrator : The novel is narrated in the third-person point of view , who is the author, Pearl S. Buck.
Paradox : The following sentences are good examples of paradoxes, i. When the rich are too rich there are ways, and when the poor are too poor there are ways. (Chapter -14) ii. But men must work on, and Wang Lung worked as he had before, although the lengthening warm days and the sunshine and sudden rains filled everyone with longings and discontents. (Chapter -15) Both of these examples show paradoxical ideas expressed within the same sentence .
Parallelism : The use of parallelism is given in the following sentences, i. And then he lay in his bed warm and satisfied while in the kitchen the woman fed the fire and boiled the water. (Chapter -1) ii. Wang Lung saw that she was afraid of him and he was pleased and he answered before she finished, “I like it–I like it,” and he drew his tea into his mouth with loud sups of pleasure. (Chapter -2) iii. He put his hoe upon his shoulder and he walked to his plots of land and he cultivated the rows of grain, and he yoked the ox to the plow and he ploughed the western field for garlic and onions. (Chapter -2) iv. He thought of this at first with joy and then with a pang of fear. (Chapter -4) v. And what he did for the farm implements, his wife, O-lan, did for the house implements. (Chapter -5) These examples show the parallel structure of the sentences, having phrases and clauses of equal length.
Personification : The following examples of personifications are given below, i. A small soft wind blew gently from the east, a wind mild and murmurous and full of rain. (Chapter -1) ii. There were already other huts clinging to the wall behind them, but what was inside the wall none knew and there was no way of knowing. (Chapter -11) These examples show that the wind and wall, have life and emotions of their own.
Protagonist : Wang Lung is the protagonist of the novel. The novel starts with his entry into the story from the very first chapter and ends with him.
Setting : The setting of the novel, The Good Earth, is someplace in rural China.
Simile : The following sentences are good examples of similes, i. But out of the woman’s great brown breast the milk gushed forth for the child, milk as white as snow , and when the child suckled at one breast it flowed like a fountain from the other, and she let it flow. (Chapter -4) ii. And as family after family finished its store in the small village and spent its last coin in the scanty markets of the town, and the winds of winter came down from the desert, cold as a knife of steel and dry and barren, the hearts of the villagers grew distraught with their own hunger. (Chapter -8) iii. But nothing could stop the mass of hungry men and women and they foughtlike beasts until all were fed. (Chapter -11) These are similes as the use of the words “like” and “as” show the comparison between terraced walls with a broad setup and the gleaming water with lamps.

Mother Earth
The Ends of the Earth
Earth Mother Archetype
The Big Wave

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Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, the good earth.

Reviewed by Ann Bruns on January 22, 2011

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

Publication Date: September 15, 2004
Genres: Fiction
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Washington Square Press
ISBN-10: 0743272935
ISBN-13: 9780743272933

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The good earth, common sense media reviewers.

Gritty, moving tale of couple in turn-of-the century China.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

The sweeping changes that occurred at the turn of

The themes of the search for meaning in life and l

As protagonist Wang Lung journeys from poverty to

Violence in the usual sense isn't shown, but t

No explicit sex, but the reality of life as a conc

The drinking of rice wine and the smoking of tobac

Parents need to know that this book is unsparing in its depiction of the oppression of women and the horrors of peasant life in turn-of-the-century China (in one scene the corpse of an infant is left to be devoured by a starving dog). The author also makes her views on wealth as a destroyer of traditional values quite…

Educational Value

The sweeping changes that occurred at the turn of the 20th century in China are brilliantly depicted by an author who witnessed them firsthand. Readers get a vivid picture of the lives of poor farmers, and their relationships to the land, their emperor, and each other, and the beginnings of modernization that would lead to the 1949 revolution. The social traditions that oppressed women, from foot-binding to arranged marriages and subservience to husbands, are explored in an eloquent, moving manner.

Positive Messages

The themes of the search for meaning in life and life's inevitable tragedies both predominate. The Good Earth derives its title from the author's conviction that a connection to and reverence for the earth can actually lead to inner goodness and peace, and that a disconnection from nature can only result in a lack of fulfillment. Buck presents human beings as transitory, with the earth as the only constant.

Positive Role Models

As protagonist Wang Lung journeys from poverty to success, we see the price he pays for his upward mobility. By today's Western standards, his wife, O-lan's, subservience and victimhood are appalling. Yet, she retains a quiet power and dignity throughout her ordeals, and her strength is both inspiring and exemplary.

Violence & Scariness

Violence in the usual sense isn't shown, but the lives of the poor Chinese peasants -- particularly women -- are depicted graphically. Foot-binding, daughters sold into slavery, women as concubines, and female infanticide by strangling are all presented unblinkingly.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

No explicit sex, but the reality of life as a concubine -- and the acceptance of the role of the concubine in the Chinese culture of the period -- are presented very matter-of-factly.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

The drinking of rice wine and the smoking of tobacco and opium are presented in the historical context of the time and place, but are not made to look glamorous or even particularly significant.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Where to Read

Community reviews.

Parents say (3)
Kids say (5)

Based on 3 parent reviews

As a pre-adolescent it was informative, not shovking.

Exceptional, harrowing and euphemistic, what's the story.

In turn-of-the-century China, Wang Lung, a poor young farmer, is sold a slave, O-lan, who becomes his wife. Although they steadily become prosperous and enjoy the birth of a son, they soon fall prey to famine and economic instability. The novel follows the couple from young marrieds to old age, and parallels the growth of China itself from an ancient dynasty to a nation of very modern crises.

Is It Any Good?

Young readers will be impressed by the gritty realism, the graphic depiction of a certain kind of society (that still exists today), and the redeeming lessons learned by the characters. THE GOOD EARTH won the Pulitzer Prize and is considered a classic. It has been in print since its first publication in 1931, and was made into a popular film in 1937. It is a fine example of the work of Pearl S. Buck, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the advantages of wealth and materialism (status, comfort, security) and disadvantages (separation from nature, the erosion of values).

How and why are the Western Christian missionaries (which both of the author's parents were) satirized?

What factors contributed to the Chinese culture of this period oppressing and abusing women even more so than other cultures?

Why might it be important to foster and maintain a relationship to the earth and nature, when doing so is no longer necessary?

Wang Lung and his eldest son share many similarities, but what are their crucial differences?

Book Details

Author : Pearl S. Buck
Genre : Historical Fiction
Topics : History
Book type : Fiction
Publisher : Washington Square Press
Publication date : March 2, 1931
Number of pages : 337
Last updated : June 17, 2015

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The Good Earth

Table of contents.

Rave and Reviews

About The Book

About the author.

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Good Earth and, in 1938, became the first American woman ever awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

Product Details

Publisher: Washington Square Press (June 2, 2020)
Length: 384 pages
ISBN13: 9781982147174

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Raves and Reviews

“A beautifully written novel that follows one family's dreams and nightmares across a changing Chinese landscape. And, Oprah says, 'It's also juicy as all get out!'"— Oprah.com “A comment upon the meaning and tragedy of life as it is lived in any age in any quarter of the globe.” — The New York Times “One of the most important and revealing novels of our time.” — Pittsburgh Post Gazette “One need never have lived in China or know anything about the Chinese to understand it or respond to its appeal.” — Boston Transcript

Awards and Honors

Pulitzer Prize
Nobel Prize for Literature

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The Good Earth book report

Related Papers

IPraveen Sagar

Pearl S. Buck has been inspired heavily by the realist/historical novels of the 19th century and combined this with more modern influences to create something new, or, indeed, something not new at all but merely an assortment of already used techniques. She recreates realism, not as a study of the world outside us, but of the world inside. Thesis is about a thematic study of realism in Pearl S. Buck "The Good Earth". The novel "The Good Earth" for the first time made the Americans recognize the Chinese as their neighbours. And that shows one of the Realistic Work of Pearl S. Buck "The Good Earth".

Arpita Karwa

Rochmat Budi Santosa

This paper observes the struggle for life of East Asia people that was portrayed in the novel The Good Earth. The Good Earth is also portrayal of a true account experienced by its author, Pearl S Buck. She got inspiration from the life of farmer in China. She wrote this novel using the original name as the main character. Those names are Wang Lung and O Lan. They are couple and their life is on farm. The objectives of this study are to find the pragmatic and sociological aspects of the Novel. This research applies content analysis approach to understand the pragmatic and sociological life in Chinese society, especially in the novel. The finding of the study shows that the utterances in the novel reflect various speech acts i.e. expressive, assertive, commisive, persuasive, directive, and phatic. In the sociological aspect, the life of rural people in Chine is somewhat similar with that of in Indonesia. Otherwise, rural people have life style in common i.e. working hard, struggle for life, defending their belonging, and loving the nature.

Görkem Neşe ŞENEL

This stylistic study attempts to examine the concept of inbetweenness experienced by two distinct ethnic identities, Chinese and Indian, as reflected by two ethnic female American authors with their specific treatment of language. Inbetweenness, caused mostly by migration, is the inevitable dilemma of being ‘the other’ among a dominant homogenous whole. When the deviance between traditional experience, attributed to the minority groups such as immigrants, and the modernity, attributed to the dominant society, hugely contrasts, the margins are usually ascribed the position of backwardness and inferiority. Inevitably, the differences cause a version of dichotomist discourse in which the traditional versus the modern. Such a dichotomist variation causes the minority groups to go through identity crisis heightened by rootlessness and inbetweenness. Within this study, tracing the specific cultural, gender-related and generational gaps between the ethnic identities, an Indian-American short story collection and a Chinese-American novel will be examined with specifically identifying how the dilemma of ‘inbetweenness’ is manifested by the author’s genuine treatment of language. Unaccustomed Earth (2008) reflects the problems of identity crisis and cultural clash caused by the sense of macro-level inbetweenness of Indian immigrants within the America of the 1970s. The Good Earth (1931), on the other hand, reveals the heroic story of a Chinese family’s dedication to rural China, and their sense of micro-level inbetweenness when the family is politically forced to live in the urban city. Both fictions reflect similarly parallel concerns regarding gender, ethnicity, cultural clash, identity crisis and generational gap. Evenly, the ‘earth’ that is referred as ‘good’ within Chinese context becomes ‘unaccustomed’ within the Indian context when the ethnic characters lose their sense of belonging and ethnic identities.

Noparat Tananuraksakul , Mo Yuanling

In the 21st century, gender equality is seen a basic requirement for civilization, yet gender inequality still exists. Gender gap is an establishment of historical and cultural stereotypes that women are physically and mentally inferior to men, so they are given fewer opportunities. Great literature is made powerful to reflect and criticize gender inequality leading to women’s liberation. This study thus explores Pearl S. Buck’s The House of Earth Trilogy from a socialist feminism perspective aiming to identify barriers to gender inequality issues as reflected in the trilogy and find out solutions appropriate to empower women. The findings suggest that Chinese women’s low social status was mainly due to unequal social class and the patriarchy. Education enabled women to have professional work and consciously seek the equality of social status with men and freedom. Right education empowers women, and the civilization co-exists with gender equality in economic and cultural dimensions.

Malay Literature, Vol.32, N1

Evgeniya Kukushkina

This paper focuses on the issue of external contacts in early modern Malay literature in the 20th century. It applies historical and comparative methods of research to three renowned novels by the Malay author, Hamzah Hussin, written between 1951 and 1956. This paper aims to trace their possible connection with the famed The House of Earth trilogy (1931-1935) by the American Nobel Prize Laureate, Pearl S. Buck. The results of analysis demonstrate notable correspondences between the respective novels of Hamzah Hussin and Pearl S. Buck on the level of issues raised and storyline. Both sets of novels also share the same central image of house/home, which provides the core development of plot. Additionally, the women characters are found to share commonalities in both sets of novels. It is hoped that this paper prompts future studies on the Occidental influences in Malay authors and literature.

Mary Goodwin

Ambri Shukla

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Money blog: Loud budgeting - the taboo-busting money hack you can do without giving up daily coffee

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By Jess Sharp , Money team

Money saving trends are constantly popping up on social media - but one in particular has been gaining huge amounts of attention.

Created accidentally by a comedian, loud budgeting is breaking down the taboo of speaking about money.

The idea is based on being firmer/more vocal about your financial boundaries in social situations and setting out what you are happy to spend your money on, instead of "Keeping up with the Joneses".

On TikTok alone, videos published under the hashtag #loudbudgeting have garnered more than 30 million views - and that figure is continuing to climb.

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Based in New York, he came up with the term in a skit about the "quiet luxury" hype, which had spread online in 2023 inspired by shows like Succession.

The term was used for humble bragging about your wealth with expensive items that were subtle in their design - for example, Gwyneth Paltrow's £3,900 moss green wool coat from The Row, which she wore during her ski resort trial...

"I was never a big fan of the quiet luxury trend, so I just kind of switched the words and wrote 'loud budgeting is in'. I'm tired of spending money and I don't want to pretend to be rich," Lukas said.

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This was the first time he mentioned it...

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"I've seen more debate around the topic and I think people are really intrigued and attracted by the idea," he said.

"It's just focusing your spending and time on things you enjoy and cutting out the things you might feel pressured to spend your money on."

He has incorporated loud budgeting into his own life, telling his friends "it's free to go outside" and opting for cheaper dinner alternatives.

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The trend has been a big hit with so-called American "finfluencers", or "financial influencers", but people in the UK have started practising it as well.

Mia Westrap has taken up loud budgeting by embarking on a no-buy year and sharing her finances with her 11.3k TikTok followers.

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Clothes, fizzy drinks, beauty treatments, makeup, dinners out and train tickets are just some things on her "red list".

The 26-year-old PHD student first came across the idea back in 2017, but decided to take up the challenge this year after realising she was living "pay check to pay check".

She said her "biggest fear" in the beginning was that her friends wouldn't understand what she was doing, but she found loud budgeting helped.

"I'm still trying my best to just go along with what everyone wants to do but I just won't spend money while we do it and my friends don't mind that, we don't make a big deal out of it," she said.

So far, she has been able to save £1,700, and she said talking openly about her money has been "really helpful".

"There's no way I could have got this far if I wasn't baring my soul to the internet about the money I have spent. It has been a really motivating factor."

Financial expert John Webb said loud budgeting has the ability to help many "feel empowered" and create a "more realistic" relationship with money.

"This is helping to normalise having open and honest conversations about finances," the consumer affair manager at Experien said.

"It can also reduce the anxiety some might have by keeping their financial worries to themselves."

However, he warned it's important to be cautious and to take the reality of life into consideration.

"It could cause troubles within friendship groups if they're not on the same page as you or have different financial goals," he said.

"This challenge isn't meant to stop you from having fun, but it is designed to help people become more conscious and intentional when it comes to money, and reduce the stigma around talking about it."

Rightmove's keyword tool shows Victorian-era houses are the most commonly searched period properties, with people drawn to their ornate designs and features.

Georgian and Edwardian-style are second and third respectively, followed by Tudor properties. Regency ranked in fifth place.

Rightmove property expert Tim Bannister said: "Home hunters continue to be captivated by the character and charm of properties that we see in period dramas.

"Victorian homes remain particularly popular, characterised by their historic charm, solid construction, and spacious interiors. You'll often find Victorian houses in some of the most desirable locations which include convenient access to schools and transport links."

Throughout the week Money blog readers have shared their thoughts on the stories we've been covering, with the most correspondence coming in on...

A hotly contested debate on the best brand of tea
Downsizing homes
The cost of Michelin-starred food

Job interview mistakes

On Wednesday we reported on a new £12m ad from PG Tips in response to it falling behind rivals such as Twinings, Yorkshire Tea and Tetley....

We had lots of comments like this...

How on earth was the PG Tips advert so expensive? I prefer Tetley tea, PG Tips is never strong enough flavour for me. Shellyleppard

The reason for the sales drop with PG Tips could be because they increased the price and reduced the quantity of bags from 240 to 180 - it's obvious. Royston

And then this question which we've tried to answer below...

Why have PG Tips changed from Pyramid shape tea bags, to a square? Sam

Last year PG Tips said it was changing to a square bag that left more room for leaves to infuse, as the bags wouldn't fold over themselves.

We reported on data showing how downsizing could save you money for retirement - more than £400,000, in some regions, by swapping four beds for two.

Some of our readers shared their experiences...

We are downsizing and moving South so it's costing us £100k extra for a smaller place, all money from retirement fund. AlanNorth

Interesting read about downsizing for retirement. We recently did this to have the means to retire early at 52. However, we bought a house in the south of France for the price of a flat in our town in West Sussex. Now living the dream! OliSarah

How much should we pay for food?

Executive chef at London's two-Michelin-starred Ikoyi, Jeremy Chan, raised eyebrows when he suggested to the Money blog that Britons don't pay enough for restaurant food.

Ikoyi, the 35th best restaurant in the world, charges £320 for its tasting menu.

"I don't think people pay enough money for food, I think we charge too little, [but] we want to always be accessible to as many people as possible, we're always trying our best to do that," he said, in a piece about his restaurant's tie up with Uber Eats...

We had this in...

Are they serious? That is two weeks' worth of food shopping for me, if the rich can afford this "tasting menu" then they need to be taxed even more by the government, it's just crazy! Steve T

If the rate of pay is proportionate to the vastly overpriced costs of the double Michelin star menu, I would gladly peel quail eggs for four-hour stints over continuing to be abused as a UK supply teacher. AndrewWard

Does this two-star Michelin star chef live in the real world? Who gives a toss if he stands and peels his quails eggs for four hours, and he can get the best turbot from the fishmonger fresh on a daily basis? It doesn't justify the outrageous price he is charging for his tasting menu. Topaztraveller

Chefs do make me laugh, a steak is just a steak, they don't make the meat! They just cook it like the rest of us, but we eat out because we can't be bothered cooking! StevieGrah

Finally, many of you reacted to this feature on common mistakes in job interviews...

Those 10 biggest mistakes people make in interviews is the dumbest thing I've ever read. They expect all that and they'll be offering a £25k a year job. Why wouldn't I want to know about benefits and basic sick pay? And also a limp handshake? How's that relevant to how you work? Jre90

Others brought their own tips...

Whenever I go for an interview I stick to three points: 1. Be yourself 2. Own the interview 3. Wear the clothes that match the job you are applying Kevin James Blakey

From Sunday, eligible working parents of children from nine-months-old in England will be able to register for access to up to 15 free hours of government-funded childcare per week.

This will then be granted from September.

Check if you're eligible here - or read on for our explainer on free childcare across the UK.

Three and four year olds

In England, all parents of children aged three and four in England can claim 15 hours of free childcare per week, for 1,140 hours (38 weeks) a year, at an approved provider.

This is a universal offer open to all.

It can be extended to 30 hours where both parents (or the sole parent) are in work, earn the weekly minimum equivalent of 16 hours at the national minimum or living wage, and have an income of less than £100,000 per year.

Two year olds

Previously, only parents in receipt of certain benefits were eligible for 15 hours of free childcare.

But, as of last month, this was extended to working parents.

This is not a universal offer, however.

A working parent must earn more than £8,670 but less than £100,000 per year. For couples, the rule applies to both parents.

Nine months old

In September, this same 15-hour offer will be extended to working parents of children aged from nine months. From 12 May, those whose children will be at least nine months old on 31 August can apply to received the 15 hours of care from September.

From September 2025

The final change to the childcare offer in England will be rolled out in September 2025, when eligible working parents of all children under the age of five will be able to claim 30 hours of free childcare a week.

In some areas of Wales, the Flying Start early years programme offers 12.5 hours of free childcare for 39 weeks, for eligible children aged two to three. The scheme is based on your postcode area, though it is currently being expanded.

All three and four-year-olds are entitled to free early education of 10 hours per week in approved settings during term time under the Welsh government's childcare offer.

Some children of this age are entitled to up to 30 hours per week of free early education and childcare over 48 weeks of the year. The hours can be split - but at least 10 need to be used on early education.

To qualify for this, each parent must earn less than £100,000 per year, be employed and earn at least the equivalent of working 16 hours a week at the national minimum wage, or be enrolled on an undergraduate, postgraduate or further education course that is at least 10 weeks in length.

All three and four-year-olds living in Scotland are entitled to at least 1,140 hours per year of free childcare, with no work or earnings requirements for parents.

This is usually taken as 30 hours per week over term time (38 weeks), though each provider will have their own approach.

Some households can claim free childcare for two-year-olds. To be eligible you have to be claiming certain benefits such as Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance or Universal Credit, or have a child that is in the care of their local council or living with you under a guardianship order or kinship care order.

Northern Ireland

There is no scheme for free childcare in Northern Ireland. Some other limited support is available.

Working parents can access support from UK-wide schemes such as tax credits, Universal Credit, childcare vouchers and tax-free childcare.

Aside from this, all parents of children aged three or four can apply for at least 12.5 hours a week of funded pre-school education during term time. But over 90% of three-year-olds have a funded pre-school place - and of course this is different to childcare.

What other help could I be eligible for?

Tax-free childcare - Working parents in the UK can claim up to £500 every three months (up to £2,000 a year) for each of their children to help with childcare costs.

If the child is disabled, the amount goes up to £1,000 every three months (up to £4,000 a year).

To claim the benefit, parents will need to open a tax-free childcare account online. For every 80p paid into the account, the government will top it up by 20p.

The scheme is available until the September after the child turns 11.

Universal credit - Working families on universal credit can claim back up to 85% of their monthly childcare costs, as long as the care is paid for upfront. The most you can claim per month is £951 for one child or £1,630 for two or more children.

Tax credits - People claiming working tax credit can get up to 70% of what they pay for childcare if their costs are no more than £175 per week for one child or £300 per work for multiple children.

Two big economic moments dominated the news agenda in Money this week - interest rates and GDP.

As expected, the Bank of England held the base rate at 5.25% on Wednesday - but a shift in language was instructive about what may happen next.

Bank governor Andrew Bailey opened the door to a summer cut to 5%, telling reporters that an easing of rates at the next Monetary Policy Committee meeting on 20 June was neither ruled out nor a fait accompli.

More surprisingly, he suggested that rate cuts, when they start, could go deeper "than currently priced into market rates".

He refused to be drawn on what that path might look like - but markets had thought rates could bottom out at 4.5% or 4.75% this year, and potentially 3.5% or 4% next.

"To make sure that inflation stays around the 2% target - that inflation will neither be too high nor too low - it's likely that we will need to cut Bank rate over the coming quarters and make monetary policy somewhat less restrictive over the forecast period," Mr Bailey said.

You can read economics editor Ed Conway's analysis of the Bank's decision here ...

On Friday we discovered the UK is no longer in recession.

Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.6% between January and March, the Office for National Statistics said.

This followed two consecutive quarters of the economy shrinking.

The data was more positive than anticipated.

"Britain is not just out of recession," wrote Conway. "It is out of recession with a bang."

The UK has seen its fastest growth since the tailend of the pandemic - and Conway picked out three other reasons for optimism.

1/ An economic growth rate of 0.6% is near enough to what economists used to call "trend growth". It's the kind of number that signifies the economy growing at more or less "normal" rates.

2/ 0.6% means the UK is, alongside Canada, the fastest-growing economy in the G7 (we've yet to hear from Japan, but economists expect its economy to contract in the first quarter).

3/ Third, it's not just gross domestic product that's up. So too is gross domestic product per head - the number you get when you divide our national income by every person in the country. After seven years without any growth, GDP per head rose by 0.4% in the first quarter.

GDP per head is a more accurate yardstick for the "feelgood factor", said Conway - perhaps meaning people will finally start to feel better off.

For more on where Friday's figures leaves us, listen to an Ian King Business Podcast special...

The Money blog is your place for consumer news, economic analysis and everything you need to know about the cost of living - bookmark news.sky.com/money .

It runs with live updates every weekday - while on Saturdays we scale back and offer you a selection of weekend reads.

Check them out this morning and we'll be back on Monday with rolling news and features.

The Money team is Emily Mee, Bhvishya Patel, Jess Sharp, Katie Williams, Brad Young and Ollie Cooper, with sub-editing by Isobel Souster. The blog is edited by Jimmy Rice.

If you've missed any of the features we've been running in Money this year, or want to check back on something you've previously seen in the blog, this archive of our most popular articles may help...

Loaves of bread have been recalled from shelves in Japan after they were found to contain the remains of a rat.

Production of the bread in Tokyo has been halted after parts of a "small animal" were found by at least two people.

Pasco Shikishima Corp, which produces the bread, said 104,000 packages have been recalled as it apologised and promised compensation.

A company representative told Sky News's US partner network, NBC News, that a "small black rat" was found in the bread. No customers were reported to have fallen ill as a result of ingesting the contaminated bread.

"We deeply apologise for the serious inconvenience and trouble this has caused to our customers, suppliers, and other concerned parties," the spokesman said.

Pasco added in a separate statement that "we will do our utmost to strengthen our quality controls so that this will never happen again. We ask for your understanding and your co-operation."

Japanese media reports said at least two people who bought the bread in the Gunma prefecture, north-west of Tokyo, complained to the company about finding a rodent in the bread.

Record levels of shoplifting appear to be declining as fewer shopkeepers reported thefts last year, new figures show.

A survey by the Office for National Statistics shows 26% of retailers experienced customer theft in 2023, down from a record high of 28% in 2022.

This comes despite a number of reports suggesting shoplifting is becoming more frequent.

A separate ONS finding , which used police crime data, showed reports of shoplifting were at their highest level in 20 years in 2023, with law enforcements logging 430,000 instances of the crime.

Let's get you up to speed on the biggest business news of the past 24 hours.

A privately owned used-car platform is circling Cazoo Group, its stricken US-listed rival, which is on the brink of administration.

Sky News has learnt that Motors.co.uk is a leading contender to acquire Cazoo's marketplace operation, which would include its brand and intellectual property assets.

The process to auction the used-car platform's constituent parts comes after it spent tens of millions of pounds on sponsorship deals in football, snooker and darts in a rapid attempt to gain market share.

The owner of British Airways has reported a sharp rise in profits amid soaring demand for trips and a fall in the cost of fuel.

International Airlines Group said its operating profit for the first three months of the year was €68m (£58.5m) - above expectations and up from €9m (£7.7m) during the same period in 2023.

The company, which also owns Aer Lingus, Iberia and Vueling, said earnings had soared thanks to strong demand, particularly over the Easter holidays.

The prospect of a strike across Tata Steel's UK operations has gained further traction after a key union secured support for industrial action.

Community, which has more than 3,000 members, said 85% voted in favour of fighting the India-owned company's plans for up to 2,800 job losses, the majority of them at the country's biggest steelworks in Port Talbot, South Wales.

Tata confirmed last month it was to press ahead with the closure of the blast furnaces at the plant, replacing them with electric arc furnaces to reduce emissions and costs.

In doing so, the company rejected an alternative plan put forward by the Community, GMB and Unite unions that, they said, would raise productivity and protect jobs across the supply chain.

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(DOC) The Good Earth book report
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The Good Earth Summary
The Good Earth book report - detailed analysis, book summary, literary elements, character analysis, Pearl S. Buck biography, and everything necessary for active class participation. Introduction. The Good Earth is a novel published in 1931 and written by Pearl S. Buck. The novel was an instant success and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for ...
The Good Earth: Full Book Summary
The Good Earth Full Book Summary. Wang Lung is a poor young farmer in rural, turn-of-the-century China. During the time in which the novel takes place, Chinese society is showing signs of modernization while remaining deeply connected to ancient traditions and customs. When Wang Lung reaches a marriageable age, his father approaches the ...
The Good Earth: Study Guide
The Good Earth, published in 1931, is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning American author Pearl S. Buck. It explores the life of a peasant farmer named Wang Lung in early 20th century China. As he rises from destitution to prosperity, the story explores themes of wealth, power, and the connection between humans and the land. The Good Earth was ...
The Good Earth Summary and Study Guide
A measure of the quality, prescience, and veracity of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth is that, nearly a century after its first publication, the book remains required reading in literature, world history, and social science courses. The novel is a simple, straightforward narrative about 50 years in the life of Wang Lung, an uneducated farmer in eastern China in the late 19th and early 20th ...
The Good Earth Study Guide
Full Title: The Good Earth. When Written: 1929. Where Written: Nanjing, China. When Published: 1931. Literary Period: Modernism. Genre: Historical fiction. Setting: Early nineteenth century China (Anhwei and Kiangsu) Climax: Wang Lung sitting in the Old Mistress's chair and deciding to rent the House of Hwang.
Book Summary
Book Summary. The novel opens on Wang Lung's wedding day. Wang is a Chinese peasant farmer who lives with his father; his mother died six years earlier. His intended bride, O-lan, is a slave in the prosperous House of Hwang. Wang walks to the House of Hwang, where he is embarrassed by his shabby appearance, and collects O-lan after appearing ...
The Good Earth
The Good Earth is a historical fiction novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 that dramatizes family life in a 20th-century Chinese village in Anhwei.It is the first book in her House of Earth trilogy, continued in Sons (1932) and A House Divided (1935). It was the best-selling novel in the United States in both 1931 and 1932, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1932, and was influential ...
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck Plot Summary
The Good Earth Summary. Next. Chapter 1. The novel opens on the wedding day of Wang Lung, a simple Chinese farmer. He has never met his bride-to-be, and on this morning he goes to the nearby town to fetch her from the wealthy house where she works as a slave. After much nervousness, he finally appears before the Old Mistress of the House of ...
The Good Earth (House of Earth, #1) by Pearl S. Buck
The Good Earth is a novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 that dramatizes family life in a Chinese village in the early 20th century. It is the first book in a trilogy that includes Sons and A House Divided. It won the Pulitzer Prize and is considered a classic.
The Good Earth
The Good Earth. Pearl S. Buck. Simon and Schuster, Sep 15, 2004 - Fiction - 357 pages. Nobel Laureate Pearl S. Buck's epic Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and Oprah Book Club selection about a vanished China and one family's shifting fortunes. Though more than seventy years have passed since this remarkable novel won the Pulitzer Prize, it has ...
The Good Earth: Key Facts
Full Title The Good Earth. Author Pearl S. Buck. Type of work Novel. Genre Parable, American literature about China. Language English. Time and place written 1930-1931 . Date of first publication 1931 . Publisher The John Day Company. Narrator The story is narrated in a coolly detached third-person voice that often describes Wang Lung's thoughts and feelings and generally describes only ...
THE GOOD EARTH
His playful mixing of perspectives within single panels gives the work an aesthetic somewhere between medieval tapestry and Colorforms. Chwast and Twain are a match made in heaven. Share your opinion of this book. Illustrator Bertozzi (Becoming Andy Warhol, 2016, etc.) adapts Buck's (The Eternal Wonder, 2013, etc.) Pulitzer Prize-winning ...
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
The Good Earth. 1. The novel begins with Wang Lung's expectation of rain, the daily boiling of water for his father, and his bathing for his wedding. What might this water imagery foreshadow? 2. Why does Wang Lung feel compelled to purchase the rice field from the House of Hwang?
The Good Earth
The Good Earth. by Pearl S. Buck. Publication Date: September 15, 2004. Genres: Fiction. Paperback: 368 pages. Publisher: Washington Square Press. ISBN-10: 0743272935. ISBN-13: 9780743272933. This moving, classic story of the honest farmer Wang Lung and his selfless wife O-lan is must reading for those who would fully appreciate the sweeping ...
The Good Earth
The Good Earth was written by Pearl S. Buck, with the setting of the early 20 th century in China. It also has two more volumes as the sequel to the rural Chinese story. The first book was published in 1931 under the title of The Good Earth. The series also won the Pulitzer as well as Noble Prize, for the author in quick succession.
The Good Earth
The Good Earth. by Pearl S. Buck. Publication Date: September 15, 2004. Genres: Fiction. Paperback: 368 pages. Publisher: Washington Square Press. ISBN-10: 0743272935. ISBN-13: 9780743272933. This moving, classic story of the honest farmer Wang Lung and his selfless wife O-lan is must reading for those who would fully appreciate the sweeping ...
The Good Earth Book Review
Parents say ( 3 ): Kids say ( 5 ): Young readers will be impressed by the gritty realism, the graphic depiction of a certain kind of society (that still exists today), and the redeeming lessons learned by the characters. THE GOOD EARTH won the Pulitzer Prize and is considered a classic. It has been in print since its first publication in 1931 ...
The Good Earth
History. Social Science. Your First Name. Birth Month. Postal Code. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck - The timeless Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece following a humble farmer's journey through 1920s China returns with this b...
Re-Reading Pearl Buck's 'The Good Earth'
That The Good Earth lacks clear temporal landmarks — which critics argue perpetuates the myth of China as eternal and timeless — in fact serves to emphasize the continuities between Wang Lung's era and our own. With The Good Earth, Pearl Buck demonstrates that even a bad book can be worth reading. books. china.
(DOC) The Good Earth book report
on Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth Fatma Begüm Karacaoğlu Yeditepe University Department of Sociology "Quantitative Research Methods" RSCH 411-3 Book Report Fall: 2016 The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck, was published in 1932 and became one of the greatest American novels about China that illustrates the Chinese rural life of the 20th ...
The Good Earth Book Report
Pearl S. Buck's character, Wang Lung, in her novel, The Good Earth, is one who acts and thinks immorally. His morally ambiguous nature is evident through many incidents involving himself and his family, which mirrors the theme of complicated situations brees irrationality and immoral decisions.these desperate and newly found situations in Twentieth Century China allows the audience to easily ...
The Good Earth Book Report
"The Good Earth" book describes the life of a Chinese farmer, Wang Lung, and the struggles he goes through during his life. In the beginning of the book, he marries a young slave named Olan. She is a devoted, selfless, hardworking wife. In my mind, she is the most admirable character in the novel.
Book Report Good Earth
The Good Earth Book Report This book report is written for Humanities III, and the instructor Mr. Stiles. It is on The Good Earth, written by Pearl S. Buck....
In My Words: In the age of AIs, what are humans good for?
By Lee Rainie. For millennia, it has been an article of faith and fact that humans ruled the Earth. The Bible decreed it.Aristotle proclaimed it.And there is a decent argument to make that our species' obvious impact on the world's climate and environment has been so dramatic that we should call this era the Anthropocene - a period where the dominant planetary force is human activity.
Money latest: Chocolate is a superfood
A separate ONS finding, which used police crime data, showed reports of shoplifting were at their highest level in 20 years in 2023, with law enforcements logging 430,000 instances of the crime.

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