This is a 50-minute, timed essay written for Academic Decathlon. The total score an essay can receive is 1,000 points. This essay has been posted exactly as it appears on my paper.
Discuss The Good Earth as it relates to the theme of women. What does Pearl Buck seem to be saying about the role of women in society, especially in China in the early twentieth century? Be precise in your explanation.
In the novel The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck portrays the subjugation of women by the overly dominant patriarchal world of China in the early 20th century. She sends the message to her readers that such treatment of “the inferior sex” is a deplorable, yet prevalent blemish on the community. Her depictions of the various feminine figures in the books border on a subtle but scathing indictment of society’s abuse of women. Though they are physically prominent in a novel that centers around a male character, Buck makes the audience uncomfortable, even lamenting over the plight of this oppressed half of the world.
Mao Zedong once made the famous remark that “women hold up half the sky.” However, in the case of The Good Earth, women not only hold up the sky but must shoulder numerous other burdens as well. O-lan, for example, is actually in a no more better position than when she was a slave at the House of Hwang. There at the house she was forced to fetch various meats and slave over the fire for hours on end. Similarly, O-lan isn’t given a choice on what duties she must perform as Wang Lung’s wife. She is expect, is obligated in the eyes of her husband to clean the house, cook food, and bring drinks to her husband and father-in-law. While readers see Wang Lung out buying land, accumulating wealth, and even gaining enough respect in the eyes of the villagers to become the head, O-lan through her entire life is limited to the sphere of her home, isolated from society. It is ironic and worth knowing that though Wang Lung reveres and worships the earth, he treats O-lan worse than dirt.
Wang Lung’s egregiously terrible attitude towards O-lan reflects not only his own personal opinions but also that of the entire Chinese society as a whole. Buck uses him as the mechanism to trigger a dismayed reaction from the audience. Buck does this best by bringing to light the awfully narrow field of existence for women due to the actions of men. O-lan, for example, is faithful and hardworking, dedicated unequivocally to Wang Lung. However, this love is not reciprocated, as evidenced by the multiple occasions where Wang ignores, just as the Chinese society ignores, the good O-lan has done and instead chooses to insult her big feet. Since he believes that women are merely there as an accessory to the propagation of a generation, Wang Lung takes O-lan for granted. Thus, when Buck introduces Lotus and depicts how O-lan’s muteness is her only response, Buck is trying and does succeed in sending the message that all women, like O-lan, do not have a real voice in society. They remain silent, powerless to complain or control the whims of men.
Besides lacking any say in society, Buck seems to condemn the only role society has begrudged women: the ability to give birth to children. Indeed, O-lan’s only defense against the verbal attacks of Wang Lang is the fact that “[She has] borne him sons.” Wang Lung, with the impending birth of his eldest child, merely asks “Is it a man?” over and over again, not even caring if the woman was still well. All this importance placed on sons, Buck implies, means that the girls become essentially worthless in society’s eyes. Indeed, the “poor fool,” the retarded daughter of Wang Lung, repulses nearly all that come in close proximity to her. Though one may argue that the “poor fool” is merely an autobiographical element in the story, it is still worth noting how Buck juxtaposes the helpless girl against the healthy, robust sons. This blatant imbalance between the two sexes’ fortunes speaks volumes of the unequal roles that women and men have in society relative to each other. While men as Wang Lung’s sons may go to study abroad in faraway lands, earn money in a trade, or fight in a war, the women in Wang Lung’s life may only remain absolutely stationary. The bound feet of the youngest daughter of Wang Lung are beyond just physical pain—they are saying much about how greatly women have been crippled due to the standards of men. Just as “it is only meet” that women walk behind their husbands on a road, so Pearl S. Buck reveals that the women are forever kept, physically and psychologically, behind the scenes, while the men stride ever-so-boldly into society’s open arms.
At the end of the novel, Buck returns to the theme of earth again. Perhaps, though, she is not just referring to the dark substance beneath a man’s feet. Perhaps one can view the land as Mother Earth herself, the paragon of the women’s powers to nourish, to heal, to give life. Yet, at the end, the sons, the men of the world decide to sell the land for selfish purposes. Thus the plight of Mother Earth becomes woefully similar to the fate of the many other “mothers” the many other women in Chinese society. They are, ultimately, Buck says, sold away carelessly and betrayed by a society dominated by men. The “good earth” inevitably ceases to exist.
Grader's comments: I believe that I am correct in this score: 975, an absolutely exemplary paper!
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