Good Earth Summative Essay

Good Earth Summative Essay
Cold and warm, large and small, good and bad, these all have paradoxical influences on people and their lives. Never is there just the good or just the evil, but always a good mix of both. Choosing is completely up to us, but we must be aware of how much affect it will have on us. Choices – displayed all over in the novel, The Good Earth , by Pearl Buck – become intertwined with paradox; choosing the wrong one will result in the changing of personal morals, everyday life and the future.
Wang Lung started out as an innocent, inexperienced farmer who had low expectations. Making good choices and decisions helped in the creating of a carefree, problem free, and stress free life. Not only did he now have a wife and children, but the crops were doing great and he had enough money to live comfortably. “At a time like this there was visiting, because each farmer felt that for once Heaven was doing the work in the fields and their crops were being watered without their backs broken for it.”(pg. 43) For a man with good morals, life is perfect right now; this statement describes Wang Lung since he has not made any destructive decisions in his life.
Although making good decisions helped him in the beginning, deciding with evil intentions instead of good – even if it starts out as only once – will eventually ruin his life. Arriving at the city after a drought, Wang Lung consistently thinks about surviving. Begging and many different customs down south are new to him; some he had never even heard of. This once innocent farmer became more and more experienced – learning unthinkable things from whispering gossip in the city – as his trip went on. “When the rich are too rich there are ways, and when the poor are too poor there are ways.”(pg. 119) This quote – stated by a man Wang Lung had met in the South – influenced him to make an evil decision – stealing from a rich man. Making this action leads Wang down a new path, one in which he must leave his old self behind.
Accumulating more and more money every day, his new lifestyle changed his ethics and morals from good to bad. He is no longer satisfied with one woman, so he goes against everything he once believed in and brings home Lotus – a person who brings much evil to the household. “One morning O-lan burst into tears and wept aloud, as he had never seen her weep before, even when they starved, or at any other time.”(pg 19) Not only showing he is breaking her down to a point of tears, the quote also symbolizes that he is slowly killing her with his evil intentions. Wang Lung teaches good morals and ethics, even though he, himself, does not practice them. He is now becoming something he once hoped he would never be – an evil man, with no sense of care for others whatsoever.
Even though he had made bad decisions, there were still good influences trying to draw him back to the good side of paradox. One of these is his second son, an honorable and honest man who takes after Wang Lung’s old self – the one that was left in the city. When there is good there also must be evil, this is where the eldest son comes in. He represents the evil part of paradox, conning Wang Lung into moving into the House of Hwang and wasting all of his money. Both of the sons were strong influences on Wang Lung, but once again he doesn’t have enough strength to overcome the evil and moves into the House of Hwang. “There was nothing left to trouble him in his life, and he could be at peace. But there was no peace.”(pg. 335) After making wrong decisions – no matter how hard he tries – he cannot be at peace.
After making many wrong decisions, one may think that all hope is lost for Wang Lung and his life, but that is wrong. Once he finally takes time to look for the good influences in his life, he realizes that moving back into his old home is all he can do. Overcoming the evil in his life left him able to be at peace. “And he was content, holding it thus, and he thought of it fitfully and of his good coffin that was there; and the kind earth waited without haste until he came to it.”(pg. 359) Deciding to go back to the earth was finally a good choice, which in return made him pleased and happy.
In the end, because of all the bad decisions he had made in his life, the sons came to sell the land, the one thing he was able to hold on to through all the turmoil. This had been coming ever since the trip to the city. He had already changed his future with one small – but definitely not insignificant – decision. Pearl Buck is trying to teach us a lesson from that message; people must strive to listen to the good side of paradox, rather than the bad like Wang Lung did.