Change—it happens to all of us, whether we like it or not. Some avoid it, others embrace it. Humans are ever-changing, occasionally for the worst. In the novel, The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck displays how we as humans tend to become the thing we fear being like the most, when given the opportunity.
The Wang Lung in the beginning of the novel differs very much from the Wang Lung towards the end. His money is like a treasure to him, and he spends it carefully and wisely. Wang Lung is a clever man, and makes sure that he gets the most out of his money. He starts out as a young farmer, kind to all, but changes drastically throughout the novel. Although Wang is poor at first, he does not think about luxuries like a rich man does. He is content with his lifestyle, until his first trip to the House of Hwang.
Thoughts of the House of Hwang had always intimidated Wang Lung. They were rich, powerful people living their carefree lives, indulging themselves with whatever they pleased -- exotic foods, extravagant clothing, enormous homes. As Wang makes his first trip to the House of Hwang to retrieve his new wife, he becomes nervous about appearing before such important people. “He turned his steps with great shyness toward the House of Hwang. Once at the gate of the house he was seized with terror (p.11)
Once at home with his new wife, O-lan, Wang Lung’s life already seems to be improving. He treats her well, better than most men would have. Wang appreciates her, and the work she does around the farm. He liked having a woman like O-lan, he liked the fact that she was his. “Wang Lung felt in him a great pride that this woman was his and did not fear to appear before him but would not before other men. (p. 23) Soon enough, O-lan gets pregnant with their first child, a baby boy.
Wang takes the first step to becoming like the lords at the House of Hwang when he starts giving into the luxuries of rich people. He and O-lan travel to the House of Hwang to show the Old Mistress and the other slaves their newborn son. Wang Lung waited for O-lan, and when she finally came out with the baby she tells him that the lords aren’t doing well money-wise that year. “I believe, if one should ask me, that they are feeling a pinch this year in that house… the Ancient Mistress wore the same coat this year as last. I have never seen this happen before. And the slaves had no new coats” (p. 50) Wang decides to purchase some of the Hwang’s land, seeing as his farm had made good money. “Is not my money as good to spend as other man’s? And money I do not lack in these days. I have had good fortune.” (p.175)
Soon, Wang Lung’s family and the people in the city suffer through a terrible famine. He and his family go to the south in attempt to survive. In the south, the poor people orchestrate a raid of a rich family’s home. Wang Lung participates, and finds an old lord in one of the courts. The lord is frightened by Wang, and thinking he will kill him otherwise, he gives him all of his gold. “’Out of my sight, lest I kill you for a fat worm!’ This Wang Lung cried, although he was a man so soft hearted that he could not kill an ox.” (p.140) Wang himself knew he wouldn’t hurt the man, but he took the money anyway, for he and his family to go back to their home in the north.
Wang Lung soon returns back home with their new riches. He first buys 300 more acres of the Hwang’s land, taking most of what they had left. Wang also hires Ching to work on his land, and allows him to stay in their front house. Ching begins building more courts for the house on Wang Lung’s orders. “Come out of the fields from this day on, for I need a scholar in the family to read the contracts and to write my name so that I shall not be ashamed in the town.” (p. 164) Wang converts even more so like the House of Hwang lords when he sends his two eldest sons off to school, for his benefit of course.
One day at the teashop, Wang discovers pictures of beautiful women for sale. He sees one he likes, named Lotus, and visits her every night. Before long, he decides to buy her for himself, also paying for her servant, not caring how much it cost. “The woman who is keeper for the master of the tea house will do it for a hundred pieces of silver on her palm at one time, and the girl will come for jade earrings and a ring of jade and a ring of gold and two suits of satin clothes and two suits of silk clothes and a dozen pairs of shoes and two silken quilts for her bed. (p. 197) Buying Lotus, the beautiful woman in the picture, begins the horrible treat of O-lan by Wang Lung.
O-lan began her life with Wang Lung treated as a wife. As Wang transforms into the old lords more and more, his treatment of O-lan becomes more how he would treat a slave. He calls her ugly to her face, takes her pearls for Lotus, and treats her like dirt in general. Wang Lung feels no remorse for his actions until his young daughter comes to him, crying about her bound feet. “My mother said I was not to weep aloud because you are too kind and weak for pain and you might say to leave me as I am, and then my husband would not love me even as you do not love her.” (p. 252) His treatment of women was exactly like the lords, and helped Wang to become just like them.
Most human beings try to abstain from changing as much as they possibly can. In the novel, The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck displays how we as humans, when given the opportunity, tend to become the things we fear being like the most.
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