The Good Earth: Uncle and City Response

Wang Lung's uncle is quite a character in this novel. All of his actions seem to mess up Wang Lung's Life; for example, he threatens him to give him money or he will tell the village people that Wang Lung shows greediness. This time he gives in but when one thing leads to another the village people come in a mass to steal Wang's "extra food and money". O-lan feels nervous and scared yet shows no expression on her face. For once she actually had an angry tone in her voice and toldd them that they couldn't steal their furniture because they could have sold their own. The uncle of Wang Lung tries but doesn't succeed to help him during the drought. he never knows what to do from his lack of intelligence and Wang Lung realizes that he must respect this stupid man all for the good of his family.
During the drought, Wang had to move south to the city--quite a change from the farm he used to live on. In our day this could be related to moving from silos to Los Angeles. people beg, people steal, people die. All of this happened to their family. O-lan and the boys beg, and their younger son stole meat-- their poverty reached an ultimate low. It's hard to imagine life like this when we are so fortunate. Could you imagine strangling your infant daughter so the rest of your family can survive? City life changed the way Wang Lung thought of his old town making him wish he could move back.

The Good Earth Chapter One Response

Wang Lung, a very poor farmer, got married in the first chapter of this novel yet in a very different way than if you were to get married now. First of all, Wang had never even met the woman; how would a person feel not knowing who they would spend the rest of their lives with? "[H]e knew nothing of the woman who was to be his, except that on this day he could go get her." (p. 9) This woman whose name is O-lan was a slave for a rich family. Neither one of them had very much money at all leaving them in a very bad financial situation. "Why are you wasteful? Tea is like eating silver." (p. 4) When he went to get O-lan, he stood before the biggest house he'd ever seen, changing his point of view of how poor he was to an even worse state. It's somewhat ironic that this newlywed couple is suffering from poverty yet there is romantic symbolism in this chapter such as "spring" and "morning" so this could be an irony or a romance-- two completely different modes of literature. Based on my knowledge of literature, this novel sounds more like a romance due to the fact that The Good Earth starts out with a marriage which symbolizes happiness. Although they are poor, the situation could get better as the novel reaches the end.

Day of Storms

Driving home peacefully as the clock is striking noon. Clouds begin to form overhead and they darken, darken, darken untill they hit an intensely dark shade of grey. The sky above is tinted yellow and I know what to expect; then, no surprise to me, the sirens start warning us that a tornado has formed. BANG, POW, CRASH! Lightning surrounds us flashing so frequently it was as if paparazzi had surrounded our car. The rumbling thunder had gotten louder than guns firing and it shook the car. Hail dropped so fast that it looked like snow was lying in piles next to us. Traffic had come to a complete stop. We were stuck in this terrible storm. I thought I would die this day. But traffic began clearing, along with the clouds and the rain and the hail. I saw blue sky for the first time in hours. We made it home and the storm eventually caught up with us, but this time I was at home with my family and everyone was comforted through the whole storm.

Vacation to Florida

The waves begin crashing across the shore,
leaving shells for Florida to collect.
We soon travel up to the condo,
and sort mysterious shells on the deck.

Our next stop is the pool.
I play shark attack with my sister.
After six minutes running away
I got a huge, bright red blister.

Now we are at the restaurant,
I’m liking that we are eating,
the great tasting cake is so moist,
but I pack now 'cause we're leaving.

It was quite a trip to Florida
simply relaxing on the shore,
Thinking back to this, I cannot wait
until we return once more.

Minnie's Revenge

Imagine living life with all sorts of restrictions--like living in a jail cell--and having no rights for the good of yourself, only others. The life of Minnie, who had absolutely had it with her husband, had almost reached the life of a slave. One little bird of hers had gotten strangled and she knew her husband killed it. "Mrs. Hale's hand went out to the bird-cage. 'His neck. Choked the life right out of him.'" Minnie used to love to sing and so did the birdl; when Mr. Wright killed the bird, it stopped singing and so did Minnie. That bird and her created one person. Happiness in her life vanished again, depression ran over her like a truck, and she reacted violently. He made her bird struggle to live, so she sould make Mr. Wright stuggling to live. Shortly after she discovered her bird was dead, she hung her husband. Although there was a gun in the house, she wanted him to suffer like he made her bird suffer.