The Good Earth by: Pearl S. Buck-Theme

The theme of the book The Good Earth is the land that Wang Lung had cared for and bought in times of need and when he felt like he needed more, but at first, he didn’t realize what was important to him until the end. The land was with Wang Lung through out his entire life, from when he was born, and gradually adding more and more land until he became an old man and couldn’t take care of the land anymore. The land was a major part of his life, because it was where he could grow food in starvation time and what he could buy when in need of food.
Another theme is that some people just don’t learn from their mistakes. When Wang Lung becomes rich, he wastes all his money up on frippery and a lot of unnecessary items. He was very happy, when Cuckoo spoke of him almost like an equal to the Old Lord. He loved being rich and mighty, and thought of nothing but himself. Towards the end of the second-to-last page of the novel, Wang Lung hears his sons saying, “This field we will sell and this one, and we will divide the money between us evenly. Your share I will borrow at good interest, for now with the railroad straight through I can ship rice to the sea and I…” Upon hearing his own son saying this, Wang Lung realizes that his land meant the entire world to him, but it was too late.
The last theme of the book was the undeserved treatment towards women. When Wang Lung wanted a wife for himself, he bought O-lan, signifying that she was an object, not a living, breathing, human with her own rights. Also, when O-lan gives birth to Wang Lung’s eldest daughter, he calls her “a little slave girl” and “little fool of a girl”. He often complained of O-lan’s unadorned looks and her feet being not bound. In those times, if a woman’s feet were not bound, making her feet tiny and “delicate”, she was not considered very proper.