Themes In The Good Earth

Congenial but Polar Does time truly change all things? In the novel The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, one could argue that time certainly does affect some of the major themes with a linear change. However, one could also state that the key themes seem to repeat themselves and follow a cyclical cycle. Some concepts such as money, cultural changes from generation to generation, and the characters’ drive to work and gain for themselves follow a linear pattern. While concepts such as the view of women, characters’ relationships with the land, and the idea of the family seem to fall into a repetitive, cyclical pattern. Because of this logic, that many themes are both cyclical and linear, the novel The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck is both linear and cyclical. Over the course of time cultural changes are made within families to reflect the time at present; the same concept applies to The Good Earth. As time progresses certain learned ideals are relearned and taught in a different way thus

One of the linear changes in this novel is the concept of money. Originally, at the start of the novel, the Wang family had little to no money and the family viewed money preciously and Wang Lung would hardly ever spend with haste. However, as time moved along and the Wang family became rich, and a great family, the view of money shifted towards a much less precious item and Wang Lung, and his predecessors, began spending money freely and often with haste, “for he was a man rich enough to do quickly what he decided upon.” ( )Money became a simple thing easily released into the hands of others. Along with money, another linear change was the cultural changes from one generation onto the next and the characters’ drive to gain for themselves. On one end of the spectrum lies wang lung who was raised in a poor, land-loving mindset. Wang lung dressed, in his younger years, in drab clothing, bathed rarely, and had a strong will to work on the land and earn his own spot in