Pulitzer Book Club Inclusion Guide
"The Good Earth"
by Pearl Buck
INCLUSION MILESTONES
1932
• Dept. of Labor gets power to determine minimum wage
• Amelia Earhart solos Atlantic
• Unemployed veterans protest for payment denied by Senate
AUTHOR INSPIRATIONS
Buck’s parents were Southern Presbyterian missionaries in China. Bilingual Pearl Buck lived in China during most of her first 40 years of life. The Good Earth reflects her observations of life, customs and attitudes, notably in the impoverished community of Nanxuzhou where she lived with her husband and daughter who was born with a profound intellectual disability.
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– Share your key take-away about inclusion in this book in a sentence or two.
– Write a paragraph or two (up to 250 words) to describe your thoughts on exclusion/inclusion in the book, why you related or did not connect with the book, and why you think reading, inclusion and dialog about inclusion matter.
– Identify the name and website address of a cause you support with an inclusive mission.
Poor Chinese farmer struggles, gets rich; wealth triggers family drama.
Greedy, layabout, immoral uncle reveals he’s a red-beard marauder.
Groundbreaking portrayal of China and Chinese women.
Quick read 357 page,11 hours
Hunger amidst too many rich people triggers uprisings.
Chinese poor rise up against rich and take their possessions. Soldiers and thieves take advantage of rich & poor. Differences between rural and urban poverty. Sons coveted. Girls sold into prostitution or slavery during privation. Women subservient, disrespected, expected to tolerate a concubine(s).
Elder needs prioritized. Clear caste system.
Family members given whatever they want to avoid conflict. Drug abuse (opium).
Girl with mental disability referred to as a “fool.”
Garlic stick wrapped in wheat bread, hard boiled eggs dyed red, and moon cakes. Hot water with a few tea leaves or rice wine if you’re feeling prosperous. Your husband’s concubine gets whatever delicacies she fancies, but you won’t be having shark fin or birds’ nest soup.
“Hunger makes thief of any man.”
For your dining area, hunt down some bricks and make a floor, then lay a mat on those bricks and feel grateful.
Eat from the bowls that you also use when you and your children beg.
How did inclusion/exclusion play out in customs, culture, and daily life in rural China described in Northern China, late 19th/ early 20th centuries in the novel.
Describe similarities and differences between struggles described in the novel with depression era America.
How does wealth corrupt? What happens when you “buy” you child’s cooperation? When there are too many rich people?
What did you learn about the Chinese revolution?
What strategies were used to display or create love, loyalty, or respect? Which were successful?
What do you think is acceptable for starving people to do, including your POV on cannibalism.
Discuss differences between heartfelt giving, giving to assuage guilt, and giving to avoid confrontation or discomfort or losing face.
How were women perceived and treated?
What is the right way to treat very troublesome relations? What are elders, children and other relatives owed?
Talk about the troublesome moral dilemmas in the novel, including stealing from the rich, consorting with prostitutes, dumping your faithful wife for a prettier prostitute, getting family members addicted to opium.
If a trip to China is not in your future, consider going to the Pearl S. Buck House, a national landmark in Bucks County, PA where Pearl Buck lived, wrote, raised many adopted children, and founded Welcome House, the first U.S. interracial, international adoption agency. From there, it’s easy to get to Philadelphia’s Chinatown for a meal and an exhibition or performance at the Asian Arts Initiative, or to the Chinese Galleries at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The Good Earth (1937) film.
Buck published more than 70 books, starting with East Wind, West Wind (1930) and The Good Earth, the first novel in her House of Earth trilogy, continued in Sons (1932) and A House Divided (1935). The year she earned the Nobel Literature Prize, Buck published The Big Wave (1938) and The Proud Heart (1938). She wrote biographies of her father (Fighting Angel, 1936), mother (The Exile, 1936), and mentally disabled daughter (The Child Who Never Grew, 1950) and children’s books.