The Non-Traditional Role of Women in         The Good Earth

            Chinese women throughout the ages have been seen as less important and inferior to men.  These women were seen as pieces of property, to be bought and sold in marriage.  Chinese women have mostly been portrayed throughout literature in this way.  However, in The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, one of the female characters is not portrayed in this manner.  This female character, the fool, is shown an unusual amount of care and concern by her father Wang Lung.
 In the past Chinese women were “valued slightly more than chattel, routinely bought and sold in marriage, concubinage, or outright slavery” (Johnson 219).  This is not so in The Good Earth. In the past it was a common practice of the Chinese to sell their daughter as slaves to rich families during hard times in order to prolong the male children’s survival.  However, When Wang Lung’s family is destitute and without money or food he refuses to sell his female child.  Wang Lung shows this through the following statement to his wife O-lan: “Now I would not sell a child” (Buck 118).  It is also shown through his reconsidering of the matter for the child’s own good.  He thinks to himself, “It would be better perhaps that she be sold into a rich house so that she can eat daintily and wear jewels” (Buck 120).  Yet he cannot bring himself to part with his little fool.
             Chinese women had little to say in anything whatsoever.  They were seen as lower than men and not given any concern or thought.  In fact, “few societies in history have prescribed for women a more lowly status or treated them in a more routinely brutal way than traditional Confucian China” (Johnson 219).  Conversely, Wang Lung does not take this traditional place.  He treats the poor fool kindly and worries about her well-being.  This is shown in many ways throughout the novel. One of these is when he decides to stay at the farm house and says, “Well, and there is my poor fool and weather to take her with me or not I do not know, but take her I must, for there is no one who will see if she is fed or not unless I do it” (Buck 298).  This is also shown in his concern in whether or not his relatives will be nice to the poor fool while he is gone.  In fact, Wang Lung states that his poor fool brings him “more comfort than all the others put together” (Buck 234).  Wang Lung is brought happiness solely through the fool’s smile.  This is very unusual in a Chinese society.  Usually the male figure would care nothing for the females in his family, much less regard them with a loving sentiment.
             The most non-conventional Chinese act of the whole novel occurs near the end right before Wang Lung’s death.  This is apparent when he requests of his slave, Pear Blossom that she dispense a vial of poison to the little fool after his death.  Although this might seem like a heartless act, he is really doing it out of concern and love for his young daughter.  This is because the fool is mentally retarded and cannot fend for herself.  He shows this in saying, “I know that no one will trouble when I am gone to feed her or to bring her out of the rain and the cold of winter or to set her in the summer sun, and she will be set out to wander on the street” (Buck 352).  It comforts him when Pearl Blossom promises her faithful duty not only to him, but also to the fool after his death.  This behavior is very atypical for an upstanding Chinese man.  Usually a conventional Chinese man would think of his female child as a slave and treat her accordingly.  Yet, Wang Lung holds his fool with high regard and cares for her deeply.
             Although many novels have depicted Chinese females in a submissive and lowly manner, The Good Earth does not completely.  It breaks all the barriers of the Chinese tradition against females.  This novel allows the show of affection and love between a father and his daughter that is normally not even considered.
Perhaps if more novels like this could be written, China could break even more of the barriers of sexual inferiority.

Works Cited
Johnson, Kay Ann.  “Women: Women in China.”  Encyclopedia of Asian History.  Ed.
Ainslie T. Embree.  Volume IV.  New York:  Scribner, 1998.
Buck, Pearl S.  The Good Earth.  New York:  WSP, 1994.
 

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