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Pearl S. Buck
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Pearl S. Buck
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nobel Prize in Literature
1938
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 — March 6, 1973) also known as
Sai Zhen Zhu (Simplified Chinese: 赛珍珠; Pinyin: Sài Zhēnzhū; Traditional
Chinese: 賽珍珠), was a prolific American sinologist and Pulitzer
Prize-winning American writer. In 1938, she became the first American
woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for her rich and
truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her
biographical masterpieces." With no irony, she has been described in
China as a Chinese writer.
Life
Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia to
Caroline (Stulting; 1857-1921) and Absalom Sydenstricker, a Southern
Presbyterian missionary. The family was sent to Zhenjiang, China in 1892
when Pearl was 3 months old. She was raised in China and was tutored by
a Confucian scholar named Mr. Kung. She was taught English as a
second language by her mother and tutor.
The Boxer Uprising greatly affected Pearl Buck and her family. Buck
wrote that during this time, …her eight-year-old childhood … split
apart. Her Chinese friends deserted her and her family, and there were
not as many Western visitors as there once were. The streets [of China]
were alive with rumors- many … based on fact- of brutality to
missionaries … Buck’s father was a missionary, so Buck’s mother, her
little sister, and herself were …evacuated to the relative safety of
Shanghai, where they spent nearly a year as refugees… (The Good Earth,
Introduction) In July 1901, Buck and her family sailed to San Francisco.
Not until the following year did the Sydenstrickers return to China.
In 1910, she left China once again for America to attend
Randolph-Macon Woman's College, where she would earn her degree (Phi
Beta Kappa) in 1914. She then returned to China and married an
agricultural economist missionary, John Lossing Buck, on May 13, 1917.
She lived with him in Suzhou, Anhui Province, a small town on the Huai
River (There are two cities in China with the same English name 'Suzhou',
one in Anhui while the more famous one is in Jiangsu Province. The one
where the Bucks had spent several years was in Anhui). It is the region
she described later in "The Good Earth."; her book was very much based
on her experience in Suzhou, Anhui. She served in China as a
Presbyterian missionary from 1914 until 1933. Her views later became
highly controversial in the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy,
leading to her resignation as a missionary.
In 1920, she and John had a daughter, Carol, who was afflicted with
phenylketonuria. The small family then moved to Nanjing, where Pearl
taught English literature at the University of Nanking. In 1925, the
Bucks adopted Janice (later surnamed Walsh). In 1926, she left China and
returned to the United States for a short time in order to earn her
Masters degree from Cornell University.
From 1920 to 1933, Pearl and John made their home in Nanking (Nanjing),
on the campus of Nanking University, where both had teaching positions.
In 1921, Pearl's mother died, and shortly afterwards her father moved in
with the Bucks. The tragedies and dislocations which Pearl suffered in
the 1920s reached a climax in March 1927, in the violence known as the "Nanking
Incident." In a confused battle involving elements of Chiang Kai-shek's
Nationalist troops, Communist forces, and assorted warlords, several
Westerners were murdered. The Bucks spent a terrified day in hiding,
after which they were rescued by American gunboats. After a trip
downriver to Shanghai, the Buck family sailed to Unzen, Japan, where
they spent the following year. They later moved back to Nanking, though
conditions remained dangerously unsettled.
In 1935 Pearl got a divorce. Richard Walsh, president of the John Day
Company and her publisher, became her second husband. The couple lived
in Pennsylvania.
Humanitarian efforts
Buck was an extremely passionate activist for human rights. In 1949,
outraged that existing adoption services considered Asian and mixed-race
children unadoptable, Pearl established Welcome House, Inc., the first
international, interracial adoption agency. In the nearly five decades
of its work, Welcome House has assisted in the placement of more than
five thousand children. In 1964, to provide support for Asian-American
children who were not eligible for adoption, Buck also established the
Pearl S. Buck Foundation, which provides sponsorship funding for
thousands of children in half a dozen Asian countries. When establishing
the Opportunity House Foundation to support child sponsorship programs
in Asia, Buck said, "The purpose...is to publicize and eliminate
injustices and prejudices suffered by children, who, because of their
birth, are not permitted to enjoy the educational, social, economic and
civil privileges normally accorded to children."
While the historic site works to preserve and display artifacts from
her profoundly multicultural life, many of Buck's life experiences are
also described in her novels, short stories, fiction, and children's
stories. Through them she sought to prove to her readers that
universality of mankind can exist if man accepts it. She dealt with many
topics including women's rights, emotions (in general), Asian cultures,
immigration, adoption, and conflicts that many people go through in
life.
Pearl S. Buck died of lung cancer on March 6, 1973 in Danby, Vermont
and was interred in Green Hills Farm in Perkasie. She designed her own
tombstone, which does not record her name in English; instead, the grave
marker is inscribed with Chinese characters representing the name Pearl
Sydenstricker.
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THE GOOD EARTH
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Type of novel: Novel
Author: Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973)
Type of plot: Social chronicle
Time of plot: Early twentieth century
Locale: Northern China
First published: 1931
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With a detached, pastoral style, this novel follows the cycles of
birth, marriage, and death in the Chinese peasant family of Wang Lung.
The good years of plentiful harvest, marriage, and healthy children are
balanced by the times of near starvation and stillborn progeny. Wang
Lung finally finds himself a wealthy man, but his grown sons for whom he
has worked so hard have no respect for their father's love of the good
earth; they plan to sell his hard-earned property as soon as he dies.
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Principal Characters
Wang Lung, an ambitious farmer who sees in the land the only sure source
of livelihood. But at the end of his life his third son has left the
land to be a soldier and his first and second sons callously plan to
sell the land and go to the city as soon as Wang dies.
O-lan, a slave bought by Wang's father to marry Wang. She works hard in
their small field with Wang, and during the civil war violence she loots
in order to get money to buy more land. She dies in middle age of a
stomach illness.
Nung En, their oldest son, who, when he covets his father's concubine,
Lotus Blossom, is married to the grain merchant Liu's daughter.
Nung Wen, their second son, apprenticed to Liu.
The Fool, their feebleminded daughter.
Liu, a grain merchant in the town.
The Uncle, who brings his wife and shiftless son to live on Wang's farm.
Secretly a lieutenant of a robber band, he also brings protection.
Lotus Blossom, Wang Lung's concubine, who is refused entrance into the
house by O-Lan.
Ching, a neighbor hired by Wang Lung as overseer, as the farm is
extended.
Pear Blossom, a pretty slave taken by Wang after the death of his wife.
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The Story
His father had chosen a slave girl to be the bride of Wang Lung, a slave
from the house of Hwang, a girl who would keep the house clean, prepare
the food, and not waste her time thinking about clothes. On the morning
he led her out through the gate of the big house, they stopped at a
temple and burned incense. That was their marriage.
O-lan was a good wife. She thriftily gathered twigs and wood, so that
they would not have to buy fuel. She mended Wang Lung's and his father's
winter clothes and scoured the house. She worked in the fields beside
her husband, even on the day she bore their first son.
The harvest was a good one that year. Wang Lung had a handful of silver
dollars from the sale of his wheat and rice. He and O-lan bought new
coats for themselves and new clothes for the baby. Together they went to
pay their respects, with their child, at the home in which O-lan had
once been a slave. With some of the silver dollars Wang Lung bought a
small field of rich land from the Hwangs.
The second child was born a year later. It was again a year of good
harvest.
Wang Lung's third baby was a girl. On the day of her birth crows flew
about the house, mocking Wang Lung with their cries. The farmer did not
rejoice when his little daughter was born, for poor farmers raised their
daughters only to serve the rich. The crows had been an evil omen. The
child was born feebleminded.
That summer was dry, and for months no rain fell. The harvest was poor.
After the little rice and wheat had been eaten and the ox killed for
food, there was nothing for the poor peasants to do but die or go south
to find work and food in a province of plenty. Wang Lung sold their
furniture for a few pieces of silver. After O-lan had borne their fourth
child, found dead with bruises on its neck, the family began their
journey. Falling in with a crowd of refugees, they were lucky. The
refugees led them to a railroad, and with the money Wang Lung had
received for his furniture they traveled on a train to their new home.
In the city they constructed a hut of mats against a wall, and while
O-lan and the two older children begged, Wang Lung pulled a ricksha. In
that way they spent the winter, each day earning enough to buy rice for
the next.
One day an exciting thing happened. There was to be a battle between
soldiers in the town and an approaching enemy. When the wealthy people
in the town fled, the poor who lived so miserably broke in the houses of
the rich. By threatening one fat fellow who had been left behind, Wang
Lung obtained enough money to take his family home.
O-lan soon repaired the damage which the weather had done to their house
during their absence; then, with jewels which his wife had managed to
plunder during the looting of the city, Wang Lung bought more land from
the house of Hwang, He allowed O-lan to keep two small pearls which she
fancied. Now Wang Lung had more land than one man could handle, and he
hired one of his neighbors, Ching, as overseer. Several years later he
had six men working for him. O-lan, who after their return from the
south, had borne him twins, a boy and a girl, no longer went out into
the fields to work but kept the new house he had built. Wang Lung's two
oldest sons were sent to school in the town.
When his land was flooded and work impossible until the water receded,
Wang Lung began to go regularly to a tea shop in the town. There he fell
in love with Lotus and brought her home to his farm to be his concubine.
O-lan would have nothing to do with the girl, and Wang Lung was forced
to set up a separate establishment for Lotus in order to keep the peace.
When he found that his oldest son visited Lotus often while he was away,
Wang Lung arranged to have the boy marry the daughter of a grain
merchant in the town. The wedding took place shortly before O-lan, still
in the prime of life, died of a chronic stomach illness. To cement the
bond between the farmer and the grain merchant, Wang Lung's second son
was apprenticed to Liu, the merchant, and his youngest daughter was
betrothed to Liu's young son. Soon after O-lan's death Wang Lung's
father followed her. They were buried near one another on a hill on his
land.
When he grew wealthy, an uncle, his wife, and his shiftless son came to
live with Wang Lung. One year there was a great flood, and although his
neighbors' houses were pillaged by robbers during the confusion, Wang
Lung was not bothered. Then he learned that his uncle was second to the
chief of the robbers. From that time on, he had to give way to his
uncle's family, for they were his insurance against robbery and perhaps
murder.
At last Wang Lung coaxed his uncle and aunt to smoke opium, and so they
became too involved in their dreams to bother him. But there was no way
he could curb their son. When the boy began to annoy the wife of Wang
Lung's oldest son, the farmer rented the deserted house of Hwang, and
he, with his own family, moved into town. The cousin left to join the
soldiers. The uncle and aunt were left in the country with their pipes
to console them.
After Wang Lung's overseer died, he did no more farming himself. From
that time on he rented his land, hoping that his youngest son would work
it after his death. But he was disappointed. When Wang Lung took a slave
young enough to be his granddaughter, the boy, who was in love with her,
ran away from home and became a soldier.
When he felt that his death was near. Wang Lung went back to live on his
land, taking with him only his slave, young Pear Blossom, his
feebleminded first daughter, and some servants. One day as he
accompanied his sons across the fields, he overhead them planning what
they would do with their inheritance, with the money they would get from
selling their father's property. Wang Lung cried out, protesting that
they must never sell the land because only from it could they be sure of
earning a living. He did not know that they looked at each other over
his head and smiled.
Buck's most popular and widely read novel. It depicts a simple picture,
the cycle of life from early years until death. Some Americans who first
read the book thought the simple detailed descriptions of everyday
Chinese life were "too Chinese" and, therefore, unappealing. Then, too,
some Chinese felt that the author's portrayal of their people was
inaccurate and incomplete. Most Chinese intellectuals objected to her
choice of the peasant farmer as a worthy subject of a novel. They
preferred to have the Western world see the intellectual and
philosophical Chinese, even though that group was (and is) in the
minority. Buck's only answer to such criticism was that she wrote about
what she knew best; these were the people whom she came to love during
her years in the interior of China.
The theme of The Good Earth is an uncomplicated one with universal
appeal. The author tries to show how man can rise from poverty and
relative insignificance to a position of importance and wealth. In some
ways, the story is the proverbial Horatio Alger tale that so many
Americans know and admire. The distinctive feature of this novel is its
setting. Wang Lung, the main character around whom the action in the
novel resolves, is a poor man who knows very little apart from the fact
that land is valuable and solid and worth owning. Therefore, he spends
his entire life trying to acquire as much land as he can in order to
ensure his own security as well as that of his family and descendants
for generations to come. Ironically, he becomes like the rich he at
first holds in awe. He has allowed himself to follow in their path,
separating himself from the land. The earth theme appears repeatedly
throughout the book. Wang Lung's greatest joy is to look out over his
land, to hold it in his fingers, and to work it for his survival. Even
at the end of the novel he returns to the old quarters he occupied on
his first plot of land so that he can find the peace he knows his
kinship with the land can bring him.
Buck's style is that of a simple direct narrative. There are no
complicated literary techniques such as foreshadowing, flashbacks, or
stream of consciousness. Neither are there any involved subplots to
detract from the main story line. Wang Lung is, as has been noted, the
central character, and all the other characters and their actions relate
in one way or another to him. The Good Earth is structured upon
characterization; it is a book of dramatic episodes which are projected
through the sensitivities and experiences of those characters. It may be
said that a strength of the author's characterization is her
consistency, that is to say, all of her characters act and react in
keeping with their personalities. None is a mere stereotype, as their
motives are too complex. O-lan is typically good, but there are aspects
of her personality which give her depth, dimension, and originality.
When she does some seemingly dishonest thing such as steal the jewels
she found at the home of the plundered rich, or kill the small baby girl
born to her in ill health, she is consistent with her character in the
context of these situations. She is realistic, and she sees both acts as
producing more good than evil.
One of the most obvious and significant Chinese customs which appears
repeatedly in the novel is the submission of the wife in all things to
the will of the man. Girls were born only to be reared for someone
else's house as slaves, while boys were born to carry on family names,
traditions, and property. Such were the conditions in China when Buck
wrote The Good Earth. Since that time, along with many other changes,
the status of women in China has improved, although the old ways die
hard.
The novel may be criticized as having no climax. True enough, there is
no single momentous decision. Instead, dramatic interest is sustained by
well-placed turning points which give the story new direction. One such
point is Wang Lung's marriage to O-lan, which is followed by their first
satisfying years together. Later, in the face of poverty, destitution,
and little hope of recovery, Wang Lung demands and receives the handful
of gold from the rich man and is thus able to get back to his land. At
this point we see how very much Wang Lung's land means to him and what
he is willing to do to have it back. In the closing pages of the novel,
the quiet servitude and devotion of Pear Blossom, his slave, brings him
the only peace and contentment he is to know in his last years.
The success of The Good Earth is apparent. Pearl Buck won the Pulitzer
Prize for it and it has been dramatized as well as made into a motion
picture. It is widely read in many languages, undoubtedly because of its
universal appeal as a clear portrayal of one man's struggle for
survival, success, and ultimate happiness.
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