Historical Context
The Good Earth was first published in 1931 and influenced the Western
perception of China for many decades, more than any other piece of literature.
It was one of the few works where Chinese people were not represented as
“slanty-eyed Orientals” (like the sly Fu Manchu), but instead constructed
like everyday human beings, same as Westerners.
The book also
vividly portrays life in countryside China in the early 1900s. Pearl S. Buck,
the author, builds the story out of her own personal experience in the nation.
Buck, the child of missionaries, had been relocated to China when she was three
months old, and by the age of four, she could speak Chinese and English with
equal fluency.
Buck also
lived through the Boxer Rebellion, a large anti-foreigner uprising in China in
1900, which alienated her family from their Chinese friends. In fact, the danger
to her family from zealous Chinese protestors was so imminent, they had to move
back to the United States for a short period of time before returning to China
to continue their missionary work.
Upon their
return, Buck’s family faced continued opposition from many Chinese. However,
Buck was never deterred. She married John Lossing Buck in 1917, and together,
they lived for several years in the Anwei province, along the Yangtze River.
This is the setting of The Good Earth. There, Buck witnessed the greatest
poverty in China and the fiercest struggles to survive in the rural countryside.
She became intimately involved in the daily lives of these Chinese, and they had
an incredible influence on Buck.
