The Good Earth Review by Taehan Lee
d early 1900s. It is considered a modern classic and I thought it was a great read!
The story starts from when we are to meet with
his new wife and follows his life journey throughout the book. In the beginning
the book seemed stretched, because there was no defined “conflict” within the
book. During the first few chapters I kept looking for the main conflict, but
as you go through the book it becomes clear that it isn’t about a single
“conflict”, but a collection of small issues that create a man’s long and deep
life. I enjoyed this book, because it was very realistic. The main character
was not completely moral and was not a perfect human being. Instead, he was a
realistic man who wanted to make a living with his crops and his land. He never
does anything heroic by any measure and never makes a large impact on the
world. Instead, it is a story about a man, his family, and his life in rural China.
I think that this book taught me that some
things look like they matter the world to you in the moment, but even a year
later it will literally be nothing. In the book, there are a lot of small
conflicts and problems that occur, but none are significantly remembered at the
end as “the conflict.” For each chapter, a problem arises, and you think, ‘how
is Wang Lung going to solve this one’ and the book does not talk about his
general life. But while going through these detailed accounts, you start to
piece together his entire life. I think that throughout the story you start to
make connections with the characters, because you are, in a nutshell, living
their life, trying to solve their problems, and constantly reading to see what
happens next. this story that the book tells is what prompted me to think that
things are meaningless in the long run, because when I finished the book, I
could not imagine why a problem was so important at the time.
I think this message is also prevalent in my life as well. Last year I had a research paper to write, and I was immensely stressed about it. However, now I can barely remember what it was about. Over the summer I stressed about math enrichment and reading, but the problems seemed so miniscule to me once school started. I think reading this book and knowing that I shouldn’t kill myself over an essay is going to be helpful for me to live a long and happy life.
Woah, kind of jumped from 1 to 100 with that last sentence. This book really does seem, not necessarily interesting, but relaxing. It seems like a nice realistic slice of life novel. I have never heard of this book before but as I am Chinese and like history this book has definitely got my curiosity.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to see a book that both lacks a central conflict and is set in 1800s-1900s rural China. I haven't seen many books that fall into both of these categories, so I might check this one out. I also appreciated how you talked about how the book appealed and spoke to you despite its unique structure.
ReplyDeleteThe books I tend to read have one strong conflict throughout the story, so reading one that has many small ones would be a interesting read. The message the book gave to you is one I should think about to myself as well.
ReplyDelete