Comparing Wang Lung and His Uncle in The Good Earth
Everybody has their own ways of doing things. From spending money to the way they cook. In The Good Earth Wang Lung differs greatly from his selfish uncle. Wang Lung and his uncle are two similar men. They both come from the same type of heritage and they live in the same village. They are both married and they both have children that will carry on their family name. But still everybody is different. These two men differ when it comes to a number of things but their difference is in money.
Wang Lung is a responsible man who uses his money wisely. He uses his money to buy things that his family has a necessity for and saves some for the winter or for the upcoming year. He puts his money into important investments that will promise him great wealth in the future. He is a very compassionate man who cares for his children by buying clothes for his children, feeding them healthy servings of food, and he also still manages to take care of his ever-aging father. Wang Lung values money and would never think of using it in ways that would hurt his family of himself in any way.
The uncle, on the other hand, does not care how he uses his money. As long as it helps himself in some way then he is happy. He sells his harvest as soon as it is ripe and then always ends up running out of money before the end of winter. The uncle farms on barren land that has no nutrients left in it. Since he is always gambling his money away, he cannot afford to buy new land and receive some kind of decent crop from his investment. The Uncle is so selfish that he threatens to tell the village if Wang Lung does not give him money and food. In the Chinese culture this would be considered dishonorable if Wang would not help his family. It is their duty to help if their family, even if that means that Wang would have less than everybody else. The uncle spends his money on expensive delicacies for his wife who is overweight as it is. He could save the money and use it in the winter when they are in need the most.
“The Death of Woman Wang”, written by Chinese historian Jonathan Spence, is a book recounting the harsh realities facing citizens of Tancheng country, Shandong Province, Qing controlled China in the late 17th century. Using various primary sources, Spence describes some of the hardships and sorrow that the people of Tancheng faced. From natural disasters, poor leadership, banditry, and invasions, the citizens of Tancheng struggled to survive in a devastated and changing world around them. On its own, “Woman Wang” is an insightful snapshot of one of the worst-off counties in imperial Qing China, however when taking a step back and weaving in an understanding of long held Chinese traditions, there is a greater understanding what happened in
In the epilogue to The Death of Woman Wang, we see several ways in which Chinese culture determined the sentence meted out to the Jens by Huang. False accusation of innocent persons was a capital crime in 17th century China, punishable by death. The Jens, however, were not executed. The largest factor in sparing the younger Jen, was based around the cultural importance placed on continuation of family lines and the strict ways in which this could acceptably happen.
ꀀ ꀀine a world of unequal social status. Envision a world where customs are different, whether that is through family or political standpoints. In America, in today’s day and age, every human being despite their gender is supposed to be seen as equal. In our modern world, gender equality is beginning to prevail, and men and women are looked at on the same level. However, there are still flaws in our society. Some of these flaws are exemplified through Cao Xuequin’s novel The Story of the Stone: The Golden Days, Volume 1. The Qing Dynasty, as depicted through the families in the book, portrays a life of unequal gender relations, through marriage, family matters, and education.
In Tobias Wolff’s 1985 short story “The Rich Brother,” we are introduced to two brothers. According to Wolf, you cannot even tell that they are brothers because of their physical differences, but as the story goes into more detail we can tell that they are different in every aspect. One of the major differences is that one is wealthy and the other is always in need of financial assistance. The older brother, Pete, is a successful real estate agent while his younger brother, Donald, works as a painter whenever he can. The two brothers are very different in their belief about what is valuable. Pete is a man that has worked hard and values what he has acquired. His brother Donald, on the other hand, values sharing whatever he has. Even if giving everything he has leaves him with nothing.
The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan Spence is an educational historical novel of northeastern China during the seventeenth century. The author's focus was to enlighten a reader on the Chinese people, culture, and traditions. Spence's use of the provoking stories of the Chinese county T'an-ch'eng, in the province of Shantung, brings the reader directly into the course of Chinese history. The use of the sources available to Spence, such as the Local History of T'an-ch'eng, the scholar-official Huang Liu-hung's handbook and stories of the writer P'u Sung-Ling convey the reader directly into the lives of poor farmers, their workers and wives. The intriguing structure of The Death of Woman Wang consists on observing these people working on the land, their family structure, and their local conflicts.
All of the inhabitants of East and West Egg use one another to get what they want, with little care as to how it will affect the people around them. Through the eyes of Nick Carraway, we see how the wealthy live: they live in a luxurious society surrounded by their own lies and deception. Looking in from the outside, their lives seem perfect; they have everything that money can buy, right? Wrong, the one thing that their money cannot buy them is happiness, and this is why each character deceives someone.
Sanki (Japanese and Koya’s friend) started off as a banker forced to protect his corrupt boss and when fired from his job at the Joryoku Bank, he ended up working in the Trade Division of Far East Cotton Mills zaibatsu. Fang Qin-lan was the beautiful Chinese-female communist spy/ factory worker for the Far East Cotton Mills company. Qian Shi-shan is an opium addicted Chinese pro-capitalism/Nationalist who believes that China must support Chinese capitalism to become world power and no longer be exploited by European imperialist powers. These characters best represented the opposing sides in Shanghai during the timeline of the novel. Their struggles gave a look into the personal experiences of the day to day workings of the every aspect of life for the residents of Shanghai.
The Cultural Revolution in China was led by Mao Zedong, due to this Liang and many others faced overwhelming obstacles in many aspects of their life such as work, family and everyday encounters, if affected everyone’s families life and education, Liang lets us experience his everyday struggles during this era, where the government determined almost every aspect of life. The beginning of the book starts out with Liang’s typical life, which seems normal, he has a family which consists of three children, two older sisters and him the youngest, his two sister’s reside in Changsha 1. his father has an everyday occupation working as a journalist at a local newspaper. Things start to take a turn early in life for Liang Heng, his family politics were always questioned, the mistake made by one of his family members would impact his entire family and it would be something they would have to suffer through, it was impossible for them to live down such a sin.... ...
All through time, successive generations have rebelled against the values and traditions of their elders. In all countries, including China, new generations have sought to find a different path than that of their past leaders. Traditional values become outdated and are replaced with what the younger society deems as significant. Family concentrates on this very subject. In the novel, three brothers struggle against the outdated Confucian values of their elders. Alike in their dislike of the traditional Confucian system of their grandfather, yet very different in their interactions with him and others, begin to reach beyond the ancient values of Confucianism and strive for a breath of freedom. Their struggles against the old values lead to pain, suffering and eventually achievement for the three of them, however at a harsh price for two brothers.
To tackle the threat of famine, Liu think that some free markets should be allowed as the only way of combating famine. He implemented polices that allowed peasants to cultivate private plot in the backyard of their homes and sell produce to farmers’ markets. Liu also decentralized economics decision-making and planning to economic organizations below the level of communes, restored material incentives to peasants and collective farming, and carried out more realistic economic planning and programs. (Guo, 2013) As a result, about half of the farm land in China was in the hands of individual families once again. The results of these changes were sudden increases in the amounts of food being produced in China. (Karl, 2010)
Chang portrays the complexity of Henry’s character by showing the conflict that he faces both in his personal and professional life. His confusion towards his own Cultural identity is noticed in his relationships with his co-workers as well as with his family. His personal relationship with his family, especially with his father and his wife exemplifies the clash between the two cultures which seems to tear Henry apart. Leila, Henry’s wife, seems to epitomize the traditional American Culture which Henry tries very hard to be a part of. Her forthright nature along with the independence and individuality contradicts the stereotypical qualities of an Asian wife. However, Henry’s desperation is seen in his forgiving attitude towards Leila’s action and behavior. His deter...
This novel tells the story of Wang Lung. He is a man who rises from being a poor farmer to a very wealthy man because of his faith in the good earth. In the beginning of the story Wang Lung tries to see as little water as possible because he feels safest with his land under his feet. His family is very poor so he must feed his father corn gruel and tea.
Feng Meng-long’s story, “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger,” authentically represents how money is valued between Du Tenth and Li Jia. The classic story brings forth how tradition and family values are upheld in the highest honor. The young master Li Jia, who is the son of a prominent local official, embarks on a journey to the Ming capitol of Nanjing with the intention of taking exams. During his travels he meets the beautiful courtesan named Du Tenth who is bound to her madam in a house of ill fame in what is known as the pleasure district. Li Jia, being an immature and unmotivated by any type of responsibility, finds himself splurging all of his travel funds on pleasures with the beautiful Du Tenth. The couple find themselves to have fallen in love with one other. Du Tenth proves to be a very smart and loyal character. She cleverly devises a plan to escape her bind to her madam and leave to be with her love. When the couple make their departure, they go on their journey to their new life together as husband and wife. Du Tenth continues to prove how smart she is by showing time and time again to Li Jia that she was very prepared for their future. The story tragically ends when the gullible Li Jia is tricked by the manipulating Sun Fu to trade his love, Du Tenth, for a thousand pieces of white silver.
In conclusion, Wu made us remember how important our grandparents no matter how different are we from each other. Also, I learned a lot from my grandparents, and some of things that I learned are that we should treat others with good manners and secondly, we shouldn’t blame others for things that we are uncertain they did it. What I learned from my grandfather made me owe both of my grandparents a lot. And off course one of the things that I and Wu share is that we miss our grandparents a lot and we hope to see them as soon as possible in the
Poverty on social conditions affects everyone in every part of the world, no matter if they are rich or poor. First of all, everyone is divided into some sort of social class. The most known classes are the economic classes- the lower class, the middle class, and the higher class. The lower class goes through arduous labor all day and night to earn decent amounts of money to provide for themselves and their families. Most likely, they are the only source of income for the entire family. The higher class works hard to keep up or raise their high social status. They also work hard so they don’t loss their social rank, which permits them to hold a higher power over the middle and lower classes. Similarities of decisions made by characters in these two literary works will analyzed to understand the meaning behind the actions and influences of the social classes on each other.