Analysis of Theme Through The Protagonist in Pearl S.Buck's 'The Good Earth'.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS …..………………………………………………
i
ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………...
ii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study ……………………………………………
Statement of the Problem …......……………………………………
Purpose of the Study ….……….…………………………………….
Method of Research …………………………………………………
Organization of the Thesis …..………………………………….. …
1
2
3
3
3
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF THEME IN PEARL S. BUCK’S THE
GOOD EARTH ……………………………………………………
4
CHAPTER THREE: CONCLUSION ………………………………......
15
BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………...................
18
APPENDICES
Synopsis of The Good Earth ………………………………………... 19
Biography of the Author …………………………………………… 20
i
Maranatha Christian University
ABSTRACT
Dalam Tugas Akhir ini, saya menganalisis sebuah novel yang berjudul
The Good Earth karya Pearl S. Buck, seorang novelis Amerika pada abad ke-20.
Novel ini menceritakan tentang kehidupan seorang pemuda miskin yang berusaha
untuk bertahan hidup dan menghidupi keluarganya.
Pearl S. Buck menggambarkan Wang Lung, tokoh utama dalam novel ini,
sebagai seorang petani miskin yang berusaha untuk mencapai mimpinya menjadi
orang yang terpandang. Ia memperhatikan istri dan keluarganya serta berusaha
untuk menaikan derajat hidupnya dan ia pun mempunyai prinsip yang kuat.
Namun, ketika Wang Lung menjadi kaya ia berubah menjadi orang yang sombong
dan memandang rendah orang lain. Ia tidak menghargai istrinya dan terlebih lagi
Wang Lung menikah lagi dengan wanita cantik. Ia mulai mengabaikan tanah yang
dulunya ia anggap sebagai sumber dari kemakmuran. Wang Lung hanya
mempedulikan kesenangannya sendiri. Ia pun tidak lagi menjadi orang yang
memegang teguh prinsipnya.
Melalui perubahan watak tokoh utamanya, Pearl S. Buck ingin
menyampaikan tema dari novel ini bahwa uang dapat mengubah tidak hanya
status seseorang tetapi juga sifat-sifatnya.
0
Maranatha Christian University
APPENDICES
Summary of The Good Earth
The Good Earth is set against the late nineteenth century China. A young
Chinese farmer, whose name is Wang Lung, is a hardworking man. He works in
the field everyday. Wang Lung is getting married with a slave, named O-lan. She
is a slave at the House of Hwang, the wealthiest family in the city. Wang Lung
never meets O-lan before because his marriage has been planned by his father. He
only knows that she is not pretty. After several months Wang Lung realizes that
he is happy to have a good wife but he does not love her. Then O-lan is pregnant
and they have a son who makes Wang Lung proud to be a father.
Different from his uncle, Wang Lung never wastes his money on gambling
or fancy foods. Hearing the House of Hwang wants to sell some of their land,
Wang Lung has an idea of buying it. Although O-lan does not agree, he insists on
buying the land. After several years, people in the village are in famine. Wang
Lung has nothing to feed his family but he still has his land and never thinks of
selling the land. They decide to go to the south to find food. But in the south there
is nothing good which can make Wang Lung get more money. Moreover, he finds
his son becoming a thief. He is angry and decides to go back to his land, but he
has nothing to sell except his daughter. Nevertheless, he refuses to sell his
daughter as a slave. Fortunately, there is a dispute in town so he can take some
19
Maranatha Christian University
money from a big house. Later, Wang Lung becomes a rich man. His social status
is higher than before.
When Wang Lung’s land is flooded by water he has a lot of time to spend.
Then he meets a beautiful woman named Lotus in a tea shop. He falls in love with
Lotus because of her beauty. He decides to marry Lotus without thinking of Olan’s feeling. He becomes extravagant and always spoils Lotus with everything
she needs, including a slave to serve her. When Wang Lung realizes that O-lan is
better than Lotus, everything has been too late: O-lan dies because of her illness.
Wang Lung does not like Lotus anymore but she still lives in Wang Lung’s house.
After his father dies, Wang Lung never gets peace in his life. Problems
always come to Wang Lung. His problems usually deal with his son. Another
problem in Wang Lung’s house is his uncle, who always asks for money to Wang
Lung.
Wang Lung is proud of himself for having done what he wants to do. He
regards his life as mostly over, and his family continues to flourish. Wang Lung’s
old days are spent on his land. When his first two sons visit him and talk about
their plan to sell the land after his death, he is angry with them and tells his sons
that they must never sell the land. Both of his sons agree, but they have no
intention of keeping their promise.
Biography of the Author
Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia on June
26, 1892. Her parents, Absalom and Caroline Sydenstricker, were Southern
Presbyterian missionaries, stationed in China. Pearl was the fourth of seven
children (and one of only three who survive to adulthood). When she was three
20
Maranatha Christian University
months old, she was taken back to China, where she spent most of the first forty
years of her life.
From childhood, Pearl spoke both English and Chinese. In 1910, Pearl
enrolled in Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, in Lynchburg, Virginia, from
which she graduated in 1914. Although she had intended to remain in the US, she
returned to China shortly after graduation when she received news that her mother
was very ill.
In 1915, she met a young Cornell graduate, an agricultural economist
named John Lossing Buck. They married in 1917 and immediately moved to
Nanxuzhou in rural Anhui province. In this impoverished community, Pearl Buck
gathered the material that she would later use in The Good Earth and other stories
of China. Pearl had begun to publish stories and essays in the 1920s.
In 1931, John Day published Pearl’s second novel, The Good Earth. This
became a best selling book of both 1931 and 1932, and won the Pulitzer Prize and
the Howells Medal in 1935. In 1934 Pearl moved permanently to the US. From
the day of her move to the US, Pearl was active in American civil rights and
women’s rights activities. Pearl Buck died in March, 1973, just two months before
her eighty-first birthday. She is buried at Green Hill Farm.
21
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Chinese people are generally known to be hard working, disciplined,
punctual, and very respectful. According to index china.com, Chinese people are
known to be ‘. . . peaceful, hardworking and easily contented. They respect elders,
love children and are patient with their fellows. Chinese in general are reserve and
humble. They believe in harmony and never look for confrontation’ (china.com
n.d).
One of the twentieth century American writers who often write about the
life of Chinese people is Pearl S. Buck. She ‘. . . is the first American woman to
win the Nobel prize for fiction . . . she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
and the William Dean Howells Medal for the Most Distinguished Work of
American Fiction1930-35’(Melvin 2001). In my opinion to win the Nobel Prize
for fiction is a great achievement; that is why I am of the opinion that her works
are worth analysing. Moreover, Phyllis Bentley, a critic gave his opinion of Pearl
S. Buck as follows:
1
Maranatha Christian University
An attempt is made to present China from within, as the Chinese see it . . .
in the same way, Mrs. Buck aims to present the Chinese custom as
familiar, natural, and correct, because so would her characters regard
them. (These customs) are all copiously illustrated, but always presented,
as it were, unselfconsciously, as part of natural process of living; never by
the slightest word or turn of phrase does Mrs. Buck call attention to the
difference of these customs from our own. (Egbe 2005)
In my thesis I would like to analyse one of her works The Good Earth.
This novel ‘. . . is Pearl S. Buck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (1931) about the
Chinese peasant Wang Lung and O-Lan, and one of the most widely translated
books in the world’ (Melvin 2001). The protagonist of the novel is Wang lung. He
is a modest farmer, but he has a strong will to make his family become wealthy.
To bring more fortune to his family, Wang Lung works very hard; but then wealth
changes some of his characteristics. The development of the protagonist’s
characteristics leads the readers to find out the theme of the novel. William
Kenney, in his book How to Analyze Fiction, said that ‘As a major element in
fiction, character is obviously of major importance for theme (94). Thus, I would
like to analyse the theme through the protagonist of the novel. Theme is
‘. . . the
total meaning discovered by the writer in the process of writing and by the reader
in the process of reading’ (Kenney 94).
Statement of the Problem
The problems which I would like to analyse are:
1. What is the theme of the novel The Good Earth?
2
Maranatha Christian University
2. How does the portrayal of the protagonist help to reveal the theme?
Purpose of the Study
The purposes of the study are:
1. To show the theme of the novel The Good Earth.
2. To show how the portrayal of the protagonist help to reveal the
theme.
Method of Research
The method of research used is library research. First of all, I begin my
research by reading the primary text The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. Then, I
continue by reading several books that can be used to support the research. I
search for the information needed in some references and material from the
Internet to support the analysis. Finally, I gather and use the data that I have found
to help to complete my analysis, from which I later draw some conclusion.
Organization of the Thesis
I present this thesis in three chapters. Chapter One is the Introduction,
which contains the Background of the Study, the Purpose of the Study, the
Method of Research and the Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two deals with
the discussion of theme through the protagonist of the novel. The last one is
Chapter Three, the Conclusion of the thesis. This thesis ends with the
Bibliography, which presents the list of references and various sources that have
been used in the writing and, the Appendices, which present the synopsis of The
Good Earth and the biography of the author.
3
Maranatha Christian University
BIBLIOGRAPHY
References:
Kenney, William. How to Analyze Fiction. New York: Monarch Press, 1966.
Internet/ websites:
Conn, Peter. Biography of Pearl S. Buck, University of Pennsylvania 1966.
5
March
2007
Egbe, John. A classic read The Good Earth (Oprah’s Book Club). 4 April 2005.
26 August 2007
Index China. Chinese People. 5 March 2007
Melvin, Sheila. “China Get Reacquainted with Pearl Buck International.” Herald
Tribune.
22
Dec
2001.5
March
2007
Primary text:
Buck, Pearl S. The Good Earth. New York: Pocket Book, inc, 1953.
18
Maranatha Christian University
TABLE OF CONTENTS …..………………………………………………
i
ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………...
ii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study ……………………………………………
Statement of the Problem …......……………………………………
Purpose of the Study ….……….…………………………………….
Method of Research …………………………………………………
Organization of the Thesis …..………………………………….. …
1
2
3
3
3
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF THEME IN PEARL S. BUCK’S THE
GOOD EARTH ……………………………………………………
4
CHAPTER THREE: CONCLUSION ………………………………......
15
BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………...................
18
APPENDICES
Synopsis of The Good Earth ………………………………………... 19
Biography of the Author …………………………………………… 20
i
Maranatha Christian University
ABSTRACT
Dalam Tugas Akhir ini, saya menganalisis sebuah novel yang berjudul
The Good Earth karya Pearl S. Buck, seorang novelis Amerika pada abad ke-20.
Novel ini menceritakan tentang kehidupan seorang pemuda miskin yang berusaha
untuk bertahan hidup dan menghidupi keluarganya.
Pearl S. Buck menggambarkan Wang Lung, tokoh utama dalam novel ini,
sebagai seorang petani miskin yang berusaha untuk mencapai mimpinya menjadi
orang yang terpandang. Ia memperhatikan istri dan keluarganya serta berusaha
untuk menaikan derajat hidupnya dan ia pun mempunyai prinsip yang kuat.
Namun, ketika Wang Lung menjadi kaya ia berubah menjadi orang yang sombong
dan memandang rendah orang lain. Ia tidak menghargai istrinya dan terlebih lagi
Wang Lung menikah lagi dengan wanita cantik. Ia mulai mengabaikan tanah yang
dulunya ia anggap sebagai sumber dari kemakmuran. Wang Lung hanya
mempedulikan kesenangannya sendiri. Ia pun tidak lagi menjadi orang yang
memegang teguh prinsipnya.
Melalui perubahan watak tokoh utamanya, Pearl S. Buck ingin
menyampaikan tema dari novel ini bahwa uang dapat mengubah tidak hanya
status seseorang tetapi juga sifat-sifatnya.
0
Maranatha Christian University
APPENDICES
Summary of The Good Earth
The Good Earth is set against the late nineteenth century China. A young
Chinese farmer, whose name is Wang Lung, is a hardworking man. He works in
the field everyday. Wang Lung is getting married with a slave, named O-lan. She
is a slave at the House of Hwang, the wealthiest family in the city. Wang Lung
never meets O-lan before because his marriage has been planned by his father. He
only knows that she is not pretty. After several months Wang Lung realizes that
he is happy to have a good wife but he does not love her. Then O-lan is pregnant
and they have a son who makes Wang Lung proud to be a father.
Different from his uncle, Wang Lung never wastes his money on gambling
or fancy foods. Hearing the House of Hwang wants to sell some of their land,
Wang Lung has an idea of buying it. Although O-lan does not agree, he insists on
buying the land. After several years, people in the village are in famine. Wang
Lung has nothing to feed his family but he still has his land and never thinks of
selling the land. They decide to go to the south to find food. But in the south there
is nothing good which can make Wang Lung get more money. Moreover, he finds
his son becoming a thief. He is angry and decides to go back to his land, but he
has nothing to sell except his daughter. Nevertheless, he refuses to sell his
daughter as a slave. Fortunately, there is a dispute in town so he can take some
19
Maranatha Christian University
money from a big house. Later, Wang Lung becomes a rich man. His social status
is higher than before.
When Wang Lung’s land is flooded by water he has a lot of time to spend.
Then he meets a beautiful woman named Lotus in a tea shop. He falls in love with
Lotus because of her beauty. He decides to marry Lotus without thinking of Olan’s feeling. He becomes extravagant and always spoils Lotus with everything
she needs, including a slave to serve her. When Wang Lung realizes that O-lan is
better than Lotus, everything has been too late: O-lan dies because of her illness.
Wang Lung does not like Lotus anymore but she still lives in Wang Lung’s house.
After his father dies, Wang Lung never gets peace in his life. Problems
always come to Wang Lung. His problems usually deal with his son. Another
problem in Wang Lung’s house is his uncle, who always asks for money to Wang
Lung.
Wang Lung is proud of himself for having done what he wants to do. He
regards his life as mostly over, and his family continues to flourish. Wang Lung’s
old days are spent on his land. When his first two sons visit him and talk about
their plan to sell the land after his death, he is angry with them and tells his sons
that they must never sell the land. Both of his sons agree, but they have no
intention of keeping their promise.
Biography of the Author
Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia on June
26, 1892. Her parents, Absalom and Caroline Sydenstricker, were Southern
Presbyterian missionaries, stationed in China. Pearl was the fourth of seven
children (and one of only three who survive to adulthood). When she was three
20
Maranatha Christian University
months old, she was taken back to China, where she spent most of the first forty
years of her life.
From childhood, Pearl spoke both English and Chinese. In 1910, Pearl
enrolled in Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, in Lynchburg, Virginia, from
which she graduated in 1914. Although she had intended to remain in the US, she
returned to China shortly after graduation when she received news that her mother
was very ill.
In 1915, she met a young Cornell graduate, an agricultural economist
named John Lossing Buck. They married in 1917 and immediately moved to
Nanxuzhou in rural Anhui province. In this impoverished community, Pearl Buck
gathered the material that she would later use in The Good Earth and other stories
of China. Pearl had begun to publish stories and essays in the 1920s.
In 1931, John Day published Pearl’s second novel, The Good Earth. This
became a best selling book of both 1931 and 1932, and won the Pulitzer Prize and
the Howells Medal in 1935. In 1934 Pearl moved permanently to the US. From
the day of her move to the US, Pearl was active in American civil rights and
women’s rights activities. Pearl Buck died in March, 1973, just two months before
her eighty-first birthday. She is buried at Green Hill Farm.
21
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Chinese people are generally known to be hard working, disciplined,
punctual, and very respectful. According to index china.com, Chinese people are
known to be ‘. . . peaceful, hardworking and easily contented. They respect elders,
love children and are patient with their fellows. Chinese in general are reserve and
humble. They believe in harmony and never look for confrontation’ (china.com
n.d).
One of the twentieth century American writers who often write about the
life of Chinese people is Pearl S. Buck. She ‘. . . is the first American woman to
win the Nobel prize for fiction . . . she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
and the William Dean Howells Medal for the Most Distinguished Work of
American Fiction1930-35’(Melvin 2001). In my opinion to win the Nobel Prize
for fiction is a great achievement; that is why I am of the opinion that her works
are worth analysing. Moreover, Phyllis Bentley, a critic gave his opinion of Pearl
S. Buck as follows:
1
Maranatha Christian University
An attempt is made to present China from within, as the Chinese see it . . .
in the same way, Mrs. Buck aims to present the Chinese custom as
familiar, natural, and correct, because so would her characters regard
them. (These customs) are all copiously illustrated, but always presented,
as it were, unselfconsciously, as part of natural process of living; never by
the slightest word or turn of phrase does Mrs. Buck call attention to the
difference of these customs from our own. (Egbe 2005)
In my thesis I would like to analyse one of her works The Good Earth.
This novel ‘. . . is Pearl S. Buck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (1931) about the
Chinese peasant Wang Lung and O-Lan, and one of the most widely translated
books in the world’ (Melvin 2001). The protagonist of the novel is Wang lung. He
is a modest farmer, but he has a strong will to make his family become wealthy.
To bring more fortune to his family, Wang Lung works very hard; but then wealth
changes some of his characteristics. The development of the protagonist’s
characteristics leads the readers to find out the theme of the novel. William
Kenney, in his book How to Analyze Fiction, said that ‘As a major element in
fiction, character is obviously of major importance for theme (94). Thus, I would
like to analyse the theme through the protagonist of the novel. Theme is
‘. . . the
total meaning discovered by the writer in the process of writing and by the reader
in the process of reading’ (Kenney 94).
Statement of the Problem
The problems which I would like to analyse are:
1. What is the theme of the novel The Good Earth?
2
Maranatha Christian University
2. How does the portrayal of the protagonist help to reveal the theme?
Purpose of the Study
The purposes of the study are:
1. To show the theme of the novel The Good Earth.
2. To show how the portrayal of the protagonist help to reveal the
theme.
Method of Research
The method of research used is library research. First of all, I begin my
research by reading the primary text The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. Then, I
continue by reading several books that can be used to support the research. I
search for the information needed in some references and material from the
Internet to support the analysis. Finally, I gather and use the data that I have found
to help to complete my analysis, from which I later draw some conclusion.
Organization of the Thesis
I present this thesis in three chapters. Chapter One is the Introduction,
which contains the Background of the Study, the Purpose of the Study, the
Method of Research and the Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two deals with
the discussion of theme through the protagonist of the novel. The last one is
Chapter Three, the Conclusion of the thesis. This thesis ends with the
Bibliography, which presents the list of references and various sources that have
been used in the writing and, the Appendices, which present the synopsis of The
Good Earth and the biography of the author.
3
Maranatha Christian University
BIBLIOGRAPHY
References:
Kenney, William. How to Analyze Fiction. New York: Monarch Press, 1966.
Internet/ websites:
Conn, Peter. Biography of Pearl S. Buck, University of Pennsylvania 1966.
5
March
2007
Egbe, John. A classic read The Good Earth (Oprah’s Book Club). 4 April 2005.
26 August 2007
Index China. Chinese People. 5 March 2007
Melvin, Sheila. “China Get Reacquainted with Pearl Buck International.” Herald
Tribune.
22
Dec
2001.5
March
2007
Primary text:
Buck, Pearl S. The Good Earth. New York: Pocket Book, inc, 1953.
18
Maranatha Christian University