Famous Homeschooler Pearl S. Buck

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Program Audio--Listen Online at:
www.hslda.org/docs/hshb/65/hshb6508.asp
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Pearl S. Buck

Volume 65, Program 8
1/25/2006

Original airdate: August 19, 1998

In recent years, families on the mission field have increasingly
turned to homeschooling in order to educate their children. Mike
Farris, President of Home School Legal Defense Association, tells the
story of one famous woman who was the product of home education on the
mission field, today on "Home School Heartbeat."

Michael Farris:
Pearl S. Buck grew up on the mission field in China, and became a
famous American author and winner of the 1932 Pulitzer Prize. A
lively, precocious child, she pestered her mother with countless
questions. Pearl's mother, realizing that her daughter needed a
creative outlet, began her education at home. She especially focused
on Pearl's skill for writing, and encouraged her to write something
every week. At the age of 6, Pearl began writing for missionary
magazines. Her writing was also published regularly by the Shanghai
Mercury, an English newspaper that offered prizes for the best stories
and articles written by children.

It was not surprising when Pearl decided as a young adult to become a
novelist. She went on to write more than 65 books, plus hundreds of
short stories and essays. She is best known for her books dealing
sympathetically with life in China, including her widely acclaimed
novel, "The Good Earth." In 1938, Pearl S. Buck received the Nobel
Prize for literature.

Although Pearl received her later education at various schools, her
most significant years of academic training were spent at home. It was
her mother who recognized her flair for writing and fostered her
creative development. Pearl S. Buck is yet another example of the
power of parent-directed education.

This is Michael Farris.


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Pearl S. Buck's epic Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of a China that was -- now in a Contemporary Classics edition.

Though more than sixty years have passed since this remarkable novel won the Pulitzer Prize, it has retained its popularity and become one of the great modern classics. "I can only write what I know, and I know nothing but China, having always lived there," wrote Pearl Buck. In The Good Earth she presents a graphic view of a China when the last emperor reigned and the vast political and social upheavals of the twentieth century were but distant rumblings for the ordinary people. This moving, classic story of the honest farmer Wang Lung and his selfless wife O-lan is must reading for those who would fully appreciate the sweeping changes that have occurred in the lives of the Chinese people during this century.

Nobel Prize winner Pearl S. Buck traces the whole cycle of life: its terrors, its passions, its ambitions and rewards. Her brilliant novel -- beloved by millions of readers -- is a universal tale of the destiny of man.



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1. The novel begins with Wang Lung's expectation of rain, the daily boiling of water for his father, and his bathing for his wedding. What might this water imagery foreshadow?

2. Why does Wang Lung feel compelled to purchase the rice field from the House of Hwang? Why does he at first regret it?

3. "And so this parcel of land became to Wang Lung a sign and a symbol." What does the author mean by this?

4. Wang Lung considers the birth of his daughter to be a bad omen. How does he come to regard this girl, who grows up to become a fool?

5. As the family works and begs in the city, what do they think of the foreigners they encounter? What purpose does the author serve in including these descriptions?

6. The abundance of food in the city contrasts with the characters impoverished lives. Discuss the emotionally complex relationship Wang Lung develops with the city.

7. The poor laborers in the city lack knowledge even of what they look like, a fact illustrated by the man who mocks himself in a mirror. How does a new self-awareness come to manifest itself?

8. When Wang Lung becomes swept up with the mob and enters the rich man's house, is the gold he receives there a curse or a blessing? Do you feel any pity for the rich man? What do you think the author intended you to feel?

9. After O-lan steals the jewels, do they function as a bad omen or good luck? Why does O-lan want to keep the two pearls? Why is Wang Lung so astonished by this? What do the pearls signify?

10. As O-lan dies, she bemoans her lack of beauty and says she is too ugly to be loved. Wang Lung feels guilty, but still cannot love her as he did Lotus. Neither woman can control destiny. Lotus was an orphan who had been sold into prostitution because she was beautiful, and O-lan had been sold as a kitchen slave because she was plain. For whom do you feel sympathy? Why?

11. Toward the end of the novel we encounter the belief that things will change "when the poor become too poor and the rich are too rich." Discuss the ambivalence of this statement -- a mixture of both hope and despair -- and how it reflects upon the whole of The Good Earth.

12. Pearl Buck wrote a first-person novel from the point of view of a Chinese man, which was controversial because she was of a different culture. What are some of the challenges of this undertaking? How might this book have been different had it been written by a Chinese person? Compare Buck's novel to other books written by authors striving to transcend culture or gender (e.g.: Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha, James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room, Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone).

www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/good_earth1.asp

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The Good Earth (1937)
movie

us.imdb.com/title/tt0028944/