The Good Earth and Women in 1939

Pearl S. Bucks, “The Good Earth” follows the story of a poor farmer named Wang Lung during turn-of-the-century times in China. The book opens on the day of Wang Lung’s wedding day- the day he is to be married to a 20-year-old slave from a higher class family. Right from the beginning, women are seen as strictly objects to clean, take care of the men in the house, and to bear them children. Wang Lung describes how he wished to marry a “pretty slave” and his father instantly responded with “and what will we do with a pretty woman? We must have a woman who will tend the house and bear children as she works in the fields, and will a pretty woman do these things? She will be forever thinking about clothes to go with her face!….” This quote alone provides deeper insight into how women were seen during the 1930s in China. Comparing this to slavery in America, African Americans were sold all over the South with no hesitation. They weren’t seen as human, not even less than, they were property and only property. Wang Lung married this slave-girl without even speaking a single word to her- he had to buy his wife from. another family. There was no love, no affection, strictly business. Although China is becoming evolved on a manufacturing basis during this time, their social-cultural views of women, are still lacking on a much broader level. Even though today in America, these views of women have changed, there are still many stereotypes against them and on some level, will the belief that they are less than men ever truly go away?