My choice novel, “The Good Earth”, takes place during the modernization of China during the 1930s. The time before this though, was a very ruthless economic and social environment to grow up in. The 19th century was very trying times for China, with its political institution in shambles and no new use of modernized technologies or any form of economic growth, the Chinese people continually suffered. Peasants and other workers were stripped off their livelihood and crops by the landowners leaving nothing for them to sustain their life. This is prominently seen in my book when Wang Lung and his family are on the brink of loosing their land, starving and struggling to find sufficient food to feed their family.
The social culture of China began to turn when the communist revolution took place which focused on “class conflict, state ownership and management of the economy, and substantial dose of ideological orthodoxy.” This revolution did not happen without its fair share of difficulties though, there were several decades of disagreements and fights between supporters and offenders. Communism in China was the reformation of the country as a whole. Over the next few decades, there were still more arguments about how China should be led and run. With westerns trying to get involved in the Opium sales, it forced China to open its doors more to outsiders.
Throughout this book, you can see the social cultural struggles that this family has to face on a daily basis. The poor begin to steal from the wealthy once the economy starts to decline and the lower class is hit far more worse than the upper class yet, the struggles that China experienced impacted everyone greatly.
Little, Dan. “Chinese Modernization c. 1930.” Chinese Modernization c. 1930, 1 Jan. 1970, understandingsociety.blogspot.com/2017/07/chinese-modernization-c-1930.html.
Great American Novels 