The Dichotomy of Beauty in The Good Earth
A pearl’s beginnings stem from a tiny grain of sand finding it’s way into the lowly oyster. One marvels at the beauty found beneath its uncomely shell. Such is the beauty encountered in The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck. Wang Lung is a poor yet industrious farmer in a small village of China during the late 1800’s. A hard-working man, he is given a simple slave girl, O-lan, as a wife. As the fruits of their labor and the luck of the gods may have it, Wang Lung prospers, becoming a wealthy land owner. In time, he seeks to find pleasure in a second woman, Lotus, as his toy. However, the outward beauty he chooses in Lotus completely contrasts with that of the inner beauty found in O-lan. As the time arrives for Wang Lung’s father to choose for him a wife, he tells his son, as a poor farmer, that “with weddings costing as they do in these evil days…there remain only slaves to be had for the poor” (The Good Earth, Buck 8). His father makes it clear that the slave woman should not be too young or too pretty, for his son “must have a woman who will tend the house and bear children” (8). On the day of their wedding, Wang Lung finally gets to set eyes on O-lan: She had a square, honest face, a short, broad nose with la
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 939
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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