A Comparative Re-reading Of The Good Eart:from The Perspective Of The Novels By Local Chinese Writers In The1920s And1930s

Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) was the first American woman writer who had ever won the Nobel Prize in literature. She was renowned for her Chinese theme writings. The Good Earth is the most outstanding work of her and brings her great success "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China". It tells us a story about a diligent and earth-bound peasant couple and the ups and downs of their family. Born in America, Buck grew up and lived up to forty years in China, she enjoyed bi-cultural background, thus, most scholars both from home and abroad tend to study her works from the perspective of cultural difference and cross-cultural exchange. They chose to study The Good Earth from the perspective of feminism, post-colonialism, colonialism and etc. This thesis tries to analyze The Good Earth from the perspective of the novels by local Chinese writers in the1920s and1930s with the method of comparative literary research.This thesis contains six chapters besides the introduction part:In the introduction part, it mainly covers a brief introduction to Pearl S. Buck and The Good Earth, and then a systematic critical background about Buck and The Good Earth both in America and in China, a brief introduction about the methodology employed, and then the structure of the thesis.The first chapter is on the backgrounds of The Good Earth and the novels by local Chinese writers in the1920s and1930s, which include Americans’images of the Chinese before the publication of The Good Earth, Buck’s bi-cultural background and the background of the local Chinese writers in the1920s and1930s.The second chapter discusses the differences of Chinese peasants’living conditions reflected in The Good Earth and that in the novels by local Chinese writers in the1920s and1930s.The third chapter analyses Chinese peasants’ earth complex in the The Good Earth and in the novels by local Chinese Writers in the1920s and1930s from two perspectives, one is:the land, source of Chinese peasants’ livelihood; the other, the land functions as a physical and spiritual recovery of peasants. The latter is unique in The Good Earth.The fourth chapter is an analysis about the Chinese peasants’ class consciousness indicated in The Good Earth, where peasants were discontent with the rich and the oppressors, but they chosen to tolerate rather than fight against them. By contrast the novels by local Chinese writers in the1920s and1930s depict many fighting figures who call on other peasants for riot and fight against the oppressors and the cruel rich.The fifth chapter covers Chinese women peasants’status in The Good Earth, in which, women peasant should and have to what they are allowed by the feudal morality and rules and live a hard life. But compared with what the novels by local Chinese writers in the1920s and1930s disclosed, descriptions in The Good Earth are much more superficial and moderate in criticism. It is just an introduction of Chinese women peasants’ life, and by contrast, the novels by local Chinese writers in that period emphasize more on disclosing the underlined causes for women’s sufferings rather then introducing it.In the sixth chapter, ethics is analyzed. In The Good Earth, family ethics and social ethics are harmonious to some degree, while novels by the local Chinese writers in the1920s and1930s unearth the unrest social background by depicting inharmonious and degenerating ethics.The last part is the conclusion. From the above discussed six aspects, it is clear that it is their different living backgrounds, citizenship, writing purposes, and social responsibility that result in their different outlooks about the Chinese countryside and Chinese peasants. Compared with the novels by the local Chinese writers in the1920s and1930s, the social conditions and Chinese peasants’living conditions depicted in The Good Earth is not true in effect.