Ch. 1 of The Good Earth

The first chapter of this book really shows the way of life that Wang Lung lives and how its so much different from ours in many ways. They have different values, different ways of looking at life and also the religion that they practice. Women are treated much differently in this book than they would be today. If they aren't filthy rich they are shunned to being slaves and eventually given away to be wives to men that they have never even met before and to mostly be that mans slave. They also see that there lives are going to be led by fate and that nature controls everything. The quote that proves this is "Now it was as if Heaven had chosen this day to wish him well. Earth would bear fruit."(p. 2) This shows that they live of and with the land, that the earth will provide them with what they need and everything is of the Earth.

Another way of life in this book that isn't nearly the same as now is how much the people must respect there elders and how they must provide for them and follow their every order as Wang had to with his father. Everthing the father says goes without question. For the mode of this book there are lots of symbols in the first chapter that point to this book being comedy but i think that it's irony because of the things that happen that aren't normal at all like things that are normally happy times turn into dark sad ones such as when he got married. His wife had never even met him before and just did what he said without question and without expression. Just the same old straight sad face that she had always and and always will. Another thing that i noticed was that ever since he went into the house of Hwang he did everything gruffly. I think thats a symbol of how this marriage won't be a very happy one and things will be done because that's how it has been for years. In the end this book is very interesting on how it implements different aspects of life in a different time period and culture.