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    The Good Earth - Literature Kit Gr. 9-12
    The Good Earth - Literature Kit Gr. 9-12
    The Good Earth - Literature Kit Gr. 9-12
    Ebook139 pages39 minutes

    The Good Earth - Literature Kit Gr. 9-12

    By Michelle Jensen

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Experience the hardships and tribulations of a Chinese family living in poverty prior to World War II. Our resource acts as a great supplement to the novel in order to help students comprehend it deeper. Set the tone by brainstorming the traditional ways people celebrate the birth of babies. Analyze the actions of Wang Lung's uncle to describe his true character. Identify what is being described from the metaphors and similes in the text. Understand key vocabulary words prior to reading with fill-in-the-blank paragraphs. Research the meaning of each form of literary irony, then identify the type of irony used in the novel. Write a sensory poem to express the many representations of the land to Wang Lung. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included.

    About the Novel:
    The Good Earth is a Pulitzer Prize-winning story about family life in a Chinese village before World War II. Wang Lung and his new wife O-Lan buy land from the Hwang family in the hopes of starting a modest farm. During this time, O-Lan gives birth to three sons and three daughters. The first daughter becomes mentally handicapped due to severe malnutrition and famine, causing O-Lan to kill the second daughter and sell the third to a merchant. Famine and drought force the family to leave for a large city in the South to find work. Arriving in the city, Wang Lung finds a job pulling a rickshaw, while his family turns to begging. Things get better when armies approach the city and a food riot erupts. Wang Lung receives enough money to return home and have a prosperous life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCCP Interactive
    Release dateJul 1, 2013
    ISBN9781553199915
    The Good Earth - Literature Kit Gr. 9-12

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    Reviews for The Good Earth - Literature Kit Gr. 9-12

    4/5

    3,182 ratings143 reviews

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    • 5/5
      There is a reason this book is a classic. Read it. Amazing.
    • 4/5
      Solidly written tale of farming and family and how wealth depletes the spirit and character of peopleas they become less attached to nature and their land. Though I felt close to none of the family,it was O-lan's total lack of rights that made the book so sad.
    • 4/5
      I loved the first 3/4 of this novel. The struggle of an incredibly poor Chinese family during ancient times. The father loved to farm and di what he needed to do to see his family survive. The last of the novel seem to slow and wasn't as fun to read. A sad ending that took a long time to get to.
    • 4/5
      Dieses 1931 erschienene Buch erzählt die Lebensgeschichte eines chinesischen Bauern. Nach und nach wird er von einem kleinen Bauern zum großen Grundbesitzer. Obwohl er nach wie vor an seinem Land hängt, verändert er sich doch charakterlich ziemlich. Seine Frau O-Lan, der er viel verdankt, verachtet er mehr und mehr aufgrund ihres einfachen Wesens und Aussehens. Erst gegen Ende ihres Lebens wird ihm klar, wie viel sie zu seinem Glück beigetragen hat. Seine Söhne achten das bäuerliche Erbe ihrer Vorfahren nicht und wenden sich von der Landwirtschaft ab.Dieses mehrfach preisgekrönte Buch erzählt sehr schlicht, aber eindringlich, von diesem einfachen Leben. Vor allem das Schicksal der Frauen, aber die auch die ländlichen Strukturen, die Verpflichtungen gegenüber den Verwandten usw. sind nahezu archaisch und doch noch nicht lange her.
    • 5/5
      This is a family legacy book, a personal saga, a chronicle of the life and times of the main man Wang Lung. We follow his life in early 20th C China from the start of manhood, and his acquisition of a wife, to his last days. The times are hard, and intense, and even though big things are happening socially and politically, the book sees these changes thorough the eyes of Wang Lung. That is to say we dont see or hear about them unless they directly affect his life. This is as it would be when your primary goal is the survival of your family. This book was so good. So much happens yet the words are not crammed in. We are left with an impression of a man and his times that is so comprehensive. The pride and strength of Wang Lung are obvious, yet he also struggles with the ugly side of pride. His lifelong search for contentment is in vain which raises the question of how much does one need to feel happy. The tale is one of human nature, and in this regard it does a superb job of laying it out like it is.
    • 5/5
      I wish I had to read this in high school, I know a lot of people did. What a wonderful book!
    • 4/5
      I read this book for the first time in 7th grade and just finished rereading it and experience reading the book couldn't be more different. What I remembered about the book before rereading it was that it was about a man and his land with his wife and how they struggled then changed when they had money. Rereading it, it was more sad and I hated the main character in the 2nd half of the book. I also didn't remember anything after O'lan dies, I suspect in 7th grade we read a slimmed down version. I didn't enjoy the book as much after O'lan dies it felt like the rest of the book was about waiting for Wang Lung to die as well even though he wasn't that old, he just kept preparing for it. I liked the foreshadowing from the beginning about the old house, I was glad to see that the end didn't exactly copy the fall of the old house but lead you to believe it was leading that way considering the sons wanted to sell the land. The ending was well done, but felt very rushed and random the last few chapters.This is a great book to read, lots of interesting characters and it's about their lifetime and it does the time really well.
    • 4/5
      This book is absolutely heart breaking. Buck paints a vivid picture of Chinese village life. The main character is Wang Lung, and the story follows him and his family's struggles, rises, and falls. While it was initially hard to care for Wang Lung, by the end you feel so strongly for him that the ending will make you writhe in anger. I can't wait to start "Sons" next!
    • 4/5
      I never had to read this in school, for which I was grateful for at the time - always heard other students complaining about it. I don't know why! I found this a very interesting story, which moved along quickly. Opium dens, adultery, wars, secrets, betrayls, lots of juicy stuff! I wish it had more detailed historical information, but it definitely gave me better appreciation of Chinese culture
    • 4/5
      Authentic to life in China, honest to the characters as they evolve through the story, and emotional but not overwrought. Simply and beautifully told. Quotes:On brotherhood, and the transience of life:"Moving together in a perfect rhythm, without a word, hour after hour, he fell into a union with her which took the pain from his labor. He had no articulate thought of anything; there was only this perfect sympathy of movement, of turning this earth of theirs over and over to the sun, this earth which formed their home and fed their bodies and made their gods. The earth lay rich and dark, and fell apart lightly under the points of their hoes. Sometimes they turned up a bit of brick, a splinter of wood. It was nothing. Some time, in some age, bodies of men and women had been buried there, houses had stood there, had fallen, and gone back into the earth. So would also their house, some time, return into the earth, their bodies also. Each had his turn at this earth. They worked on, moving together - together - producing the fruit of this earth - speechless in their movement together."On the cosmos:"From dawn to dawn there was not a cloud, and at night the stars hung out of the sky, golden and cruel in their beauty."On desire:"He stared at her and as he stared a heat like wine poured through his veins."She is like a flower on a quince tree," he said suddenly aloud, and hearing his own voice he was alarmed and ashamed and he rose hastily and put down his money and went out and into the darkness that had now fallen and so to his home.But over the fields and the water the moonlight hung, a net of silver mist, and in his body his blood ran secret and hot and fast."
    • 3/5
      An interesting story of a number of flawed people (much as we all are) with perhaps the exception of Olan whose only fault is her lack of physical beauty. The story is basically the life of Wang Lung. Olan was largely the cause of his prosperity until the famine. Wang Lung shows a mixture of virtue (hard work, love of the land, not willing to kill) and fault (taking of his second wife, pride, concilliation to his children). Although Wang Lung becomes a rich man, it is unclear whether this is a good thing. His wealth leads to his lust and to many of the family problems. Life always leads to death regardless - each life is its own story. Who is find fault in another's life decisions. It is enough for one to try to make each current decision the best they can.
    • 4/5
      i loved the good earth. it was a great view of what it was like to live in those times. i remember the part wherein they had to eat his Ox in order to survive. :(
    • 4/5
      On June 14, 1946, I wrote: "Started 'The Good Earth. Pretty awful." On June 15 I wrote: "Finished tonight 'Good Earth,' A queer book indeed--it is so simply written, one wonders if she--Pearl Buck--can write any different."
    • 5/5
      This book is a spell-binding classic. Written in the early 1930's, it tells of the rise and fall of a peasant farmer, Wang Lu and his family. Wang Lu comes to venerate his land and the land is both good and bad to him, depending upon the gods (seasons). He marries an ordinary peasant slave, O-Lan and they have 3 sons, a daughter, and a poor fool. (girl who is dumbfounded). Wang Lu throughout most of the story acts as a righteous husband and father. However, lust and women get the better of him and in his older age causes nothing but problems. In the end, the rich Wang Lu wants nothing more than to be buried on his precious land next to his father and O-Lan. From dust you come and from dust ye shall return.....
    • 3/5
      The Good Earth was a mediocre book with a deep historical meaning. This novel documented the life of a farmer as his level of success agriculturally and monetarily fluctuated multiple times. The way the story was told helped to give me a sense of how 1900s China was and the challenges many farmers living there faced. What I did not like about the story was that after about half-way through it began to get a bit repetitive. This caused me to lose interest, but this may also be because I am not easily entertained by historical novels. I am not trying to say that the book became completely uninteresting; I am trying to say that there was a point where I no longer cared how the main character would ultimately fare. If you are an avid lover of historical-fiction genre books then I definitely recommend this book to you, however to everyone else, the choice is your own.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this story--it was written like an extended fable.
    • 5/5
      So much better than the movie version I saw as a teenager! There were aspects that I found hard to take as a modern American woman (calling baby girl children 'slaves' for example), but once I swallowed my indignation, I found the story compelling and at places heart-breaking.Anthony Heald did an excellent job with the narration.
    • 5/5
      The vivid description make you become part of the story. I had a hard time putting the book down even in the tough parts of the story. I love that it is apart of my home library classics!
    • 2/5
      I really enjoyed this book...although there was a lot of hardships in the book, it was wonderfully written.
    • 5/5
      The Good Earth is the story of a Chinese farmer, Wang Lung, and his growing family. We follow Wang Lung as he struggles for the survival of his household and his determination to hang onto the land which means more than life itself. I wanted to pinch this man's head off so many times because of his treatment of his hardworking, long-suffering wife, O'lan. I hurt for her. Page after page, we see a very patriarchal society where women are thought of as nothing more than slaves. I can't tell you how many times I groaned over the treatment of women. Beautiful, vivid language throughout the book. What an interesting and frustrating culture.
    • 5/5
      This book breaks my heart every time I read it, but I always come back to it every year because it is so engrossing and well-written. I fully sympathize with the wife in the story, and at the beginning, there is much admiration of the husband. However, he becomes despicable by the end. It's a hard journey, both literally and figuratively, and beautifully written.
    • 5/5
      This captures the mood of China and reflects on culture and class shifts and their impact on real people
    • 4/5
      Great book. Plus, now I finally get all of the references my grandmother makes to birthing children in rice paddys.
    • 5/5
      I read this after reading Thunder out of China by Theodore White. This helped with some context. The heroine is the slave wife. Buck's descriptions are so outstanding.
    • 1/5
      The most dull book I have read in a long, long time. I am genuinely surprised at the amount of good reviews this atrocity to literature has received. The thing is damn near unreadable, as the writing seems tedious, and purposefully dull. Sentences seem to run on, and the plot is practically nonexistent. Half the characters don't even have names for God's sake.The book caused a brain hemorrhage for me, as I couldn't read more than ten pages before either A) falling asleep or B) running off to do something more interesting. Like watch infomercials. (That last sentence was sarcasm, in case you didn't realize, as infomercials are the most boring thing television has to offer, yet infomercials are vastly more entertaining than The Good Earth.) The dialog between the characters is horrendous. I don't know if Pearl Buck was trying to put literal translations from actual Chinese into her book, but it comes off terribly mundane, and broken, as if I'm reading a comment on YouTube with incredibly terrible grammar.I honestly don't know why this is classic. Did someone decide that this book was a classic, and that every 10th grade English class has to read this? I think if it didn't have 'Enriched Classic' stapled onto the front, it would have a lot less good reviews.The tone is the worst part. I don't know why, but Pearl Buck's writing style is absolutely dreadful. I know I've already said this once in this review, but it actually feels like I'm reading a terribly written comment on YouTube with impossibly bad grammar. Half of her sentences unnecessarily run about six words too long, and break up what little tempo this book has, and the over-description of everything just drives what little tempo and tone this book has directly to the bottom of the proverbial sea.And the even worse than the worst part is, Pearl Buck overly describes every minute detail that may or may not mean anything. You see, I'm one of those people who can just read a brief outline of a scene, and already have the background (e.g., the locale of the scene) of that scene. I guess you can attribute that to my imagination. Anyway, I've always shied away from books that describe every single detail in every single possible way (I'm looking at you, Lord of the Flies) because I don't need those extra descriptors in there. It seriously messes with the tempo of the book. Back to topic, The Good Earth describes everything as if this book is intended to be read to a group of people who haven't the slightest notion of what imagination actually is, and cannot imagine anything unless it's being described to them in unbearable detail. For the rest of humanity, however, they're stuck with a completely unabridged overly descriptive book about a farmer with what could be called a decent story, but that's lost among the needless description.The only redeeming factor for this book is that it's a potential cure for insomnia, considering the plot is incredibly boring, and the writing and tone are both so dull it'll make you fall asleep faster than if you're taking Ambien with whiskey.
    • 4/5
      I read this book for the first time in 7th grade and just finished rereading it and experience reading the book couldn't be more different. What I remembered about the book before rereading it was that it was about a man and his land with his wife and how they struggled then changed when they had money. Rereading it, it was more sad and I hated the main character in the 2nd half of the book. I also didn't remember anything after O'lan dies, I suspect in 7th grade we read a slimmed down version. I didn't enjoy the book as much after O'lan dies it felt like the rest of the book was about waiting for Wang Lung to die as well even though he wasn't that old, he just kept preparing for it. I liked the foreshadowing from the beginning about the old house, I was glad to see that the end didn't exactly copy the fall of the old house but lead you to believe it was leading that way considering the sons wanted to sell the land. The ending was well done, but felt very rushed and random the last few chapters.This is a great book to read, lots of interesting characters and it's about their lifetime and it does the time really well.
    • 4/5
      The book gives us a glimpse of the patriarchal society of rural China with emphasis on a woman's status and worth. I appreciate the obvious heart of the author for farmers and the poor and the plight of women in Old China which is still true in some cultures now in our already modern times. I have no deep knowledge of Chinese culture, only the art and food as I experienced today. Pearl S. Buck has given me a peek into the "old ways" of China which may seem barbaric to us now with the slavery of young girls, arranged marriages, concubinage and women's binding of the feet. But she has presented it in a descriptive way, free of criticism and only attempting to narrate the facts of life as seen in the eyes of a proud patriarchal farmer in such times and through the eyes and heart of a rural poor wife in such era.I admire how the author has given power to the first wife character that even with her silence and seemingly blind obedience to her husband, she has the most profound grasp of their life and is the actual pillar of the family during their troubled times. She is a true matriarch with no voice, whose value is acknowledged by the husband only at the end. Her giving soul is so touching that a woman reader may question her own parenting and domestic capacity and duty as a wife.I recommend this book as a good slow read, that will give you an appreciation of the land, its toils and value both to the well-being of a person's body and soul.
    • 3/5
      Okay, it's come to my attention that "carpetbagger" doesn't mean what I thought it did, but what I meant to convey by using that word in my original review is that Pearl S. Buck used her quasi-insider status as the children of missionaries growing up in China (speaking Chinese and all, but only because she picked it up from her amah or whatever) to sell a putative special access to the "real" Inner Workings of the Middle Kingdom, and this book is powerful in a James Michener/Edward Rutherfurd epic sweep/small lives kind of way, but it borrows so much Biblical cadence and dips sometimes into Chinasploitation (the stuff about how women are "only slaves" and a girl child is a moderate letdown, I mean, I wasn't there and I don't doubt that it's true--I understand such attitudes persist--but my spidey sense seems to feel that Pearl S. Buck is playing it up, emphasizing it a bit more than needed both as a way of shoehorning in exposition of the "Wang Lung, as you know a girl is only a slave and not as good as a boy, but still, congratulations from me, your neighbour Ching! Thank you for the hardboiled egg" kind, and also as a way of cloaking salacious exoticism in realism, of course). This still makes it a fairly enjoyable light realist read as long as you don't take Pearl S. Buck for the final authority on China in the early 20th century or god forbid, "the Chinese" as a whole, but in this day and age, who would? (Read Lu Xun!) It also makes the introduction and reviews included here an uncomfortable experience, as the Chinese and Korean reviewers who took issue with some of Buck's depiction of Chinese culture and Asian mores are dismissed in sneering fashion by a consensus of snooty Ivy League professors (in tweed) and degenerate New York critics (seersucker) and also when Pearl S. Buck herself joins in to do the same (in some kind of dress that goes from neck to ankle, as I imagine her), asserting perfunctorily, since she knows the US literary establishment will back her to the hilt kneejerk fashion, that Chinese writers who quibble with her portrayal are just bourgeois reactionaries who don't want to admit their glorious civilization has such a thing as a peasantry. And granted, there is likely a grain of truth in that too; but the effortless assumption on the part of the everybody of the day that this was the Great Chinese Novel and only an American could write it really could only seem socially progressive in the context of a recent past where novelists referred to the Chinese as "celestials," inscrutable, etc.
    • 4/5
      I was really into this book pretty much the entire time. books about people's love for the land draw me in quickly. I loved the protagonist at the beginning. the way he talked about the land and the fulfillment he felt when he was working on it was so nice to read about. it made me really sad to see him go in this downward spiral of accumulating more wealth and land and women and less and less happiness. the whole time i was reading the book i kept waiting for that great final scene where the protagonist was finally redeemed... and well i guess i won't tell you if that happens or not, in case you might read the book.
    • 5/5
      This book made me think so deeply...so many times I identified with the characters, whose lives are a world apart - it felt strangely moving and was simply profound. Sometimes I had to just close the book for a moment and just digest the thoughts and feelings. A must read.

    Book preview

    The Good Earth - Literature Kit Gr. 9-12 - Michelle Jensen

    A Literature Kit™ FOR

    The Good Earth

    By Pearl S. Buck

    Written by Michelle Jensen

    GRADES 9 - 12

    Classroom Complete Press

    P.O. Box 19729

    San Diego, CA 92159

    Tel: 1-800-663-3609 | Fax: 1-800-663-3608

    Email: service@classroomcompletepress.com

    www.classroomcompletepress.com

    ISBN – 13: 978-1-55319-975-5

    eISBN: 978-1-55319-991-5

    © 2013

    Permission to Reproduce

    Pages of this publication designated as reproducible may be reproduced under licence from Access Copyright. All other pages may only be reproduced with the express written permission of Classroom Complete Press, or as permitted by law. All rights are otherwise reserved and no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanic, photocopying, scanning, recording or otherwise, except as specifically authorized. Permission is granted to the individual teacher who purchases one copy of this book to reproduce the student activity material for use in his or her classroom only. Reproduction of these materials for colleagues, an entire school or school system or for commercial sale is strictly prohibited. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian Book Fund for our publishing activities.

    Critical Thinking Skills

    The Good Earth

    Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy

    Contents

    Assessment Rubric

    The Good Earth

    Teacher Guide

    Our resource has been created for ease of use by both TEACHERS and STUDENTS alike.

    Introduction

    Our literature kit is designed to give the teacher a number of helpful ways of making the study of this novel a more enjoyable and profitable experience for the students. Our guide features a number of useful and flexible components, from which the teacher can choose. It is not expected that all of the activities will be completed.

    One advantage to this approach to the study of a novel is that the student can work at his or her own speed, and the teacher can assign activities that match the student’s abilities.

    Our literature kit divides the novel by chapters and features reading comprehension and vocabulary questions. Themes include the pursuit of wealth, the value of work, and the effect of pride. The Good Earth can be examined from three perspectives: as a classic piece of literature, as a social commentary, and as a historical perspective. The literary study of the novel includes an examination of the author’s purpose, to build a bridge of understanding between East and West.

    How Is Our Literature Kit™ Organized?

    STUDENT HANDOUTS

    Chapter Activities (in the form of reproducible worksheets) make up the majority of this resource. For each group of chapters, there are BEFORE YOU READ activities and AFTER YOU READ activities.

    •   The BEFORE YOU READ activities prepare students for reading by setting a purpose

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