Published in the early years of the Great Depression, Pearl Buck's novel The Good Earth brought hope and encouragement to many economically struggling people. The main character, Wang Lung, goes from a Chinese farmer to a landowner and a highly respected man with studious children. A symbol in this book is education. This essay discusses the role that education plays in Wang Lung's rise from a poor country farmer to a rich man living in Hwang's House in the village. Buck demonstrates that in some places hard work may be the only ticket to wealth, rather than education and knowledge. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The book does not try to prove that education is useless, but rather that it is unnecessary if you have motivation and perseverance. There are advantages to being educated, as Wang Lung discovers. He was unsure whether the character Lung in his name referred to the "dragon character Lung or the deaf character Lung". When he brought grain to the market, he, who was a landowner, had to ask the common clerks to sign it for him. He mused, "[None of those city fools have a foot on the ground and yet every one feels they can laugh at me with a goose giggle because I can't" read and write. “I will take my eldest son… and he will go to school in the city and learn, and when I go to the corn market, he will read and write for me so that he can finish this hissy laughter at Me.” Wang Lung never learned to read and write, but his children's knowledge contributed to his family's abilities. But in the long run, the benefits of education were far outweighed by the disadvantages of having naive children. His sons soon became haughty with their knowledge, eager to go and fight in war, spending more and more gold on fine clothes. and food, arguing, arguing, and dating lots of women. Meanwhile, the father was left to manage the land's hired hands, settle disputes between his sons, and skillfully satisfy his uncle's lazy and greedy family. Soon his children forget all that the land does for them and take an abundant supply of money for granted. When the father is near death and can barely hear, the two eldest sons argue about selling the land. “But the old man only heard these words: “sell the land,” and he shouted and could not hold back his voice which cracked and trembled with anger: “Now, you wicked and lazy children, sell the land!... We have come out from the earth and into it we must go – and if you keep your land you can live”.” But his children subtly console him by telling him that they would never have sold it, winking behind their father's back. The old man's children have lost respect and sense of value for the land. Their upbringing made them haughty, taking money for granted. Indeed, in this culture, it turns out that hard work is the best tool for success. At the beginning of the book, as Wang Lung considers his future wife, he regrets that she is simple, but at least his father warns, no one will “get enough of her”. Better an ugly virgin who works than a beautiful concubine with bound feet who complains. Wang Lung marries a woman (his first wife) of the same gender as himself. She fulfills his expectations as best as she can, working in the fields until she goes into labor, and resuming her work when the baby is born. She works so hard that when she dies, “for the first time Wang Lung and her children knew what she had been in the house”: a hard worker, silently fulfilling every duty. Its void was difficult to fill, because “no one knew how to light it.