The Dichotomy of Beauty in The Good Earth essays

The Dichotomy of Beauty in The Good Earth essays A pearls beginnings stem from a tiny grain of sand finding its 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 1800s. 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 Lungs 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 large black nostrils, and her mouth was wide as a gash in her face. Her eyes were small and of a dull black color, and were filled with some sadness that was not clearly expressed. It was a face that seemed habitually silent and unspeaking, as though it could not speak if it would. (19) Wang Lung is pleased that she does not have a pockmarked face or a split lip, as was his fear. As they settle into their new life together, Wang Lung observes this woman that is now his own. He sees that plain though her face was and rough the skin upon her hands the flesh of her big body was soft and untouched (26). He ponders, even, that her body was beauti...