The_Good_Earth__Lotus’_Character_Analysis

In China, becoming a concubine starts with childhood. A young Chinese girl’s feet are bound tight, she is taught the ways of influencing people and, in short, getting what she wants. Her goal in life is to be bought and to be housed within a great family. She achieves this goal by using her characteristics and attributes as a method to entice men. In The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, the character Lotus Flower is a concubine. She begins her life just as any wealthy girl would, with bound feet and mistreatment by men. But Lotus, like many others in The Good Earth, symbolizes something else entirely. Buck conveys China’s shifting new culture through Lotus, communicates China’s transformation into a modern country, and exposes the propaganda in which China brainwashes its citizens into thinking something else completely. Lotus represents China’s adjustment in culture because she transforms Wang Lung, changes how Wang Lung perceives his first wife, O-lan, and is able to use her innocence and splendor as a tool to achieve her goals. Initially, Lotus causes Wang Lung to alter his original beliefs into other ways of living not previously accepted by his ancestors. When Wang Lung first meets Lotus, he still remains faithful to the Chinese belief system. Later on, after visiting her almost daily, he starts to lose those previous principles. This is shown when Lotus states that Wang Lung needs to cut his hair and that all of the men in the south wear it cut short. Buck portrays this by writing, “he went without a word and had it cut off, although neither laughter nor scorn had been able to persuade him before” (196; ch. 19). Before he met her he wouldn’t dare to cut his hair without asking his father. His actions display Lotus’s ability to persuade him that he can be more prominent in the community, something no one in his family has been for generations. This quote proves that she was the only one able to convince him to cut off his long braid. In addition, Wang Lung alters in other ways. He washes often and he buys all sorts of soap and new clothes. This is all for Lotus. All she has to do is say a word, or give a look. China’s fresh culture transforms many citizens of China just as Lotus change Wang Lung. This even extends to the point of Wang Lung starting to care about how many other people in the town think of him and address him. Wang Lung no longer wants to be a country bumpkin, because that is looked down upon by the townspeople in the new Chinese society. Lotus furthermore exemplifies China’s newer culture because she is taken as a second wife to Wang Lung. Lotus disturbs the place of the other women in the family’s system, like O-lan. At first, when Wang Lung is too afraid to wear his new clothes in front of his family, O-lan and her daughters’ place are firmly secured. However, Wang Lung insults O-lan and her daughter by announcing, “Why should one wear pearls with her skin as black as earth' Pearls are for fair women.” (199; ch. 19). In this quote, Wang Lung takes the pearls from O-lan and later gives them to Lotus. This proves that Wang Lung doesn’t approve of O-lan keeping the pearls to herself seeing as how she is ugly. Wang Lung is blinded by the utmost beauty of Lotus Flower, so that all other women in his household are useless, slow and ugly as Buck writes. He does not understand that Lotus has set higher standards for females in general. What he does realize though, is how he had not gotten by without Lotus. Even when O-lan is dying, Wang Lung feels that she is ugly in comparison to Lotus. He still stays at her bedside, and while he does so he sees his wife as the woman that he appreciated in the beginning of the novel, “He saw how wide and ghastly her lips drew back from her teeth” (286; ch. 26). Pearl S. Buck writes that Wang Lung hates himself for noticing this; Buck implies that Lotus has taught him what is ugly. Even though O-lan has borne him sons, Wang Lung’s idea of what a woman should be is skewed by Lotus’s attributes. As a second wife, Lotus unbalances other women in Wang Lung’s household. As a final point, Lotus uses her beauty to her advantage by using it to get what she wants. First, she compliments him when he first arrives and then she acts sad that she doesn’t have a material possession. She then asks for it, and as if Wang Lung is under a spell, he gives it to her. This pertains to her correspondence to new customs because the customs use propaganda to make things sound prosperous. This is just like when Lotus uses her attractiveness to get what she wants. Lotus also uses her childlike beauty to her advantage when the poor fool is brought to her chambers by two of Wang Lung’s children. She plays the victim, using her innocence to her benefit, and she gets what she wants. This reflects on her character because not only does it portray her manipulative attribute, but it highlights her ability to go from yelling at the children and being mean to shrieking in pain from laying eyes on them. Wang Lung is taken aback and for a moment the reader thinks he will stand up his children and break the spell but instead the only yells at Lotus, instead of going back to his land. This detail proves how Lotus applies influencing Wang Lung. Ultimately, Wang Lung’s influenced self is not as independent as the reader would like. Although Lotus Flower seems to be an antagonist, had she not been in the story, many great things wouldn’t have happened. Pearl S. Buck writes her into the book because she offers a place for China’s fresh customs, because she changes Wang Lung as the new culture changed Chinese people everywhere. Lotus’s presence in the story demotes other women’s places; especially O-lan’s, as the different culture of China changed the way people viewed women. As new customs used propaganda, Lotus tapped into her strengths to get what she desired. After reading this book the person who reads The Good Earth can’t help but wonder if Wang Lung would have been as successful if he didn’t meet Lotus and fall into her trap.