读书笔记：《The Good Earth》 by Pearl Buck
2011-04-21 23:14阅读：
前几个月在老师的推荐下，看完了赛珍珠的The Good
Earth，当然我们只看了第一部，原来是《大地三部曲》的。感觉挺不错，因为作者个是美国人，但是却在中国生活了好多年。此书是一个外国人写晚清时代中国农民的生活思想，我认为读一读挺有意思。以下是我读后的一些总结和笔记，不断改进中。。。老师还叫俺们做6分钟的report演讲..各种要求啊~~泪奔~~~~~~~~~~~背去了。。。
Brief Summary:
This novel is set in a rural landscape in Anhwei Province and
written in third person. It describes the life of the hero, a
Chinese farmer Wang Lung, from his marriage day to his old age.
Wang Lung's triumphs and defeats map the encounter between
traditional China and the revolutionary future. Because he is the
son of a poor farmer, Wang Lung has few options in choosing a wife.
To save money, his father has directed him to but a slave from the
House of Hwang, the leading family in the region. Other characters
are his father, his neighbour and his uncle's family. There
are 3 major conflicts in this novel. They are the conflict between
man and man like Wang Lung and his uncle, the conflict between
farmer and nature, the conflict between Wang Lu
ng and himself.
Evaluation:
This novel is easy to understand because we know the culture
backgrounds. When reading this novel I can imagine the scene, which
like showing the movie in my mind. This book helps me know more
about the society of ancient China, especially the life of the poor
in China. The author created a successful character who
could represent the group of farmers in China. I not only know how
the people lived in the turbulent age, but also know what the
poor's opinions at that time.
Q 1: Did this book
make you laugh? Cry?
Cringe? Smile? Explode
(get furious)? Explain your
reaction.
This book makes me laugh
sometimes, but it provokes my
anger to some characters most
of the time. I laugh
because some fatuous ideas of
the poor in ancient China.
I am angry because some
characters' bad behaviours and
moral degeneration. For example,
the uncle of Wang Lung is
a greedy and arbitrary man.
He almost lost the basic
dignity of a human, begging
for food and accommodation like
a dog when Wang Lung was
rich. But when there came
a disaster, he robbed Wang
Lung of the rest food.
What's more, when there was
a famine, he even sold
his daughters out.
Q2: Do you think the
title fits the book? Why
or why not?
I think the title fits the
book, the reasons are as
follows. Firstly, the hero is
a farmer and the earth is
important to him. The story
centers on the earth. So
the earth is like a
thread, connecting all the
events. Wang Lung's life is
around the earth. He got
this earth from his father
and he obtained money from
his land. Secondly, using an
adjective 'good' to modify the
earth reflects the Chinese
people's love to the land
and shows the strong admire
to the earth.
Q3: What came as a
surprise in the book?
The fact that Wang Lung
found a whore as his
second wife makes me surprise
in the book. The reason
is that Wang Lung gave us
a good impression before. He
was a surefooted and laborious
farmer. Although he didn't real
love his wife, but he
still regarded her as a
family member and wasn't rough
to her. He had a basic
moral of being a human,
educating his son not to
steal even they were poor.
But when he became rich
and had nothing to do, he
went to the town to find
some new things. After all,
he was a man, and had
been a rich man. At that
time, the fact that a
rich man had a beautiful
concubine was common. So even
he was a honest man, he
was also addicted to women.
This behaviour makes me
surprise.
