Starvation Encounter

Wang Lung's life is taking a turn for the worst, as his innocent children face starvation. After a successful harvest Wang Lung began to spend money in useless ways rather than saving it for his family, which is what he should have done. His uncle, a careless human being, spent money the same way. He demanded Wang Lung gave him money so he could buy food for his family. It was known to Wang Lung that the money would be on the gambling table by night, because that was the kind of person his uncle was. He should have not given his money to his selfish uncle because he knew his uncle would spend it carelessly.

After his uncle was paid there was still no rain, and starvation was spreading faster than the swine flu in our modern times. O-lan lost her newborn baby because it starved to death, so Wang Lung was forced to make a choice as any good father would have done. Packing up their things they fled to the south - a decent decision for they could either starve or try to make a change. However once they got there they had to act as beggars - something Wang Lung - or even me today, would not want to do.

Reflections on the Good Earth Chapter 1

Marriage -- A chance to spend the rest of your life with the one you love; a ceremony celebrated with family and close friends, a time to forget your past and start over, but this time with someone you care about by your side. Like a baptisim for adults, being reborn into a life of Christ; perhaps a New Year's resolution just waiting to be brought to life. However farmers such as Wang Lung witnessed a much tougher situation.

"[Wang Lung's] father...[had] gone to the House of Hwang and asked if there was a slave to spare. 'Not a slave to young, and above all, not a pretty one,' he had said." (p.8) This slave, whom Wang Lung had never met would be his new wife. They would live together for the rest of their lives, and just the thought of having this forced upon you is truely tragic. As Wang prepared for what should be the most important day of his life it turned more into a chore, not something I would picture my own wedding day like at all. Wang's modivation to get out of bed was "this [is] the last morning [I] [will] have to light the fire...And [even] if the woman wearied, there would be children to light the fire." (p.3) Even when he arrives home with his new wife, all he can think about is how she will prepare dinner for the guests he invited over later that night. I can't even imagine putting myself in O-Lan's shoes and have to live day to day knowing this was how my should have been fairytale wedding ended afterall.

Thomas Hardy

Here are two of my favorite stanzas from The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy. These two are my favorite because they are so descriptive and vivid, you can almost picture yourself there. This poem was written as a rhyming poem, showing that Thomas often wrote with a closed writing structure.


I leant upon a coppice gate
When frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.

The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
The strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had saught their household fires.

Thomas Hardy -- an ironic poet born in June of 1840 -- spent almost all his free time writing. Whether it be novels, surveys, or poetry which he now a days is not well known for. He composed novels such as Desperate Remedies, Far From the Maddening Crowd, Under the Greenwood Tree, and A Pair of Blue Eyes.

Castle

Running absentmindedly up the cobblestone stairs, not quite knowing as to where I am going -- this place so unfamiliar. Opening a door to a closed off room a mustly smell overtakes me. Closing my eyes and reminicing of the days before I lie down on the overstuffed duvet and drift back off to sleep.

Minnie's Letter

Dear Mrs. Hale,

I thought it would be necessary to write and tell you about the actual events leading to the death of my husband, because as we both know looking through one's house could clearly give you the wrong impression. Months before he died, he had seem distant, confused and most importantly depressed. It seemed mild until two days ago when he took a rope to my pet bird's neck; strangling it to death.

The week before the killing of my bird my husband forced me to stop singing because it gave him headaches, so I bought myself a bird -- a wise innocent creature, to remind me of those happier times. This bird brought me back a hope I knew I was lacking and having it back made my heart feel full once again. I do not know why my husband took his anger out on this bird, for it had done him no wrong to begin with.

Knowing that the bird did nothing to my husband, seemed unfair to me therefore I felt revenge was necessary. Then I also took a rope, and tied it around his neck while he was sleeping. The rope was not intended to kill him but to startle him and force him to appoligize for what he had done. Throughout the night the rope got tighter, choaking him to death -- it was clearly unintentional.

Mrs. Hale I took the trouble to write this letter from prison, to ask that you show this to the police so they know what lead up to the killing of my husband, and that I should be proven innocent.

Thank you Mrs. Hale,

-Minnie Foster