Veteran's Essay

People darting here and there, sparing themselves from the constant fire of the adversary, bombs dropping left and right, yet not the slightest sign of fear can be found in these men’s eyes. These people are putting their life on the edge day after day without thought of their well-being but only their countries’. These men and women are part of a small portion of the population who are the heart and soul of our country. Now with all this bravery and time that they put forth for our country one would think that these people would get a great recognition and be treated incredibly well in society. In reality this is quite the opposite of what is occurring. All of these heroes of our country get one hardly noticed day a year to be reflected upon by the rest of the country for what they really are, our protection.
The right time to honor our veterans is always, these people can be honored anytime anywhere with something as simple as a gesture or a thanks here and there. Most of these people have almost nothing because they have sacrificed everything to go serve our country and I believe that they need to be treated with the utmost respect. These people go off to fight and face death in the eye only to return to find that they are in a dark hole of ignorance and without the slightest bit recognition outside of Veterans Day. In the instance of Vietnam War not only were people not given any respect upon return but were considered outcasts among society. This just shows how ignorant people are today of the hard work and bravery these people provide us with. All the while actors and sports icons are being treated as royalty and are given all the attention of our nation. This would be quite bothersome to me if I just came back from risking my life for the well being of my neighbor back home and upon my return all I receive is a welcome home card and outside of that given absolutely no respect from the majority of the general public. We the people of America can do so much more and I truly believe that we can honor the veterans who have risked their very lives for the security of ours at anytime.

Contentment and the Constant search for more-Good Earth-by Pearl S. Buck

The Good Earth

People running everywhere scavenging for a little bit of grain, others lining the streets begging for some small cash so that they may eat that evening while others are sitting among their families eating of only the finest foods so that they may say that they are the best. This is the time of famine in China that Wang Lung was able to experience both sides of. In the novel, The Good Earth, Pearl Buck creates an easily recognized tragic plot including a bit of difference from the typical western tragedy, with a unique explanation of human nature as well as the reward of hard work and smart investments while crafting a wild environment where someone can become what they have despised their whole life without realizing it.

An incredibly important figure in the novel is the House of Hwang as they are the rich house in the town that Wang Lung Lives on the outskirts of. As a young boy Wang was scared of this place as he went there to ask that one of the slaves be his wife but as Wang rises and becomes more rich and powerful the House of Hwang starts its fall and eventually is nonexistent. Wang slowly changes into the character that the Old Lord was as the old Lord becomes the type of person Wang was which creates one of the many paradoxes found in this novel. A wise figure in this novel said that “there is a way when the rich are too rich…”(p 121) This will become one of the building blocks for the novel as power shifts and rich families fall and new ones rise up in their place.

Although the House of Hwang becomes a very influential character in the novel the rise of Wang Lung becomes the most important part of this novel as it sets up the large, sweeping, epic, tragic plot that creates the story of Wang Lung. A young boy running about getting what he can with the few coins he has so that his family might eat well that night and in the midst of these simple errands he will stop at the richest house in the town to ask that he may wed one of the slaves that lives there. This is where you may have found Wang Lung in his early years, as a humiliated filthy, poor farm boy. This is the start of Wang Lungs Rise as he is content and a hardworking man that earns his way through life. Though all this is great for Wang’s character it isn’t enough and soon famine hits sending his once prosperous family into turmoil. This forces them to travel to the city in the south and the rise of Wang Lung has finished setting the stage for his tragic and incredible fall.

The rise of Wang Lung is very important to the large sweeping plot but his fall that the rise sets up is even more important to the story. Once Wang gets to the city he gets right back where he left off, hard work allowing his family to eat enough that they wouldn’t starve. But soon the tough times push him too far and he breaks his moral values which in the plot is his tragic flaw. Carl Jung put this problem into a famous quote by saying “What we resist, persists” which correlates to this story because all throughout his life Wang had decided to do what is right but eventually it pushed him too far and he stole from the rich house in the southern city. "Hunger makes thief of any man."(p.143) This to proved to be true for Wang Lung. With all the gold and Jewels that Wang and his family now had they could go back to their land and that they did. Then with the jewels he bought land from the house of Hwang and this provided him with riches not previously known to a farmer and soon his little earthen house was turning into a little palace. He even went as far as getting a concubine. Throughout all this Wang thinks he is on a rise to power in his community but it really proves to be his fall as without knowing it he slowly turns into the Old Lord of the House of Hwang. This changed him into something he never wanted to be and with all the slaves taking care of the land he became ill from being too idle.

Wang Lung’s fall creates a situation where not only he starts to wither away but also creates a figure of a not a content worker but a sad and non content land owner on the verge of turning into the resemblance of a Old Lord of years past. Now a man of ignorance to his land and especially his wife his riches make him ill. It is too much different from the simple life he had once lived and the only cure is to go back to the land and work as he had once worked. This heals him of his sickness and he becomes whole again. This doesn’t last however and his idleness keeps him in a glass box where he can only walk around and see the land outside but doesn’t put the hours in on working the land. He soon becomes immune to this sickness and that is the last straw for Wang as that turns him into the figure of idleness that he had looked up at his whole life. Now this may seem as though Wang Lung is still rising to power and that this might not be a tragedy but this novel isn’t like the common western tragedy read today. Instead it follows the tragic plot but instead of everything going in the dumpster for the character the fall doesn’t appear to the character who is oblivious to what’s going on it only appears to the reader who can see what’s really happening to that character. This style that Pearl Buck writes in creates an atmosphere where the reader can create their own interpretation of what is really happening to this character which allows the readers mind to flow which allows this book to be widely appreciated as a great piece of literature.

With Wang slowly deteriorating into an idle self-centered, not to mention foolish old man

he still manages to turn his life into a definite pattern. This pattern is a very interesting one and is part of Pearl Bucks description of our simple nature as human beings. The pattern that Wang follows in this book consists of four parts and he repeats the pattern multiple times in his life without realizing it. In the first stage he is the farmer who is simple, pure and inexperienced, he soon moves on to wealth which is of the land and from the land due to his hard simplistic work. That wealth eventually turns into experience and he desires more and more which turns into a huge mistake as he gets greedy which will in turn cause him to turn back to poverty and it all starts over again. This is part of human nature and is installed in our brains and if you can’t handle it like Wang the desire to have more will take over your life and you will never become happy as your mind tells you that you will when you get those things that you desire. Wang’s desires controlled him throughout his life and he went around the pattern again but only this time his greed changed him and he became immoral and stole great amounts of money which allowed him to stay on that wealth part of the circle and there he stayed the rest of his life thinking that this would make him happy and it never did. In his final days he finally realized the true key to happiness, simplicity and purity. So with that he went to live out his final days on his land wishing he had realized this earlier in his tragic life. Bob Bowden once said “Don’t go to your grave with a life unused.” Wang was surely feeling that he was going to his grave with a life unused in his final days.

The pattern of human nature is a very important implement to this novel but the actual description of our nature as human beings is described in a very accurate and unique way through the main character Wang Lung’s actions throughout the novel. As the novel progresses Wang follows a path from being an incredibly hard working poor man with nothing but his land to a self- centered fool that resembled the persona of the Old Lord who he had looked at with much anger and humility as a child and young man. He portrays the human nature as being a nature of always desiring what we don’t posses convincing ourselves that those things will fill the void so that we may have happiness but instead it only opens a new hole that is incredibly hard to climb out of in our lives. Throughout the novel Wang Lung goes from a poor farm boy to the head of a great family by always wanting more and eventually even though he thought he was a success he was a failure in the eyes of many others. This is the fate of those who desire everything they don’t posses which will hide the truth of what will bring them true happiness. Now where you look for happiness is your decision, whether it be religion, simplicity, purity, family, friends or if you feel the same way Wang did you may look for happiness in possessions and what others think of your stature.

Character, its part of our human nature but it’s an extension of that and requires a strong mind that will choose what we do with our lives. We emphasize character, yet we look for the easy way out; we look for the flaws in others, yet we praise prowess; we look past the hardworking poor; yet we look at the fat rich as though they are all mighty, powerful, controllers of the world. This is the world we live in and we must choose what is truly right. It has been said that “Your thoughts determine your words, your words determine your actions, your actions determine your character, and your character determines your destiny” (unknown). This relates to Wang in the way that he started with some thoughts and it turned him into a horrible creature that was despised by many. This shows just how important every thought, every decision is so important, whether you are being watched or if you’re all alone to make some of the most important, influential decisions of your entire life.

Your character may not be what you thought it would be, as our unique nature of human beings may take is in a unique direction, as happened to Wang Lung in the tragic novel The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck. Whatever you choose to do in life make it worthwhile so that your life doesn’t flip on you unsuspectingly and you ruin your character so that you become what you have despised your entire life.