Book of the Week

 

 

Title: Peony

Author: Pearl S. Buck

Published: 1948

 

Peony is a novel set in Kaifeng, China, in the 1850s. It is my favorite among Pearl S Buck novels because it propounds tolerance and looks beyond the borders of religion, culture and nationality. It gives a clear portrayal of how creating walls in the name of culture and communities can only bring them tumbling down.

The other thing that I liked was how Peony, the protagonist, develops into a wise and respected woman, an advisor to her former employers, revered by the people who she served as a child.

Peony, named after a flower that has mythological significance in both Greek and Chinese lore, starts her life at eight years of age as a bond maid in a rich foreigner’s family that had emigrated from Palestine a few generations earlier to avoid harassment. She was bought as a companion to the only son of the house. She learnt writing and reading while her young master studied. Peony, as expected, fell in love with her young master, David. However, knowing that she would never be accepted as a daughter-in-law by the family, she overcame her desires and helped her young master marry a bride who would bring him happiness in the long run.

Her mistress, an upholder of the Judaism in China, was keen that her son marries a Rabbi’s daughter. Both the Jewish women (David’s mother and future fiancée) loved what they believed to be Judaism as it was interpreted by their Rabbi. They believed that they were the chosen ones and superior to the ‘ heathens‘. Their religion drew borders and created only rifts with the local population. In the middle of the book, there is an interesting dialogue between the Rabbi and a liberal Chinese trader, Kung Chen.

“There is only one true God, and Jehovah is His name,” the Rabbi declared, trembling all over as he spoke.

“So the followers of Mohammed in our city declare,” Kung Chen said gravely, “but they call his name as Allah. Is he the same as your Jehovah?”

“There is no god beside our God,” the Rabbi said in a loud high voice. “He is the One True God!”

Kung Chen, a buddhist and an open thinker, is appalled by the Rabbi’s intolerance and tells David, Peony’s young master, “None can love those who declare that they alone are the sons of God.”

Perhaps, with this one statement Pearl S Buck has summed up the issue faced by many in the current day world, intolerance towards others’ beliefs.

I have not looked into the authenticity of the historical fact or the religious belief of those times. But what struck me was that this is an age-old truth. Intolerance only breeds hatred and violence, as it does in the book.

Earlier the Jews who came for refuge to Kaifeng were not intolerant. Over a period of time, the group grew smaller and became more rigid.

In the past, a liberal minded follower of the same Judaism had engraved on a plaque in the same temple where the Rabbi propounded his intolerance: “Worship is to honor Heaven, and righteousness is to follow the ancestors. But the human mind has always existed before worship and righteousness.”

It is the human mind, which helps us make choices. When we stop thinking, we lose touch with reality and become fanciful, as had the Rabbi and his daughter. After all, the human mind has been made by God who, probably, wanted us to think and take responsibility for our thoughts and action.

Peony by her actions generates the positive feelings of calmness, peace, harmony and tolerance whereas the Rabbi’s daughter generates passion, violence, intolerance and fear. She is so passionate and intolerant in her outlook that she comes to a sad end.

Peony, on the other hand, gains in social and spiritual stature.

I also love what the book does with Peony, a woman who might have become a concubine in the royal court of China. She defines her own position by her selflessness and opts for a more meaningful existence. She rejects power and glory for love and kindness, values that would make for a happier world.

Her role in the latter part of the book reminds me of a few lines that are often quoted and were written by Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney in Illinois around the same period as when this story was set…

 

Little deeds of kindness,

Little words of love,

Help to make earth happy

Like the Heaven above.

Book of the week

Title: The Good Earth
Author: Pearl S Buck

The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck, first published in 1931, was on the best seller list for two years and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. It was regarded as a novel that created a bridge between China and the rest of the world.

Set in the early twentieth century, in an age of political unrest, we travel with the protagonist, Wang Lung, and his wife, O-Lan, through times of prosperity, famine and turmoil. Eventually, they become wealthy landlords themselves. Wang Lung even acquires a concubine. We see how despite remaining untouched by the political movements intellectually, the couple does profit from it. Wang Lung grows prosperous by robbing a rich man off his wealth. The rich man empties his pockets to the peasant in exchange of his life. Wang Lung and O-lan enter the home with the peasant hordes attacking the the rich man, instigated by followers of communists. O-Lan makes off with the jewels. The irony of the situation is that they do not know why they are robbing the man and they use the stolen wealth to recreate the lifestyle of the rich man themselves, back in their own home in the north.

Wang Lung, who started as a poor farmer with good values, is driven by poverty to pocket another man’s wealth for his own. In his world, people are revered for wealth and not for the process of acquisition. When Wang Lung’s son steals meat from a butcher, his mother cooks it. Wang Lung’s protests are feeble and ineffective for at the end he himself steals from a rich man to become wealthy. A rich man is seen as akin to God, untouchable and supreme.

It is a very life-like depiction of China, where even now, the common people are cut off from politics and events happening around the world. They only have access to what the Chineses media projects. The Chinese media continues to be the positive voice of the government. Even now, as through history,  people revere wealth and beauty to a very large extent. In Xian, you have the fabulous Huaqing Palace which was created by the Tang Emperor Xuanzong for his beloved Yang Guifei, initially his daughter-in-law and then his favourite concubine and consort. Not only did he marry his son’s wife but they had an excellent life together as he would write verses for her and she would dance to them, according  to tourist guides who love to relate this story to visitors like us.

Pearl S Buck grew up in China amidst these values and depicted them to the rest of the world with consummate skill. The story of Wang Lung and his wife are no less realistic than the other stories she has written.

There are things that are in common with Wang Lung and his dad and Scarlett O’Hara and her dad (Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell) …the love of their land, the strength, determination and courage to succeed and make it in this world… All four of them have these values. Both Scarlett and Wang Lung compromise the values they grew up with to fulfil their dreams and ambitions.

Pearl S Buck is not just a lucid writer but she delves into the psyche of the characters she creates. She  brings out the drama of the situations really well. I would put The Good Earth as a must read.