In the Old Testament of the Bible, it is told that God created Eve to serve Adam. As written in Genesis 3:16, "thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." Even for Pearl. S. Buck's pre-Revolutionary Chinese of "The Good Earth", who have never read the Bible, this is true. From the moment O-Lan is betrothed to Wang-Lung, she becomes little better than a possession, hardly elevated from her previously social class of kitchen slave. Throughout the book, women are consistently mistreated and thanklessly used as tools to better the lives of their husbands. Women of that era, no matter how clever, beautiful, or helpful, are subservient in their roles as children, as wives, as mothers, as aslaves, or as general members of society.

Initially, Chinese women of the pre-Revolutionary Era are destined for prejudice since birth. While the arrival of a male infant...