Female as a Sex Object in Buck's "The Good Earth"

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2013 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, , course: Humanities (English), language: English, abstract: Females are often viewed solely as de-personalized objects of desire instead of as individuals with complex personalities and desires or plans of their own. They also grow up in a culture with widespread sexual objectification and tend to view themselves as objects of the fulfillment of others¿ desires. This internalized sexual objectification can be linked to mental health as well. In the novel, patriarchy in general and other females in particular both insist that woman¿s role is to be the slave of her own sex as well as be a sexual object for males.

The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck is a story of a peasant. Buck brilliantly portrays the isolation, dislocation and identity crisis of a typical Chinese society¿s woman. It is about the true status of the women in pre-revolutionary China, especially on the unloved life of a Chinese peasant¿s ugly wife. She has control over all the riches in her husband¿s life, she is a true better half in all the senses but still she faces the psychological trauma and remains only as a sex object to bear him children.

This thesis concludes that the cultural upbringing, the patriarchy and the women¿s submissive and subservient nature results a woman to become a mere sex object in the hands of male counterpart.