“The Good Earth” (post 2) by Pearl S. Buck (post 3): Sane protagonist hears voices and argues with himself, typical of multiple personality

Wang Lung, a farmer, had become rich enough to turn his attention to luxuries, especially to Lotus, his mistress. But his connection to the land reasserts itself. How is this expressed? He hears a voice:

“Then a voice cried out in him, a voice deeper than love cried out in him for his land. And he heard it above every other voice in his life and he tore off the long robe he wore and stripped off his velvet shoes and his white stockings and rolled his trousers to his knees and he stood forth robust and eager and he shouted,

     “Where is the hoe and where is the plow? And where is the seed for the wheat planting? Come, Ching my [fellow farmer] friend—come—call the men—I go out to the land!” (1, p. 211).

And subsequently, when Wang Lung comes to realize his neglect of O-lan, his wife, how does he experience his thought process? He “argued with himself” (1, p. 250).

What kind of sane person hears voices and argues with himself?

Persons with undiagnosed multiple personality may hear an alternate personality as an inner voice, often as one of the voices they have heard for years (2, p. 94). A common experience from the perspective of the regular, host personality—in persons who don’t realize they have multiple personality—is that they get into arguments with themselves (2, p. 82).

1. Pearl S. Buck. The Good Earth [1931]. New York, Washington Square Press/ATRIA, 2020.

2. Frank W. Putnam, MD. Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. New York, The Guilford Press, 1989.