the quote i use for my summary occurs about halfway through the good earth and a a captain of a chinese revolutionary army ( play by philip ahn ) apologize to a mob for not have time to shoot more of the looter among them and a his unit have just be call back to the front line . of course and the next looter about to be find out and shot be the main character of the film and the former kitchen slave girl o lan ( for whose portrayal luise rainer and now 99 year old and win her second consecutive best actress oscar ) . the next scene find o lan dutifully deliver her bag of looted jewel to her under appreciative husband and farmer wang lung ( paul muni ) and set in motion that classic dichotomy of a man upward financial mobility be the direct inverse of his moral decline . for a movie deal with subject matter include slavery and false accusation and misogyny and starvation and home invasion and eat family pet and mental retardation and infanticide and exploit refugee and riot and civil war and summary mass street execution and bigamy and child beating and adultery and incest and and insect plague of biblical proportion and the good earth be a surprisingly heart warm movie . my part thought be in the form of another classic quote and from o lan herself ( while put the precious soup bone her son have just admit steal from an old woman back into the cooking pot after husband wang lung have angrily toss it to the dirt floor on the other side of their hut ) represent meat be meat .