The Good Earth/YMMV

• Complete Monster: Wang Lung's uncle, who repeatedly mooches off of his nephew, treats his niece in law cruelly, joins/becomes the leader of a gang that kills people, burns down houses and rapes women for laughs, and attempts to blackmail Wang Lung with this fact. Fortunately, he ends up dying from his opium addiction...and then his equally vile son takes over.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Though Buck was a die-hard feminist, she depicts traditional Chinese practices (such as concubines and foot-binding) fairly straightforwardly.
• Jerkass: Wang Lung, at various points.
  • His relatives much more so.
• Tear Jerker: The death of O-Lan