Who is the narrator, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him?
Third Person (Limited Omniscient)
You'd think that because this is Wang Lung's story, we'd be inside of his head, but not quite. Since The Good Earth is written in third person limited omniscient, we experience the story as if we're outsiders watching everything that is happening. The limited part comes in when we can hear Wang Lung's thoughts—and only his thoughts.
Since everything is told from Wang Lung's perspective, we only notice the things that he notices, and we forget the things that he forgets. The things that he doesn’t understand—particularly people, since we don’t get to peek into their thoughts or feelings—also confuse us.
Buck also attempts to realistically portray how we experience memory, so time isn't just linear in the novel. Huge chunks of time are just skipped over. For example, if you had to remember elementary school, you'd probably focus on a few key moments and gloss over the rest, even though you're remembering five or six years of time. That's what happens here in the novel.
Man, this is sounding a lot like the first person, right? You might be wondering why Buck wrote The Good Earth in third person instead. It could be because her writing style is influenced by Chinese literary and storytelling styles, which were generally in third person and not first person.