Take a story's temperature by studying its tone. Is it hopeful? Cynical? Snarky? Playful?
Solemn, Detached
It doesn't matter what's happening, the tone in this novel is always the same. Things are described matter-of-factly, without emotion, as if a robot with awesome literary skills were watching these events and reporting them back to us.
Here's the happy tone: “She smoothed a last furrow slowly. Then in her usual plain way she said, straight out, her voice flat and more than usually plain in the silent evening air, ‘I am with child'" (2.21). Now here's the sad tone: “But Ching's ear were filled with his blood, and if he heard Wang Lung he made no sign, but he only lay there panting and dying and so he died" (29.74). Can you tell the difference? We didn't think so.
This tone helps give the novel the sense of being a documentary. Documentaries don't have fancy camera angles or dramatic music. Happy or sad, they always have the same neutral tone. And since Buck wants to give us the feeling of being a fly on the wall in Wang Lung's house, it's the perfect tone to use. It also enhances the novel's impression of realism. If everything is reported in a neutral way, it doesn't seem like Buck is making judgments or manipulating our emotions too much.