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1-Page Summary of The Good Earth
Wang Lung is a poor farmer from rural China. He’s part of a society that is slowly modernizing, yet still heavily influenced by ancient traditions and customs. When Wang reaches an age where he can marry, his father approaches the powerful Hwang family to ask for one of their slaves as a wife for him. The Hwangs agree to give them O-lan, who becomes Wang’s wife. Although they don’t say much to each other, Wang and O-lan are happy with each other since she accepts her role in life without complaint or rebellion like some of the other wives do.
Wang Lung and his wife O-lan work together to cultivate a large amount of rice. They are able to sell it for a profit, which allows them to buy more land. Wang Lung is happy because he has two sons now. Meanwhile, the Hwang family lives extravagantly by spending money on things they don’t need. Eventually this leads them into debt and they have to sell some of their land off as well.
After Wang Lung’s wife, O-lan gives birth to a daughter, the family faces a terrible famine. She later gives birth to another girl and kills her because they don’t have enough food for two children. The couple is forced to move away from their land in order to find work and save money for food. They barely earn enough money for survival by begging on the streets of southern cities while Wang Lung works as a rickshaw driver. Eventually, they decide that selling their daughter would be better than starving together. However, an uprising breaks out shortly after this decision and the couple joins it with other poor people who steal gold coins from rich men’s homes. After moving back home with new wealth earned through stealing gold coins, he buys three hundred acres of farmland owned by Old Master Hwang using his ill-gotten gain. His wife bears him twins soon after this purchase and one of them turns out to be severely retarded but still loved dearly by both parents.
Wang Lung hires workers to harvest his land. He becomes wealthy and enjoys several years of profitable harvests. When a flood forces him to be idle, he feels restless and bored with himself. He finds fault with O-lan’s appearance and criticizes her for having big feet. Eventually, Wang Lung purchases Lotus, a beautiful prostitute who has bound feet, as his concubine in order to escape the boredom that plagues him from being idle after the flood destroys his crops. Meanwhile, Wang Lung regrets being cruel towards O-lan when she falls ill because of her bound foot condition; he comes to appreciate everything she had done for him over the years of their marriage together while they were poor farmers struggling just to survive every day on their farm together during China’s tumultuous times under Japanese occupation before World War II began in 1937–1945. In addition, Wang lung tricks his uncle and uncle’s wife into becoming opium addicts so that they will leave him alone about money matters since they have exploited all the wealth out of him already by moving their family into his house without permission from him or O-lan firstly; furthermore, he rents out Hwang’s old house too them so that it is no longer occupied by anyone else but only them now until one day when they are both dead due to addiction which was caused by excessive use of opium which eventually led up till death eventually then leaving no one living there anymore except himself along with O-lan & children now living happily ever after in peace!
After O-lan’s death, Wang Lung’s sons begin to rebel against his plans for their life. They don’t want to work as farmers and they have no passion for the land like he does. Furthermore, his first and second sons often argue over money, which leads to animosity between their wives. In his old age, Wang Lung takes a young slave named Pear Blossom as a concubine. She promises to care for his retarded daughter after his death. As time goes by, Wang is surrounded by grandchildren but also petty family arguments about selling the family land that made them wealthy in the first place.
