What was over the wall in the good earth

He wound his way in among the fields upon the narrow path. In the near distance the grey city wall arose. Within that gate in the wall through which he would pass stood the great house where the woman had been a slave girl since her childhood, the House of Hwang.

There were those who said, "It is better to live alone than to marry a woman who has been slave in a great house. His father had stirred himself, then, and gone to the House of Hwang and asked if there were a slave to spare.

Wang Lung had suffered that she must not be pretty. It would be something to have a pretty wife that other men would congratulate him upon having.

His father, seeing his mutinous face, had cried out at him,. We must have a woman who will tend the house and bear children as she works in the fields, and will a pretty woman do these things? She will be forever thinking about clothes to go with her face!

No, not a pretty woman in our house. We are farmers. Moreover, who has heard of a pretty slave who was virgin in a wealthy house? All the young lords have had their fill of her. It is better to be first with an ugly woman than the hundredth with a beauty. Do you imagine a pretty woman will think your farmer's hands as pleasing as the soft hands of a rich man's son, and your sunblack face as beautiful as the golden skin of the others who have had her for their pleasure?

Wang Lung knew his father spoke well. Nevertheless, he had to struggle with his flesh before he could answer. And then he said violently,. Well, the woman was not pock-marked nor had she a split upper lip. This much he knew, but nothing more. He and his father had bought two silver rings, washed with gold, and silver earrings, and these his father had taken to the woman's owner in acknowledgment of betrothal.

Beyond this, he knew nothing of the woman who was to be his, except that on this day he could go and get her. He walked into the cool darkness of the city gate. Water carriers, just outside, their barrows laden with great tubs of water, passed to and fro all day, the water splashing out of the tubs upon the stones. It was always wet and cool in the tunnel of the gate under the thick wall of earth and brick; cool even upon a summer's day, so that the melon vendors spread their fruits upon the stones, melons split open to drink in the moist coolness.

There were none yet, for the season was too early, but baskets of small hard green peaches stood along the walls, and the vendor cried out,. Buy, eat, purge your bowels of the poisons of winter! He turned to the right within the gate and after a moment was in the Street of Barbers. There were few before him so early, only some farmers who had carried their produce into the town the night before in order that they might sell their vegetables at the dawn markets and return for the day's work in the fields.

They had slept shivering and crouching over their baskets, the baskets now empty at their feet. Wang Lung avoided them lest some recognize him, for he wanted none of their joking on this day.

All down the street in a long line the barbers stood behind their small stalls, and Wang Lung went to the furthest one and sat down upon the stool and motioned to the barber who stood chattering to his neighbor. The barber came at once and began quickly to pour hot water, from a kettle on his pot of charcoal, into his brass basin. Wang Lung perceived that he had fallen into the hands of a joker, and feeling inferior in some unaccountable way, as he always did, to these town dwellers, even though they were only barbers and the lowest of persons, he said quickly,.

Then he submitted himself to the barber's soaping and rubbing and shaving, and being after all a generous fellow enough, the barber gave him without extra charge a series of skilful poundings upon his shoulders and back to loosen his muscles. He commented upon Wang Lung as he shaved his upper forehead,. The new fashion is to take off the braid. His razor hovered so near the circle of hair upon Wang Lung's crown that Wang Lung cried out,. When it was finished and the money counted into the barber's wrinkled, water-soaked hand, Wang Lung had a moment of horror.

So much money! But walking down the street again with the wind fresh upon his shaven skin, he said to himself,. He went to the market, then, and bought two pounds of pork and watched the butcher as he wrapped it in a dried lotus leaf, and then, hesitating, he bought also six ounces of beef. When all had been bought, even to fresh squares of beancurd, shivering in a jelly upon its leaf, he went to a candlemaker's shop and there he bought a pair of incense sticks.

Then he turned his steps with great shyness toward the House of Hwang. Once at the gate of the house he was seized with terror. How had he come alone? He should have asked his father -- his uncle -- even his nearest neighbor, Ching -- anyone to come with him.

He had never been in a great house before. How could he go in with his wedding feast on his arm, and say, "I have come for a woman? He stood at the gate for a long time, looking at it. It was closed fast, two great wooden gates, painted black and bound and studded with iron, closed upon each other.

Two lions made of stone stood on guard, one at either side. There was no one else. He turned away. It was impossible. He felt suddenly faint. He would go first and buy a little food. He had eaten nothing -- had forgotten food. He went into a small street restaurant, and putting two pence upon the table, he sat down.

A dirty waiting boy with a shiny black apron came near and he called out to him, "Two bowls of noodles! Wang Lung shook his head. He sat up and looked about. There was no one he knew in the small, dark, crowded room full of tables. Only a few men sat eating or drinking tea.

It was a place for poor men, and among them he looked neat and clean and almost well-to-do, so that a beggar, passing, whined at him,. Wang Lung had never had a beggar ask of him before, nor had any ever called him teacher. He was pleased and he threw into the beggar's bowl two small cash, which are one fifth of a penny, and the beggar pulled back with swiftness his black claw of a hand, and grasping the cash, fumbled them within his rags.

Wang Lung sat and the sun climbed upwards. The waiting boy lounged about impatiently. Wang Lung was incensed at such impudence and he would have risen except that when he thought of going into the great House of Hwang and of asking there for a woman, sweat broke out over his whole body as though he were working in a field. Before he could turn it was there and the small boy demanded sharply,. And Wang Lung, to his horror, found there was nothing to do but to produce from his girdle yet another penny.

Then he saw entering the shop his neighbor whom he had invited to the feast, and he put the penny hastily upon the table and drank the tea at a gulp and went out quickly by the side door and was once more upon the street. This time, since it was after high noon, the gates were ajar and the keeper of the gate idled upon the threshold, picking his teeth with a bamboo sliver after his meal.

He was a tall fellow with a large mole upon his left cheek, and from the mole hung three long black hairs which had never been cut. When Wang Lung appeared he shouted roughly, thinking from the basket that he had come to sell something. In the sunshine his face was wet. But I did not recognize you with a basket on your arm. But the gateman did not move. At last Wang Lung said with anxiety,. And he grinned when Wang Lung in his simplicity actually put his basket upon the stones and lifting his robe took out the small bag from his girdle and shook into his left hand what money was left after his purchases.

There was one silver piece and fourteen copper pence. Wang Lung, in spite of anger at what had just happened and horror at this loud announcing of his coming, could do nothing but follow, and this he did, picking up his basket and looking neither to the right nor left.

Afterwards, although it was the first time he had ever been in a great family's house, he could remember nothing. With his face burning and his head bowed, he walked through court after court, hearing that voice roaring ahead of him, hearing tinkles of laughter on every side. Then suddenly when it seemed to him he had gone through a hundred courts, the gateman fell silent and pushed him into a small waiting room. There he stood alone while the gateman went into some inner place, returning in a moment to say,.

How will you bow? But he did not dare to put the basket down because he was afraid something might be stolen from it. It did not occur to him that all the world might not desire such delicacies as two pounds of pork and six ounces of beef and a small pond fish.

Important Quotes Explained. Suggestions for Further Reading Pearl S. Buck and The Good Earth Background. Summary Chapters 17— Page 1 Page 2. Summary: Chapter 17 Wang Lung buys more livestock and builds new rooms for his house. Summary: Chapter 19 O-lan returned to the beating of his clothes and when tears dropped slowly and heavily from her eyes she did not put up her hand to wipe them away.

See Important Quotations Explained Wang returns to the tea house unsure of what he will do. Previous section Chapters 14—16 Next page Chapters 17—19 page 2. Test your knowledge Take the Chapters Quick Quiz.

Popular pages: The Good Earth. She keeps them in a small pouch between her breasts, but one day, Wang Lung takes them from her to give to Lotus. After O-lan's death, Wang Lung wishes that he had not taken the pearls from her. Small School near the City Gate: Wang Lung is embarrassed by the fact that he is illiterate, and cannot make out any characters while doing business at the grain market.

He wishes to see his sons become educated, and sends them to a small school near the city gate that is being kept by an old teacher who once failed the country examination. Great Tea Shop in Town: It is a newly opened teashop whose owner is a man from the south.

Wang Lung begins to frequent the place when he becomes idle as a result of not having any work to do on the land. At the teashop, Wang Lung meets Cuckoo who has become the keeper of the shop, and eventually Lotus who is one of the many beautiful girls working there. Redbeards: This is the dangerous bandit group to which Wang Lung's uncle belongs. The men in this group roam around the northern countryside, destroying homes and killing people.

Locusts : One year, the sky turns black and a great roar fills the air as locusts fall from the sky to destroy the fields. Wang Lung and his laborers work furiously to destroy these insects, and succeed in saving the best of Wang Lung's fields. Later, in order to make his uncle and his uncle's wife powerless and 'undesiring,' he and his son devise a plan to give as much opium as possible to the couple. Wang Lung's uncle and his wife become haggard and sick as a result of excessive opium use.

Browse all BookRags Book Notes. All rights reserved. Toggle navigation. Sign Up. Sign In. Get The Good Earth from Amazon. View the Study Pack. The story of the novel presents a young man of rural China, Wang Lung, who becomes an adult to marry.

His father advises him to visit the local Hwang family mansion to ask for a slave girl. After having some money and spending it lavishly on his upkeep and food, he visits the Hwangs and asks them for a slave girl. They propose him to have O-lan. Both husband and wife set upon their agricultural work on their land.

They have had a son, giving them happiness and resolution to work hard, while the Hwang family faces difficult times due to their patriarch being a womanizer and the matriarch being an addict. Soon Wang Lung is able to purchase some of the Hwang fields and enjoys doing farming with considerable income. Although they have another son, Wang Lung soon faces his relatives borrowing money from him that he is forced to lend.