The Good Earth Quotes

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Wealth is a powerful thing; so powerful that it can instantly and completely change the mindset of someone. In the book, The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, Wang Lung is a poor and humble man who becomes what he never thought he would become, a rich man. As money became less of a priority, so did everything else that mattered to him before.
Growing up a farmer, land is always something that is important to Wang Lung. Upon realizing that he is now capable of buying all the land he needs, Wang Lung decides to buy land from the Hwang house. Wang Lung is very satisfied with the riches his land brings him. He continues to use all of his silver to buy land, even as it is not necessary. Soon all of his money is gone and spent on land that is useless in the drought that sends Wang Lung into a financial wreck. Wang thinks he’s in the clear when it comes to money, but it is anything but clear as his family slowly becomes a blur. It is not until he is forced to kill his ox for food that Wang Lung realizes his entire family is in terrible state of poverty and hunger. Wang Lung is absolutely devastated having found that poverty would not have been an issue if it …show more content…

Wang’s father tells him that he will get an ugly woman if he wants her to help him in the fields. Nevertheless, Wang Lung learns to love his wife, O-lan. After becoming the rich man everyone comes to know, Wang Lung becomes disinterested by the shops he had always visited as a poor man. He begins to explore and finds a teahouse where there are beautiful women he thought only existed in dreams. He goes home and realizes how dissatisfied he is with the way O-lan looks. Wang Lung thinks he deserves a more beautiful woman now that he is a rich man. O-lan is a great wife and both were happy and relied on each other. She is very dear to Wang Lung but this quickly changes as soon as Wang becomes wealthy and this, sadly, is not a

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