The Good Earth: Chapter 22 Summary & Analysis

Wang Lung’s land heals the damage his love has done to him. He directs his men and plows and hoes the earth, and when he tires he sleeps on the ground. At night he returns to Lotus’s court, and she’s disgusted by the dirt covering him. He tells her she’s a farmer’s wife, and she denies it. He only laughs. When he finally bathes before bed, he doesn’t do it for her, and he feels free.

Wang Lung realizes he has much to do, and he works hard in the fields, his body hardening again. When he comes home for meals he eats O-lan’s simple food and breathes the smell of garlic onto Lotus, though she hates it. He’s no longer obsessed with her. Lotus gives him pleasure while O-lan keeps his house.

Wang Lung is proud of other men’s jealousy of Lotus, because this shows his wealth. His uncle often brags about Wang Lung’s prosperity, and the village men respect him as a superior. They come to him for loans and advice.

Wang Lung has a good harvest that year, and he takes it to market with his eldest son. He’s proud to see his son reading and writing in front of the clerks, who admire his skill. He’s particularly happy when his son notices a mistake in a contract and can change it to be correct.

When they’re walking home, Wang Lung decides that he must find his eldest son a wife so he doesn’t have to marry a slave as Wang Lung himself did. He discusses his son’s marriage with Ching, though he doesn’t expect him to be much help. Ching wishes he could offer his own daughter to the boy, but he doesn’t know where she is. Wang Lung thinks that he wants someone far superior to Ching’s daughter. Around town, Wang Lung listens to men talking about potential brides, but doesn’t say anything about it to anyone, particularly not his uncle’s wife, whom he doesn’t trust to find someone fitting.

At New Year’s, men come to visit Wang Lung and say he can have no greater fortune than what he already has. Wang Lung knows this is true, but as spring comes, he still can’t find a proper wife for his eldest son. As the trees sprout leaves, his son becomes moody, worrying Wang Lung. No matter what he tells him to do, the boy won’t obey, and he refuses to tell his father what’s the matter. Furthermore, he stops going to school unless Wang Lung yells at him or hits him, and sometimes even then he wanders the town instead of going to school. When Wang Lung finds out, he beats the boy until O-lan intervenes, but the boy endures it without a sound.

One evening after Wang Lung beats his eldest son, O-lan tells him that the beatings will do no good. She’s seen the young lords in the House of Hwang act the same way, and when the Old Lord found women for them, their moodiness passed. Wang Lung protests that he didn’t have this problem himself, but O-lan points out that he was a farmer, and their son has no work. Wang Lung sees that he had no time to be moody when he was young. He’s proud that his son is more like a young lord, and he says he’ll marry him off soon.