The Good Earth: Chapter 31 Summary & Analysis

Wang Lung has often heard of war, but the closest he came to it was in the southern city. He’s heard men say they’ll go to war, but war never seemed real. One day his second son tells him that the price of grain has gone up because a war is approaching. Wang Lung looks forward to seeing it. He’s not afraid because he’s old and rich. He goes about his life as usual.

One day ranks of men in uniforms march through the streets holding weapons. Their fierce expressions frighten Wang Lung, but just as he’s about to lock the gate his uncle’s son marches by and catches sight of him. He tells the other soldiers that Wang Lung will take care of them, so they quickly take over the house. Wang Lung is powerless. He desperately tells his eldest son what’s happened. The eldest son decides he has to be courteous because the soldiers are all armed, so he welcomes his cousin and offers the soldiers a meal before they leave. The cousin says they’ll stay for a long time, until they go to the war. Wang Lung and his son have to pretend to be glad.

Dismayed, Wang Lung and his eldest son bar the door of the inner court. The second son rushes in with news that the soldiers have taken over all the houses in town, and one of the clerks where he works was killed when he protested their presence in his house. He says they must give the soldiers whatever they want. They decide to hide their women in the innermost court to protect them. They guard the gate night and day.

They have to allow the uncle’s son into the inner courts because he’s family, however. He comes and admires the sons’ wives, flirting with the second son’s wife and insulting the elder son’s wife. Then he goes to Lotus and calls her “Old Mistress,” saying he can tell Wang Lung is rich by how fat she is. Lotus is flattered and gives him a flirtatious look.

Finally Wang Lung shows the uncle’s son to his mother’s room. He wakes the uncle’s wife by banging his gun on the floor. She’s amazed to see him, and can only think to offer him her opium pipe, but he refuses. Wang Lung is worried he’ll be angry for what Wang Lung has done to his mother, so he pretends to begrudge the money the opium costs him. When she falls back asleep, her son leaves.

The soldiers destroy the outer courtyards, but the family is most afraid of the uncle’s son, for he comes into the courts and looks lustfully at the slaves. Cuckoo says they need to give him a slave for himself, and Wang Lung approves. He sends Cuckoo to the cousin, who tells her he wants a slave named Pear Blossom, whom Wang Lung bought in a year of famine to serve Lotus. When Pear Blossom hears, she drops a teapot and cries in fear of the cousin. Lotus commands her to go to him anyway, though she begs not to. Wang Lung’s family can’t speak against Lotus, and Wang Lung doesn’t want to anger her.

Pear Blossom can tell that Wang Lung pities her, so she weeps at his feet. He tells Cuckoo he doesn’t want to force Pear Blossom, but Lotus calls her foolish for resisting. Wang Lung says he’ll buy Lotus something to pacify her, and he sends Cuckoo to tell the uncle’s son that Pear Blossom has a terrible disease. One of the other slaves offers herself to him, and Cuckoo takes her to him. Wang Lung examines Pear Blossom kindly and tells her to avoid Lotus and the cousin.

The uncle’s son gets his slave pregnant before the troops are called away to the war. When he leaves, he boasts that he’s leaving a son behind, and says soldiers are lucky because they can make others take care of their children when they go on their way.