The Good Earth: Chapter 32 Summary & Analysis

Wang Lung and his sons hire carpenters and masons to repair the courts where the soldiers were staying. Wang Lung assigns the slave who’s pregnant with the uncle’s son’s child to serve his uncle’s wife, and the slave gives birth to a girl. He promises the slave the uncle’s wife’s room once she dies. He tries to give her silver, but she asks him to use it as a dowry and marry her off. He promises to do so, thinking that whatever poor man he finds to marry her will be like he was, coming to the House of Hwang to marry a slave. He hasn’t thought of O-lan in years, and now he thinks of her sadly.

Before long, the uncle’s wife dies. Wang Lung sends for the farm laborer who accidentally caused Ching’s death. Wang Lung sits on the dais where the Old Mistress used to sit and presents the laborer with the slave as his wife, feeling how strange his position is. When it’s done, Wang Lung feels like he’s achieved everything he meant to, and he can have peace as soon as he weds his youngest son.

However, his sons’ wives begin to quarrel with each other and scold each other’s children. They never forget the uncle’s son’s appraisals of them, and they always use his words to insult each other. The sons also clash because the eldest son worries about his social status, and the second son worries about his brother’s waste of money. The elder son doesn’t like it that his brother controls the money. Wang Lung has no peace.

Ever since Wang Lung protected Pear Blossom from his uncle’s son, Lotus has disliked her and accuses Wang Lung of lusting after her. Wang Lung thinks of Pear Blossom only as a child until Lotus says this, but then he realizes that she’s very pretty after all. Lotus considers selling Pear Blossom but needs the girl to wait on her, which makes Lotus bad-tempered. Wang Lung stays away from her and thinks about Pear Blossom.

Wang Lung’s youngest son has long been absorbed with his books, but when the soldiers were in the house, he listened to their stories of war with fascination. Finally he tells Wang Lung that he wants to become a soldier. Wang Lung argues with him, saying he’s too good a man to become a soldier, but the boy has made up his mind. Wang Lung offers to send him to any school he wants and says it’s disgraceful for a wealthy man’s son to become a soldier. The boy says that there’s a revolution coming that will free the country. Wang Lung doesn’t understand how the country could be freer than it is.

Wang Lung thinks that he has given his youngest son everything he could desire, but he decides he must need a wife or a slave. The boy says he’ll run away, since he doesn’t want a woman. He wants glory, and he points out that the slaves in the house are all ugly besides Pear Blossom. Wang Lung suddenly feels jealous and tells his son to keep away from the slaves, though he just offered his son one. Wang Lung can’t understand his own anger.