The Good Earth: Chapter 34 Summary & Analysis

Before long, Wang Lung’s passion for Pear Blossom passes, but he’s still fond of her and glad to have her around. She’s kind to his eldest daughter. Wang Lung worries what will happen to the poor fool when he dies, so he’s bought poison that he intends to give her when he’s about to die, though he dreads this. He tells Pear Blossom that since no one will take care of his daughter after his death, she must feed her the poison when he dies. Pear Blossom doesn’t want to kill her, and she offers to take care of the poor fool in return for Wang Lung’s kindness to her. He’s very glad, but makes Pear Blossom accept the poison anyway, in case she dies before his daughter.

Wang Lung is usually alone except for Pear Blossom and his eldest daughter. He worries about Pear Blossom, but she insists she’s happy. Once he asks her why she’s so afraid of men, and she says she hates every man except for him. However, she won’t tell him whether Lotus and Cuckoo have frightened her with stories or if something bad happened to her.

As the years pass, Wang Lung sits in the sun like his father did. Sometimes he visits Lotus, who sits talking and eating with Cuckoo as a friend. When Wang Lung goes to his sons’ courts, he asks how many grandchildren he has and examines them when they gather around him, seeing likenesses of himself, his father, and Liu. He asks them what they study in school and finds that it has changed since the Revolution. He knows nothing about this Revolution, as he’s always been too busy to bother with it.

Wang Lung asks Cuckoo about his sons’ wives, and she tells him that his eldest son seems to be thinking of taking a concubine, and often visits the tea shops. She also tells him that she’s heard his youngest son is a military official in the Revolution, but she doesn’t know what it is. Wang Lung finds he can’t focus on these things, as his mind wanders. He thinks only about keeping his body warm and fed.

As Wang Lung grows old, he keeps his love of the land, and he goes out to it every spring. Sometimes he sleeps in his old house. One day he wanders to the burial plot and remembers those who he buried there, clearly recalling all of them and his second daughter whom he married away. He looks at the spot where he will be buried and decides he needs to get a coffin.

Wang Lung returns to town and sends for his eldest son, but when he arrives Wang Lung can’t remember what he wanted to say. He asks Pear Blossom to help him, and she asks him where he was on his land, which makes him remember. Wang Lung tells his son where he wants to lie and that he needs a coffin. His son buys him a wooden coffin that will last forever, and Wang Lung keeps it in his room. It comforts him. Soon he moves back to his house on the land with Pear Blossom and his eldest daughter.

Wang Lung lives peacefully, thinking often about his land, but not worrying about planting or harvests. He thinks gladly of his coffin and his place in the earth. His sons come to visit him often, and if they don’t he complains to Pear Blossom. She says they’re busy, as the eldest son holds a position in the town and the younger son has his own grain market. Wang Lung doesn’t really understand.

One day Wang Lung follows his sons out onto the land. He comes up to them silently and hears them discussing how to sell the land and share the money. Wang Lung cries out and weeps. They assure him they won’t sell it, and he says families fall apart when they sell their land. He holds a handful of dirt. They say over and over that they won’t sell the land, but they smile at each other over his head.