Wang Lung was a farmer who loved to work all the time. He was working for as long as he could remember. He was an innocent and inexperienced man, until one day when Wang’s father wanted to purchase a slave. He said specifically, “Not a slave too young, and above all, not a pretty one.” (pg. 8) Wang’s father doesn’t want to have a pretty slave because then the beautiful slave will be distracted about her beauty and won’t concentrate on her chores. Wang starts walking to the head house, the House of Hwang. The House of Hwang is a place where lazy, selfish, and nasty people live, that sold slaves. The whole house is full of money and riches. When he approached the House of Hwang, a guard at the gate, had a huge mole with hair growing out the center of the mole. The guard humiliated Wang in front of the house for purchasing a slave for a wife. He was greatly ashamed and he purchased his slave, O-lan. The ruler – a fat man whose skin is oily and yellow – humiliated Wang because he was poor and had a slave for a spouse. This is where Wang’s tolerance acted up. His solution was to buy land from the head house. When he bought land from the House of Hwang he has just experienced the power of money and realized that money is a powerful object.
Eventually after buying land from the House of Hwang, it occurred to him that he didn’t need all this land. His farm land isn’t even farm land anymore because the soil is so rich. “All the money in the world would not tempt me to wake the old tiger. He sleeps with his new concubine, Peach Blossom, whom he has had but three days. It is not worth my life to waken him…. And do not think that sliver will waken him- he has had sliver under his hand since he was born.” This quote means that even though he bought land from the head house, it doesn’t mean that he will he will use it for evil. Wang Lung made this land useful by providing food for his children. A little while later, Wang Lung has experienced a drought on his land. No crops would grow no rain for months, no food for the children to stuff their faces with. The only thing left to eat was the ox but Wang loved this ox and could not kill it. O-lan had to eat something so she then took a knife and killed the ox. Killing the ox, symbolizes power. She cooked the ox and the family had it for dinner. After the ox was gone, there was no food to eat. This was a problem for Wang. O-lan and the children were starving of hunger, they needed to eat.
The past couple of days, there was nothing in O-lan and the children’s stomach. Although, in the south there were loads of food and the chances of living was high. Wang decided the south was the right way to go to survive. They packed up and took a train down to the south. They finally made it there and as soon as they were there, they had no idea what was going on. People there, spoke a different accent so it was difficult to understand. They had no place to live, they lived as hobos on the street. Sitting at the edge of the road and begged for money and food, wasn’t enough to survive. O-lan turned her children into thieves and Wang Lung was furious and against this idea. One day when he returned from begging on the streets, he finds out the only way to survive is to steal. He appears on the streets and walks up to a man and steals his money. When he returned to his house, O-lan put money in the walls for safe keep. She was afraid of losing money, so O-lan puts the money into the wall of their house. Now that they are rich Wang wants to go back to his old land and buy some of the property from the House of Hwang.
Wang and his family made it back to his home. With the money that he stole, Wang bought land from the House of Hwang and it is making Wang Lung more and more popular. Right before Wang Lung finally has peace in his house, his uncle and relatives come to town. To Wang this was major trouble because his uncle always relies on Wang. "When a man's house is full of wild dogs, he must seek peace elsewhere.' And all the old fever and pain burned in him and he was still never satisfied of his love. “(pg.) Wang cannot stand his uncle. The more money Wang gets the more he spends. Wang Lung used the power of money to develop more rooms in his house. Everything his uncle does, he gets upset. Wang had only one option, buy more rooms for his uncle. Anger is taking over Wang Lung. The money is starting to take control of his emotions. To help him be happy he decides to spend money to buy more rooms for his uncle and his uncle’s relatives. Wang’s uncle took over his house with his relatives. "They cannot take the land from me. The labor of my body and the fruit of the fields I have put into that which cannot be taken away. If I had the sliver, they would have taken it. If I had bought with the sliver to store it, they would have taken it all. I have the land still, and it is mine." His uncle was getting on Wang Lung’s final nerves, Wang finally kicked them out.
After Wang’s uncle was kicked out, his children are following Wang’s footsteps. In the real world, parents naturally know the feelings of their children, but Wang Lung doesn’t know the feelings of his children, because of money. Wang Lung spent money for his eldest son to go to school. Wang wants his son to teach him how to read and write. His son was sick of school, so one day he decided not to go and his father found out and he instantly was enraged. Wang Lung was absolutely furious. A bamboo stick was standing right next to him. Wang grasped it into his hands, and has hard and as painful as he could wacked his son with the stick. Money equals power and since Wang Lung is wealthy, it will make it easier to beat up his son. The more money he spends, the greedier he gets. In the real world, as kids are raised by their parents, the children respond and react the same way their parents do. It comes naturally. His children aren’t any different. Wang Lung covets money so much, he is blinded. Dollar bills have covered his eyes. He doesn’t realize that his children are taking advantage of his wealth. His kids are becoming selfish kids because they will ask for a possession and their father thinks that money is the solution. Wang Lung isn’t familiar what is happening around him because of wealth.
The Good Earth novel, relates to an archetype and this archetype is a story in the Holy Bible. This book of the Bible is Job. Job was an ordinary man who stayed faithful to the Lord. He would go through any situation in his life, happy or sad times, and still will stay beside God. One day the devil came from the earth and the Lord wanted to prove to Satan that Job is a faithful servant. The Devil wanted to prove God incorrect, so the Devil first took away his family. Job was still worshiping the Lord. He gave Job boils, and he was still faithful to the Lord. The Devil took everything from Job and he was still by God’s side. For the reward for being faithful, the Lord gave him double of everything Job lost. Wang Lung relates to Job. Every good deed that Wang Lung acted, there was a terrible reaction. When Wang Lung paid more attention to O-lan, the crops would die. Wang Lung tries to make good choices, but it is not possible because of his wealth.
Wang Lung started out as a nice unselfish man. When his riches took total control over his emotions, he had no feelings about his others, no feelings about his family, and even no feelings about himself. Therefore, his life gets worse and worse and he can’t do anything about it. Coins have replaced his pupils. He will tackle any obstacle that darts – even his family -- in his way to receive his most prize possession, money.
