The Good Earth: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

The day after the birth, O-lan makes food as usual but doesn’t go to work in the fields. That afternoon, Wang Lung goes to town to buy fifty eggs and red paper to dye them red. He also buys red sugar, telling the merchant proudly of his son. The man wishes him good fortune as he does to many customers, but it makes Wang Lung feel particularly lucky. However, he soon becomes worried that if he’s too fortunate, evil spirits will come to ruin his happiness. He buys incense and burns it in the temple where he and O-lan went before. Wang Lung feels sure that the gods in the temple will protect his family.

Before long, O-lan begins working in the fields with Wang Lung again. They thresh and winnow the harvested wheat, and then plant another crop for winter. While O-lan works, the baby lies on a quilt on the ground. Sometimes O-lan stops to nurse him, both of them looking brown from the dirt as though they were made out of earth. O-lan produces more milk than the baby can drink, and it gushes into the ground. The baby is healthy, taking life from his mother’s milk.

When winter comes, the family is well prepared. The harvests have been bountiful, and the house is full of onions, garlic, wheat, and rice. Because Wang Lung is careful with his money, he can afford to wait until food is scarce to sell his grain, so that he’ll get a better price for it. His uncle, on the other hand, always has to sell his grain far too early. Wang Lung’s uncle’s wife is lazy and always wants luxuries, unlike O-lan. Wang Lung even has a leg of pork that he bought from his neighbor Ching when his pig began to sicken and had to be killed.

The family sits with their wealth while the winter becomes bitterly cold. When the baby turns one month old, Wang Lung invites guests over and gives them the eggs that he’s dyed red. Everyone admires his healthy son. Meanwhile, the wind tears leaves from all the trees except the bamboos and prevents the wheat seed from sprouting. Finally, the wind stops and it rains, and the baby tries to catch the water as it drips off the roof. Wang Lung’s father boasts of his grandson’s intelligence. The wheat sprouts.

The farmers feel that the earth is doing their work for them by watering the crops, so they have time to visit each other and socialize while their wives work at home. Wang Lung, however, worries that others will want to borrow from his plentiful stores of food if he becomes too friendly with them, so he avoids visiting. He stays home and mends tools while O-lan mends clothes and earthenware. They feel happy at each other’s work and approval, though they say little. Wang Lung has a bit of extra money from the harvest, so together they hide it in a hole in the wall behind their bed. It gives them a sense of wealth and comfort.