Wang Lung Quotes

In The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck, there are several complex and delicate relationships, one of them being between Wang Lung, the protagonist, and his youngest son. Throughout the course of the novel, Wang Lung has difficulty recognizing his son’s actual identity. Wang Lung decides his youngest will learn to work on the land, but he does not acknowledge his son’s point of view. Wang Lung has a flawed perception of who his son is; he believes that his youngest boy is simply a quiet lad that does not require much attention. The lack of attention is problematic as it spirals into Wang Lung’s complete oblivion concerning his son’s desires. He never takes the time to get to know his son. Wang Lung believes that he has a quiet son whom he will

Wang Lung is misled by the young boy’s quietness, and he does not notice his son’s curiosities. Wang Lung reflects on all of the difficulties in his household when he thinks about his youngest son and obsession with his books. Buck writes, “Now his youngest son had been so quiet a lad, so bent on his belated books, that none thought of him except as a reedy slender youth with books always under his arm and an old tutor following him about like a dog” (275). Wang Lung misinterprets his son’s quietness and it causes him to miss the shift in his son’s focus. On the surface, it seems to Wang Lung that his son is engrossed in his studies, but he never investigates what exactly his son chooses to study. In the same scene, it states, “He begged novels of his old tutor, stories of the wars of the three kingdoms and of the bandits who lived in ancient times” (275). The proof of the young boy’s rising interest in the war is obvious, but Wang Lung is not attentive enough to notice his son’s new passion. Wang Lung believes his son is low maintenance because of his quietness, but this misconception results in a greater rift in their relationship as the young boy matures and develops his own