It is the journey of one man and the trials and tribulations he faced.
Wang’s life had been the same in his poor hut with
his aged father until he bought O-Lan the plain and unattractive slave girl from the great House of the Hwangs as his wife. In her he found the strength of the earth he tilled. O-Lan not only shouldered all his responsibilities but also worked with him in his land round the year stopping only at the moment when under labor. O-Lan was as bountiful as Earth in her store of raw energy and fecundity. She worked like a machine, which cannot demand or tire itself. Though they bore
children and shared their lives yet they were as good as strangers. For O-Lan it was an uphill task to come out of her cocoon and share her feelings with someone. Her years as a slave had robbed her of her words and manifestation of feelings. For Wang Lung too it was a new territory. He had never been with a woman before. Though he initially wondered about her reticence, with time he took it for granted. Wang was content to have her though he could not crack through her world of silence. Her perseverance bore fruit in Wang’s
life. What Wang could not do alone he did it with O-lan. Together they toiled over the land and made it spill over with harvest. Wang became prosperous. His house was filled with happy laughter of his sons.
No sooner did they enjoy the fruit of their toil than they were struck with famine. The land stood barren and the last bit of grain dried up. In such calamity human beings become brutal. His own neighbors robbed Wang. Hell broke loose in their life. Instead of children’s laughter there was constant whimpering for food. O-Lan strangled the newborn daughter at its birth and they survived on gruel of mud. Sick with hunger Wang left his land towards south with his debilitated family. Once he reached south his struggle began. Wang was astonished to find the city brimming over with food and splendor when the whole of the north was ravaged by famine. Wang earned his living as a rickshaw puller while O-Lan, his father and his sons took to begging. The idea of begging repelled Wang and he was haunted by the thoughts of his land. As Fate would have it a revolt brewed up in the city against the rich and at one blow the wall fell down. All of a sudden Wang found himself rich with pieces of gold that he extorted from a man who couldn’t flee and whose house they had stormed. That was his first moral transgression. Soon after Wang returned to his land and found more jewels hidden in his wife’s bosom which she had sneaked away in the mutiny. With all the wealth he bought acres of land from the Hwangs. He was driven by the desire to be at par with the once richest family in town both in name and fame.
As he grew richer he found himself entangled in self-inflicted troubles. He indulged in fantasies and materialized them with his riches. O-Lan’s plainness disgusted him. He looked for pleasures elsewhere and strayed into an affair with a whore named Lotus. He was so smitten by her charms that he not only bought her with a portion of his wealth but also splurged it on her in keeping with her whims. But he did all this with a guilt-ridden mind for never was he at peace with himself the day he cheated on O-Lan. In this too his saving grace was his land. Soon the time of harvest arrived and he found himself in his land from where he drove his solace. To his children though he bore immense love. He educated his elder sons and was proud of them. He was extremely protective of his daughter who was born a fool. He never dithered in his duties to his father and children. He was a benevolent master to his field hands. He had sheltered the destitute neighbor Ching and shared a great bond with him. He served his duties to his uncle and his family. In his desires, his guilt, his pride and affection Wang is the true picture of humanity. In his journey from a poor farmer to a rich landlord he faced many a conflict within and outside himself, gained and lost and finally found himself at the brink of life all alone. With the death of O-Lan, his father and Ching his past fell apart and was lost. An oldman he wished to live the rest of his years amid his grandchildren and sons. But Fate would not have it. Like the old lord of the House of the Hwangs which he now inhabited he took the young slave Pear Blossom as his concubine. With this Wang Lung struck the final chord of his Destiny. The pattern of rise and fall soon seemed to repeat itself in the family of Wang. It seemed to await the same fate that did and undid the old House as Wang’s sons played with the thought of selling his land while he stood stranded between them.