Wang Lung example essay topic

# Quotes / Responses Page #1 "There was a woman coming to the house. Never again would Wang Lung have to rise... at dawn to light the fire. He could lie in his bed and wait. 2 This quote shows the reader the kind of role the woman was supposed to have in her family. She was to do all of the housework, cooking... Basically she takes care of the man's every need.

2 " 'Come here, slave,' said the old lady carelessly. 'This man has come for you. ' " 13 Female children were often sold as slaves to rich families. This wasn't done with male children, which shows that the male children were held in much higher regards, and that they were worth more to a family. 3 " 'Is it a man?' he cried importunely".

27 Male children were wanted more than females because they could own land and grow crops, something that the government prohibited females to do. 4 " 'It is over once more. It is only a slave this time-not worth mentioning. ' Wang lung stood still.

A sense of evil struck him. A girl!" 46 Wang Lung wasn't any exception to the rule with girl children. He just wanted to have male children because girls just caused a whole lot of trouble in his eyes. 5 "I would sell this girl for you-to take you back to the land. ' " 83 O'lan was willing to sell her daughter so that her family could go back to their home and their land. Wang Lung did not think that it was right to do so.

O'lan thought that it was ok because she was sold into slavery when her parents needed money 6 " 'My mother did not bind them, since I was sold so young. But the girls' feet I will bind-the younger girl's feet I will bind. ' " 122 The women were expected to have their feet bound to make them smaller and more beautiful. The women were expected to go through a lot of pain to be presentable to their husband. 7 " 'He chose one most beautiful, a small, slender thing, a body light as a bamboo and a little face as pointed as a kitten's face, and one hand clasping the stem of a lotus flower in bud, and the hand as delicate as the tendril of a fern uncurled.

' " 126 This quote refers to Wang Lung when he went to pay for his pleasures with a beautiful woman. This kind of thing was ok for a man to do. He could have as many women as he wanted, but a woman could not do the same. 8 'I shall never sell the land! Bit by bit, I will dig up the fields and feed the earth itself to the children and when they die I will bury them in the land, and I and my wife and my old father, even he, we will die on the land that has given us birth. ' 61 9 'Hunger makes a thief of any man.

' 101 10 'Then Wang Lung, without comprehending it, looked for an instant into the heart of this dull, and faithful creature, who had labored all her life at some task at which she won no reward. ' 106 11 Then slowly she thrust her wet wrinkled hand into her bosom and she drew forth the small package and she gave it to him and watched him as he unwrapped it; and the pearls lay in his hand and they caught softly and fully the light of the sun, and he laughed. But O-lan returned to the beating of his clothes and when tears dropped slowly and heavily from her eyes she did not put up her hand to wiped them away; only she beat the more steadily with her wooden stick upon the clothes spread over the stone. ' 134/5 12 'But she answered nothing except to say over and over, moaning, 'I have borne you sons -- I have borne you sons.

' ' 140 13 'It seemed to him that now his life was rounded off, and he had done all that he said he would in his life and more than he could ever have dreamed he could. ' 241 14 'Out of this body of his, out of his own loins, life!' 23 15 'Yet never could he grasp her wholly, and this it was which kept him fevered and thirsty, even if she gave him his will of her. ' 130.