The Good Earth characters

Appears from the start

A poor farmer in rural Anhwei whose life is ordered around his fields, his family line, and the hope of owning more land. He begins the book on his wedding day, proud of maintaining his household without waste and deeply conscious of the gulf between his modest farm and the wealthy House of Hwang. Hardworking and frugal, he measures security in harvests and earth rather than in display.

Appears from the start

A plain, quiet kitchen slave from the House of Hwang whom Wang Lung takes as his wife. She has endured hunger and servitude and approaches her new life with reserve, competence, and extraordinary stamina. From her first day in Wang Lung's household she cooks, tends his aged father, and joins her husband in the fields without complaint.

Appears from the start

Wang Lung's elderly widowed father, who lives with his son and expects the traditional care owed to the head of a household. Frail but opinionated, he values sons, food, and continuity and regards comfort as less important than keeping the family alive.

Appears from the start

The aging matriarch of the wealthy House of Hwang, accustomed to luxury and attended by slaves. She gives O-lan to Wang Lung as a wife and questions the couple about their prospects with the casual authority of someone whose household has long dominated the surrounding countryside.

Appears from the start

A sharp-tongued senior slave in the House of Hwang who escorts Wang Lung through the great household when he comes for his bride. More assured than O-lan and practiced in the manners of the rich, she treats the nervous farmer with brisk amusement.

Also known as Nung En

First appears in chapter 3

Wang Lung and O-lan's first child, whose birth as a healthy boy is a source of intense pride to his parents. His arrival confirms the future of the household and allows O-lan to return to the House of Hwang as the mother of a son rather than as a former slave.

First appears in chapter 7

Wang Lung's improvident younger uncle, who farms poorly while his family spends what little it has. He appeals to kinship whenever he wants money or food, knowing that custom makes it shameful for a prospering nephew to refuse an older relative.

First appears in chapter 8

Wang Lung's neighbor, another small farmer battered by drought and hunger. Although he has almost nothing left, he shares a handful of food when Wang Lung's family is starving, an act Wang Lung remembers after both households have suffered through the famine.

First appears in chapter 6

Wang Lung's second son, born as the farm begins to prosper. He grows up with advantages his father never had, including schooling, while remaining part of a family whose wealth and ambitions are changing rapidly.

First appears in chapter 19

A beautiful, delicately dressed courtesan whom Wang Lung meets in a town tea house during a season when flooding has kept him idle from the fields. She represents refinement and sensual luxury to a man newly conscious of his wealth and of the limits of his old life.

First appears in chapter 24

A prosperous grain merchant with whom Wang Lung negotiates a marriage for his eldest son. The match offers the farmer's newly wealthy family a connection to an established town household and promises an orderly answer to his son's restlessness.

First appears in chapter 32

A young household slave who is timid around men after witnessing their violence during famine and war. She attends the aging Wang Lung with gentleness, and he becomes protective of her as he withdraws from the rivalries of his larger household.