How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Come, woman, we will go South!" […] "It is a good thing to do. One can at least die walking." (9.21)
Wang Lung and O-lan are starving during the first famine in the novel. This isn't exactly the conversation we're expecting, but it makes sense. These two are suffering so much that they'd rather just walk, because at least they can die faster that way. Alternatively, could this also mean that it's better to die while at least doing something, rather than just waiting around to die?
Quote #2
"It would be merciful if there were no breath," he muttered, and then he heard the feeble cry—how feeble a cry!—hang for an instant upon the stillness. "But there is no mercy of any kind in these days," he finished bitterly, and he sat listening. There was no second cry, and over the house the stillness became impenetrable. (9.33)
Normally, we would think of a baby's birth as good and a baby's death as bad, but Wang Lung complicates the picture by suggesting that it all depends on context. Is it good for a baby to be born during a famine, or it is a misfortune? If it's a misfortune, then for whom? For the baby? For the baby's parents? What's merciful about a baby's death? These are tough questions, and Buck doesn't give any answers.
Quote #3
"Sit here and drink the wine and eat the rice of your marriage, for I would see it all and this will be your bed of marriage since I am soon to be finished with it and carried away." (26.61)
O-lan says this to her first son and his wife on their wedding day. It's a little creepy to us for a married couple to sleep on their dead mom's bed, but let's think about it in a different way. It's the bed she slept on throughout her life, and it's the bed where she gave birth to three sons. It's a cool image of the way the cycle of life goes on and on.