How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Well, and it is like the old days when I was in these courts, only this body of mine is withered and dried now and not fit even for an old lord.” Saying this, she glanced slyly at Wang Lung and laughed again, and he pretended not to hear her lewdness, but he was pleased, nevertheless, that she had compared him to the Old Lord. (29.33)
So Cuckoo is comparing Wang Lung to the Old Lord, and Wang Lung is totally into it. Hey, let's remember something else about The Old Lord: he died while he was getting it on with Cuckoo. No thanks.
Quote #5
And he remembered as one remembers a dream long past how O-lan rested from her work a little while and fed the child richly and the white rich milk ran out of her breast and spilled upon the ground. And this seemed too long past ever to have been. Then his son came in smiling and important and he said loudly, “The man child is born, my father, and now we must find a woman to nurse him with her breasts, for I will not have my wife's beauty spoiled with the nursing and her strength sapped with it. None of the women of position in the town do so." And Wang Lung said sadly, although why he was sad he did not know, “Well, and if it must be so, let it be so, if she cannot nurse her own child." (29.50)
We've seen this scene before, but now it has gone horrible wrong. Most of the time, it's only bad things that get repeated in the novel; here, we see a good thing repeated, but everything has changed for the worse. Why do you think bad things repeat themselves? Do people make bad things happen? Or do they just notice bad things more, because, well, bad things are just more noticeable?
Quote #6
When the child was a month old Wang Lung's son, its father, gave the birth feasts, and to it he invited guests from the town and his wife's father and mother, and all the great of the town. And he had dyed scarlet many hundreds of hens' eggs, and these he gave to every guest and to any who sent guests, and there was feasting and joy through the house, for the child was a goodly fat boy and he had passed his tenth day and lived and this was a fear gone, and they all rejoiced. (29.55)
This scene where Wang Lung's first grandchild is born is almost identical to the one where his first son was born. The only difference is that instead of a few eggs, there are hundreds... and the party is a lot bigger and swankier. Hey, at least it didn't turn into an episode of My Super Sweet 16, right?