How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #7
The common people had to move, then, and they moved complaining and cursing because a rich man could do as he would and they packed their tattered possessions and went away swelling with anger and muttering that one day they would come back even as the poor do come back when the rich are too rich. (30.101)
This sounds a lot like our first quote, doesn't it? The first brother should watch out: kicking these people out could very well upset the balance in town. There's very little to stop these people from coming back and dealing with him as he did with them.
Quote #8
And to him war was a thing like earth and sky and water and why it was no one knew but only that it was. Now and again he heard men say, "We will go to the wars." This they said when they were about to starve and would rather be soldiers than beggars; and sometimes men said it when they were restless at home as the son of his uncle had said it, but however this was, the war was always away and in a distant place. Then suddenly like a reasonless wind out of heaven the thing came near. (31.1)
So, why are people joining the army? Is it because they're interested in politics? Guess again. Some are hungry, some are bored, some are stupid, and some, like Wang Lung's cousin, are all three. What does this tell us about all these wars being waged? Who's in charge? Who benefits? What's the point of it all?
Quote #9
"There is to be a war such as we have not heard of—there is to be a revolution and fighting and war such as never was, and our land is to be free!" (32.40)
Wang Lung's third son was the first person in his family to care about politics. He's a dreamer. He's also grown up witnessing a lot of unrest—and he's got an education. Oh, and that thing about the land being free? It happened during the Communist Party's land reforms about 16 years after this novel was published. How was the land made free, you ask? By killing the landowners, naturally. That would be Wang Lung's family.