How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #10
Now Wang Lung had chosen a good place in his fields under a date tree upon a hill to set the graves, and Ching had the graves dug and ready and a wall of earth made about the graves, and there was space within the walls for the body of Wang Lung and for each of his sons and their wives, and there was space for sons' sons, also. This land Wang Lung did not begrudge, even though it was high land and good for wheat, because it was a sign of the establishment of his family upon their own land. Dead and alive they would rest upon their own land. (26.82)
As the song goes, "To everything […] / There is a season […] / […] A time to be born, a time to die." The novel begins with a birth being compared to a harvest. Now it's the season for O-lan and Ching to die, but we don't know what kinds of births will follow these deaths. The novel reminds us that time can be cyclical, and that our lives have seasons, just as nature does. It's another way in which we're connected with nature on a deep level.