The Good Earth follows the life of its protagonist, Wang Lung, from age 20 until, at 70, he awaits his death. In Chapter 1, he’s a farmer, who is illiterate and the only surviving child of his aging father. He yearns to marry to accommodate his physical desires and so that he doesn’t have to take care of his infirm father. Eager to farm and ambitious, Wang Lung jumps at the opportunity to acquire more farmland, which he does in every section of the narrative. He has high moral values and is scandalized by the inappropriate behavior of his relatives and, later, his sons. In addition, he’s soft-hearted and sentimental, especially toward his daughter who has an intellectual disability and other female characters. He beats his older sons when they disappoint him but never his daughters or wife.

Wang Lung’s character develops significantly throughout the narrative. In Chapter 1, he stands anxiously before the village’s wealthy matriarch in the inner chamber of her great house, fearful of embarrassing himself and even of facing the young woman he just bought as his wife. In contrast, at the height of his influence near the novel’s end, he’s the sole owner of the 60-room great house he was afraid to enter in Chapter 1.