Wang Lung sat smoking, thinking of the silver as it had lain upon the table. It had come out of the earth, this silver, out of the earth that he ploughed and turned and spent himself upon. He took his life from the earth; drop by drop by his sweat he wrung food from it and from the food, silver. Each time before this that he had taken the silver out to give to anyone, it had been like taking a piece of his life and giving it to someone carelessly. But not for the first time, such giving was not pain. He saw, not the silver in the alien hand of a merchant in the town; he saw the silver transmuted into something worth even more than life itself - clothes upon the body of his son. Pearl S. Buck
About This Quote

In this short story, Wang Lung's silver has become a symbol of his son's love. The silver is a symbol of the material wealth that Wang Lung has accumulated over a lifetime of hard work. By giving all his worldly possessions to his son, Wang Lung is able to see the value of those possessions as something that can be used for something more important than material wealth. He is able to see beyond the silver as a piece of material wealth and instead as a symbol of his son's love.

Source: The Good Earth

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More Quotes By Pearl S. Buck
  1. Love cannot be forced, love cannot be coaxed and teased. It comes out of heaven, unasked and unsought.
  2. I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in the kindness of human beings. I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and angels.
  3. Now, five years is nothing in a man's life except when he is very young and very old...- Wang Lung
  4. To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy and a whole heart and a free mind.
  5. I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in human beings.
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