At the beginning of Chapter 6, it says "this piece of land which Wang Lung now owned was a thing which greatly change his life." Talk about how this metaphor for prosperity grows throughout the first 100 pages.

In the novel The Good Earth, land is seen as the ultimate sign of prosperity, but not just prosperity...... it denotes piety as well. Reading through the first 100 pages, we see Wang Lung's life change in a variety of different ways. He's a hard worker, good son, good nephew, and initially a good husband. In essence, he's a good man. The land and his hard work in taking care of the land gave him great wealth and improved his life. The mataphoe talks about the land "greatly" changing his life, something that happened and wasn't always for the better. The more land he acquired, the more he changed, but prosperity was like a double edged sword and nothing he believed in turned out the way he thought it would.