In The Good Earth, why are the cakes and the visit to the House of Hwang important?
The answer to this question can be found in Chapter 5 which is when O-Lan begins to use some of the best lard and flour to make some special cakes. When Wang Lung asks her what she is doing, O-Lan explains that she is making these special cakes with the...
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best ingredients in order to take them as a gift for the Old Mistress at the House of Hwang when she will present her son to her. This is something that she told O-Lan to do, and, in a culture where appearances are so important, it is a great status symbol to be asked to come and visit such high class people as the Hwangs. Note how Wang Lung responds to this:
Then the cakes were more important than ever, and Wang Lung was pleased that to the great hall where he had stood with so much timidity and in such poverty his wife should now go as visitor, carrying his son, dressed in red, and cakes made as these were, with the best flour and sugar and lard.
The visit is important because it therefore gains prestige for Wang Lung and his family.Â
Why are the cakes and the visit to the House of Hwang important in The Good Earth?
Wang Lung's wife, O-Lan, was formerly a slave in the House of Hwang. Furthermore, from the few comments she made about her life before her marriage to Wang Lung, she was one of the worst-treated slaves in the great house.
As a married woman, she had raised her status considerably. Her father-in-law had chosen her from among the many beautiful slaves available as a wife for his son because of her plainness, which he believed would cause her to be less concerned with material goods and trinkets than if she were beautiful and always wanting fine things to wear to accentuate her vanity. In this way, she made her way to a better and higher-status life than even the pretty slave girls who remained slaves working in a house not their own and be the sexual prey of the lustful young lords of the mansion.
Having borne Wang Lung a son (an honor) and having dressed the child regally, it was important for her to visit the House of Hwang with her new status, bearing cakes for the Old Mistress, the wife of the Lord of the House of Hwang. Standing before the Old Mistress with her husband and child, as she once stood as a near-worthless slave on her marriage day, she is able to reclaim her pride and sense of self. In fact, it is now she who is able to share with her former mistress a gift of her own making: the fine cakes to celebrate the New Year.