All 31 Uses

opium
in
The Good Earth
(Auto-generated)

And collecting himself in great shame Wang Lung looked ahead of him, and upon a dais in the center of the room he saw a very old lady, her small fine body clothed in lustrous, pearly grey satin, and upon the low bench beside her a pipe of opium stood, burning over its little lamp.†
Chpt 1

opium = a powerful narcotic
It was as though she was suddenly impatient to be done with all this and to be left alone in the stillness of the great room with her opium pipe.†
Chpt 1 *
And I will wear new shoes and a new coat of black sateen and I will go into the kitchen where I spent my days and I will go into the great hall where the Old One sits with her opium, and I will show myself and my son to all of them.†
Chpt 3
"I had but a moment for private talk with the cook under whom I worked before," she replied, "but she said, 'This house cannot stand forever with all the young lords, five of them, spending money like waste water in foreign parts and sending home woman after woman as they weary of them, and the Old Lord living at home adding a concubine or two each year, and the Old Mistress eating enough opium every day to fill two shoes with gold."†
Chpt 5
Why, when he had poured out his silver proudly before the agent the man had scraped it up carelessly in his hands and said, "Here is enough for a few days of opium for the old lady, at any rate."†
Chpt 6
The old lady had not had her dole of opium to the full for many days and she was like an old tigress in her hunger so that each day she sent for the agent and she cursed him and struck his face with her fan, screaming at him, "And are there not acres of land left, yet?" until he was beside himself.†
Chpt 8
As the Old Mistress with her opium, so he with his lusts, and there was no making him understand there was not money for jade earrings for his favorites and not gold for their pretty hands.†
Chpt 8
Her body was a rotten reed with the opium she smoked and she could not endure the fright.†
Chpt 16
Let us buy them opium to enjoy, and more opium, and let them have their will of it as rich people do.†
Chpt 27
Let us buy them opium to enjoy, and more opium, and let them have their will of it as rich people do.†
Chpt 27
"It will cost a great deal," he said slowly, "for opium is as dear as jade."†
Chpt 27
But on his way back to the gate in the wall, where Ching held a boat waiting for him, Wang Lung passed a shop where tobacco and opium are sold, and he went in to buy himself a little shredded tobacco to put in his water pipe in the evenings, and as the clerk had it on the scales, he said half unwillingly to the man, "And how much is your opium if you have it?"†
Chpt 27
But on his way back to the gate in the wall, where Ching held a boat waiting for him, Wang Lung passed a shop where tobacco and opium are sold, and he went in to buy himself a little shredded tobacco to put in his water pipe in the evenings, and as the clerk had it on the scales, he said half unwillingly to the man, "And how much is your opium if you have it?"†
Chpt 27
And he opened the jar of opium and the stuff was sticky and sweet smelling and Wang Lung's uncle took it and smelled of it, and he laughed and was pleased and he said, "Well now, I have smoked it a little but not often before this, for it is too dear, but I like it well enough.†
Chpt 28
Then Wang Lung's uncle took it greedily, for it was sweet to smell and a thing that only rich men used, and he took it and bought a pipe and he smoked the opium, lying all day upon his bed to do it.†
Chpt 28
And his two sons in the house and Lotus he would not allow to touch the opium, saying as his excuse that it was too dear, but he urged it upon his uncle and upon his uncle's wife and son, and the courts were filled with the sweetish smell of the smoke, and the silver for this Wang Lung did not begrudge because it bought him peace.†
Chpt 28
Although he had given his son a wife and although he had bought slaves enough to serve them all, and although his uncle and his uncle's wife were given enough of opium for their pleasure all day, still there was no peace.†
Chpt 28
And then he persuaded his father and he allowed the tears to come into his eyes and he forced them upon his cheeks and did not wipe them away and he said again, "Well, and I try to be a good son and I do not gamble and smoke opium and I am content with the woman you have given me and I ask a little of you and it is all."†
Chpt 28
And he looked at his uncle and he saw that he grew thin as he smoked his opium and his skin was yellow with opium and he was bent and old and he spat blood when he coughed; and he looked at his uncle's wife and she was a cabbage of a woman who took eagerly to her opium pipe and was satisfied with it and drowsy; and these were little trouble enough now, and the opium had done what Wang Lung wished it would do.†
Chpt 28
And he looked at his uncle and he saw that he grew thin as he smoked his opium and his skin was yellow with opium and he was bent and old and he spat blood when he coughed; and he looked at his uncle's wife and she was a cabbage of a woman who took eagerly to her opium pipe and was satisfied with it and drowsy; and these were little trouble enough now, and the opium had done what Wang Lung wished it would do.†
Chpt 28
And he looked at his uncle and he saw that he grew thin as he smoked his opium and his skin was yellow with opium and he was bent and old and he spat blood when he coughed; and he looked at his uncle's wife and she was a cabbage of a woman who took eagerly to her opium pipe and was satisfied with it and drowsy; and these were little trouble enough now, and the opium had done what Wang Lung wished it would do.†
Chpt 28
And he looked at his uncle and he saw that he grew thin as he smoked his opium and his skin was yellow with opium and he was bent and old and he spat blood when he coughed; and he looked at his uncle's wife and she was a cabbage of a woman who took eagerly to her opium pipe and was satisfied with it and drowsy; and these were little trouble enough now, and the opium had done what Wang Lung wished it would do.†
Chpt 28
But here was the uncle's son, this man, still unwed, and a wild beast for his desires, and he would not yield to opium easily as the two old ones had done and take out his lusts in dreams.†
Chpt 28
He was in high good humor, then, although he concealed it, and he comforted his uncle's wife when she wept a little to hear of her son's going, and he gave her more opium and lit her pipe for her and he said, "Doubtless he will rise to be a military official and honor will come to us all through him."†
Chpt 29
And he appointed one of the laborers and his wife and children to live in the country house and to care for the two old opium dreamers.†
Chpt 29
Now five years is nothing in a man's life except when he is very young and very old, and if it gave to Wang Lung these others, it took away also that old dreamer, his uncle, whom he had almost forgotten except to see that he and his old wife were fed and clothed and had what they wished of opium.†
Chpt 30
Then Wang Lung moved his uncle's wife into the town where she would not be alone, and he gave her a room at the end of a far court for her own, and he told Cuckoo to supervise a slave in the care of her, and the old woman sucked her opium pipe and lay on her bed in great content, sleeping day after day, and her coffin was beside her where she could see it for her comfort.†
Chpt 30
She raised herself then in her bed and stared at him again and she said wondering, "My son—it is my son—" and she looked at him for a long time and at last as though she did not know what else to do she proffered him her opium pipe, as if she could think of no greater good than this, and she said to the slave that tended her, "Prepare some for him."†
Chpt 31
So Wang said hastily himself, "I wish she were content with less, for it runs into a handful of silver a day for her opium, but at her age we do not dare to cross her and she wants it all."†
Chpt 31
And he said heavily, "When the old opium dreamer dies, I will find a man for you, then, and it cannot be long."†
Chpt 32
But he said nothing at all except that the land was thus and so and this tenant and that must be changed at the end of the year, and the other one, because he smoked opium and would not gather from the land what it could bear.†
Chpt 33

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Definitions:

(1) (opium)
a powerful drug made from a type of poppy; relieves pain and aids sleep, but highly addictive and dangerous when abused recreationally
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)

opium in The Good Earth (Auto-generated)

opium
in
The Good Earth
(Auto-generated)