Chapters Four though Six Summary and Analysis

For a year and a half, Tang continues to live on his own, then receives word from his father that the family businesses - a printing house and a rubber tree plantation - are in serious trouble and that Tang, as the only of the six sons who has graduated, must come home to help pay expenses for those still studying. Tang notes that there's no question as to whether he will help, but he is immediately drafted upon his return. To avoid combat, he takes a job at a teacher in the province of Chau Doc in the "Cambodian frontier." Being some two hundred miles from Saigon, it's not a desirable station. Because of his degree, he's immediately made a "professor" and sends his pay home to his family, returning home to help out...