The Earth

The simple-minded Benjy and the anxious Johnsons

The story revolves around Benjy and his parents, the Johnsons, who are simple, hard-working tenant farmers. For over forty years they have rented a poor, unproductive strip of land from a local landowner named Sanders. They are deeply anxious about Benjy because he is simple-minded ('not quite right in his head'), with large, loose limbs, simple blue eyes and a perpetually vacant smile. Guided by a vague, superstitious faith in God and the earth, the Johnsons spend more time talking and praying than using fertilizers on their soil.

The doctor's advice and the egg business

They take Benjy to a doctor, who advises that Benjy is not insane but merely simple, and needs some practical occupation to develop his mind and sense of responsibility, suggesting: 'let him keep hens.' The father builds a simple wire coop in the backyard and Benjy starts with a dozen hens. He quickly grasps the simple, repetitive logic of poultry farming, feeds the hens scraps and cabbage, and starts selling eggs at the back door.

The parents put the money 'almost religiously' into a large white basin on the top shelf of the kitchen cupboard, promising Benjy the money will be his at twenty-one. Gradually the business expands; by the time he leaves school at fourteen he is producing hundreds of eggs a week, and the money is moved from the basin to a formal bank account in Benjy's name. At twenty-one a little family ceremony is held and his father proudly hands him a passbook containing more than 230 pounds. Benjy takes it silently, without a word of thanks, and bluntly announces he will use the money to buy land from Mr. Whitmore.

The conquest of land and the arrival of Florence

While his parents are taken aback by his coldness, they console themselves that he is still a simple, innocent child. Over the next few years Benjy builds more advanced incubator houses, buys the Whitmore land, and eventually buys their own rented land from Sanders when the latter is forced to sell. He has now transitioned from a simple-minded boy into a highly cunning, prosperous and ruthless businessman.

He hires a girl named Florence to help clean the chicken houses. Florence has thick, heavy legs and unreflective grey eyes. Despite his parents' silent disapproval of her plain looks and poor background, Benjy marries her.

The cold expulsion of the parents

The marriage completely divides the household. Florence immediately clashes with Benjy's mother over domestic matters such as how to clean the saucepans, and Benjy offers a cold solution: 'Now you eat in the kitchen, and we'll eat in the other room.' As winter progresses the tension intensifies until Benjy enters his parents' room and says, 'Mum and Dad... it would be a lot better if you went somewhere else to live... This is our house now. I bought the house, and I want it now.' When his mother cries that they have nowhere to go, Benjy remains completely unmoved.

A week later Benjy drives his elderly mother and father down into the town in his small Ford van. He stops on a street filled with houses, unloads their meager belongings onto the pavement, tells them 'You'll be better by yourselves in lodgings', and calmly drives away. The story ends with the heartbreaking image of the elderly Johnsons standing alone on the cold, hard pavement, realizing that the earth they had loved and the son they had nurtured have both abandoned them forever.