who later becomes a land owner. O-lan has conflicts during her life. When she is a slave in the great House of Hwang, she has a conflict with one of the slaves there,
Cuckoo. After marrying to Wang Lung, the conflict does not stop because later Cuckoo also becomes a slave of the Wang Lung’s second wife. O-lan faces the
problem not only with Cuckoo but also with her own husband. Wang Lung. Since her husband can not accept her appearance, Wang Lung keeps complaining about
O-lan’s feet. Wang Lung looks for other woman in the tea house and takes one of the women, Lotus, home. Besides conflicts from outside her, O-lan also faces
conflicts inside her. O-lan decides to deliver her first child by herself. It is not as simple as it is. However without the help of another woman, she herself can
deliver the baby safely. O-lan also faces the conflict inside her when she kills her second daughter.
From the explanation above, this study discuss the e two kinds of conflicts faced by O-lan, they are intrapersonal internal and interpersonal external
conflicts.
1. The Intrapersonal Conflicts
Worchel and Cooper 1979: 460-464 describe intrapersonal conflict as a conflict that an individual experiences when he or she makes a decision between
two or more alternatives which will lead to a situation in which other people do not behave as the individual expects them to. The intrapersonal conflicts faced by
O-lan are influenced not only from the present life as a wife of Wang Lung but also the past life. She has the conflict within herself when she is pregnant for the
first time. O-lan’s other personal conflict is her decision to kill her second daughter who is born during the famine time.
In dealing with her conflicts, O-lan does not get help from others. When having the intrapersonal conflicts, O-lan prefers to face rather to avoid them. The
conflicts O-lan faces are double approach – avoidance conflicts. She has a hard childhood which makes her tough in making decision for her conflicts. Her
intrapersonal conflicts are as the following:
a O-lan’s decision to deliver her first son by herself
When knowing that the birth of the first child is near, Wang Lung expects O-lan to contact her friend or family to help her to deliver the baby. Wang Lung
accepts some women to help O-lan to deliver the baby safely. Because O-lan is a silent person, she has neither family nor friend. It makes Wang Lung panic and
ask O-lan to think what she should do to deliver the baby safely. “No woman?” he asked in consternation….. “But it will be odd only two
men in the house” he continued. “My mother had a woman from the village. I know nothing of these affairs. Is there none in the great house, no
old slave with whom you were friends, who could come?” “None of that house” she cried out at him. p. 33
Without the relation with other women, O-lan has to find the way to deliver her
first baby. There might be other options in delivering the baby by asking the neighbor’s help, but O-lan decides to deliver the baby by herself. O-lan prefers
deliver the baby by her own with the experience she has rather than asks a person to help her. When a woman delivers her first baby, she might not know what is
needed in order to cut the baby’s placenta. This situation does not happen to O-lan because she is smart. She knows that a new peeled reed is needed to cut the baby’s
placenta. Because of her personality, silent, she rarely has a friend to ask for help. For that reason, O-lan, who is smart and silent, delivers the baby by herself.
“It is come,” she said. “I will go into the house. Do not come into the room until I call. Only bring me a newly peeled reed, and slit it, that I may cut
the child’s life from mine.” p. 36 In this first conflict, O-lan’s conflict is double approach-avoiding conflicts.
In this conflict, O-lan has two options in delivering the baby. She might choose to deliver the baby herself or ask the neighbor to help her doing it. These both
options have the positive and negative sides. In resolving her conflict, there are two sub-type resolutions Worchel and Cooper 1974: 460. O-lan decides to use
the first sub-type which is determining one goal and as a consequence giving up the other option. She is giving up her second option which the option of asking the
neighbor’s help. She chooses the other option because she is a silent person and has no contact outside. Then O-lan decides that she is smart enough to know how
to deliver the baby and what is needed in order to cut the baby’s placenta.
b O-lan’s decision to kill her second daughter
The most shocking decision made by O-lan is her decision to kill her second daughter who is born in the famine time. O-lan has tasted the difficulties
of famine when she was a child. She knows that having a baby at the famine time is not a good decision. Besides the baby will eat nothing, there is not any food to
be eaten. As a mother who has been pregnant for nine months, O-lan dares to kill her child who has just been born. The baby is alive when she is born. Wang Lung
hears the sound of a crying child but at instant it is disappeared. O-lan kills the baby because it was a girl. The birth of a daughter is considered not expected. Yet
presumably they must have made up about half of the population, or perhaps slightly less, for in hard times girl babies were exposed by families to die Robert,
1993: 361. At the time, a daughter means a bad luck. Another reason of this treatment is because a girl baby is a poor social investment, since after the years
of nature the majority of them would simply marry to become of other household Smith 1994: 248.
When the first daughter is born, O-lan herself called the daughter as a slave and unworthy mentioning. Wang Lung himself feels disappointed with the
birth. The voice of his wife answered from the bed more feebly than he had ever
heard her speak. “It is over once more. It is only a slave this time – not worth mentioning.”
Wang Lung stood still. A sense of evil struck him. A girl A girl was causing all this trouble in his uncle’s house. Now a girl had been born into
his house as well. p. 62
The tough life time teaches O-lan that having the baby will give no good at that time. Although there is not any person who asks O-lan to kill the girl baby, O-lan
is supposed to know that she should kill the baby. O-lan might feel sad but she was tough enough to hide her feeling. The other reason is also because O-lan is a
silent one. “Where is the child?” he asked.
She made a slight movement of her hand upon the bed and he saw upon the floor the child’s body.
“Dead” he exclaimed. “Dead,” she whispered. p. 78
He said nothing, but he took the dead child into the other room and laid it upon the earthen floor and searched until he found a bit of broken mat and
this he wrapped about it. The round head dropped this way and that and upon the neck he saw two dark, bruise spots, but he finished what he had
to do. p. 79 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
O-lan’s second intrapersonal conflict is also double approach-avoiding conflict. In this conflict she chooses the second sub-type conflict resolution purposed by
Worchel and Cooper. The second sub-type depends on the value of each goal. When the positive aspects of goal are higher than the negative, the goal can be
reached and the reverse Worchel and Cooper, 1974: 461. She considers the value of having the baby alive in famine time or killing the baby. She decides to
kill her baby after having the value of each options.
2. The Interpersonal Conflicts
