sight, O-lan’s obedience character is reflected. There were tea leaves floating upon the surface of the water. He looked up
at her quickly. She was at once afraid and she said, “I took no tea to the Old One – I did as you said – but to you I …”
Wang Lung saw that she was afraid of him and he was pleased and he answered before she finished, “I liked it – I liked it.” p. 28
One day Wang Lung demands that O-lan gives him the pearls that she had
stolen from the rich man’s house, which he allowed her to save. Wang Lung asks the pearls because he gives them to Lotus as a gift.
And he muttered, not looking at her wrinkled, wet hands, “There is no use in keeping pearls for nothing.”
Then she said slowly, “I thought one day I might have them set in earrings,” and fearing his laughter she said again, “I could have them for
the younger girl when she is wed.” And he answered her loudly, hardening his heart, “Why should that one
wear pearls with her skin as black as earth? Pearls are for fair women” And then after an instant’s silence he cried out suddenly, “Give them to
me – I have need of them” Then slowly she thrust her wet wrinkled hand into her bosom and drew
forth the small package and she gave it to him…. p. 178
O-lan has forced to keep the pearls, however her husband wants them so much. With depressed feeling, she hands in the pearls to him. O-lan likes the pearls so
much that she is not willing to make use of them. O-lan becomes an obedient person because of the Chinese culture. A
woman is supposed to listen to her husband, her father in law or her son. In this case, O-lan obeys her husband. As Chang Tu Hu states that a husband may strike
his wife if his wife does not do his command 1960: 60. Buck shows facts that described O-lan as a typical Chinese wife who obeys his husband’s command in
any situation.
2. Diligent and Hardworking
O-lan is not only an obedient wife but she is also a diligent one. After PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
O-lan marries to Wang Lung, the next day in the morning she gets up earlier and prepares the boiled water for her father in law and her husband.
He felt as though the night must have changed him; yet here was this woman rising from his bed as though she had risen everyday of her life.
p.26 And then he lay in his bed warm and satisfied while in the kitchen the
woman fed the fire and boiled the water. p. 27
O-lan not only does the households that used to be done by her husband, she also cleans the house. By cleaning the house, the disease that is suffered by her father-
in-law rapidly gets better. Her father-in-law also looks happy with O-lan’s work. And she took their ragged clothes and with thread she herself spun on a
bamboo spindle from a wad of cotton she mended and contrived to cover the rents in their winter clothes. Their bedding she took into sun on the
threshold and ripped the coverings from the quilts and washed them and hung them upon bamboo to dry, and the cotton picked over, killing the
vermin that had flourished in the hidden fold and sunning it all. Day after day she did one thing after another, until the three rooms seemed clean and
almost prosperous. The old man’s cough grew better and he sat in the sun by the southern wall of the house, always half-asleep and warm and
content. pp. 29-30
Diligent is not enough for O-lan, she is also hardworking. She does the households work and the field work. She helps her husband who works in the
field. In the morning after preparing the boiled water, she does the household work. Then she, with lunch she has prepared before, goes to the field to help her
husband. One day when Wang Lung was hard pressed with the swelling wheat and
was cultivating it with his hoe, day after day, until his back throbbed with weariness, her shadow fell across the furrow over which he bent himself,
and there she stood, with a hoe across her shoulder. “There is nothing in the house until nightfall,” she said briefly, and
without speech she took the furrow to the left of him and fell into steady hoeing. p. 30
O-lan does not have any excuse to stop working. She still works the households and fields work when she is pregnant. When the time for her to deliver the baby,
she just goes home to do it, later after that she continues working. This happens when she has the first, second and third children. She brings her children to the
field so she could both take care of her babies and help her husband. She smoothed a last furrow slowly. Then in her usual plain way she said,
straight out, her voice flat and more than usually plain in the silent evening air, “I am with a child.” p. 31
The next day after the child was born the woman rose as usual and prepared food for them…. p. 39
She worked all day now and the child lay on an old torn quilt on the ground, asleep. When it cried the woman stopped and uncovered her
bosom to the child’s mouth, sitting flat upon the ground… p. 41 Beyond this nothing was said of the second child from the time he noticed
its growth swelling her body until the day came in autumn when she laid down her hoe one morning and crept into the house. pp. 54-55
Later before the sun set she was back beside him, her body flattened, spent, but her face silent and undaunted. p. 55
Buck describes that O-lan is a diligent and hardworking woman. O-lan usually gets up early, does the entire household work and also helps Wang Lung the work
in the field. O-lan seeks for work though she has finished the household work. O- lan’s character as a diligent and hardworking woman is illustrated as a usual habit
which is done by O-lan. According to Murphy 1972: 173, this characterization step is called mannerism. In mannerism, the author can describe a person’s
mannerism, habits or idiosyncrasies. A wife has to do all the household works Hu 1960: 162. O-lan not only
does all the works well but also helps his husband with his work in the field. It is PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
also interesting to know that Buck draws the positive side of unbinding feet. If a woman have her feet bound, she was unable to walk properly and unable to work
in field. O-lan with her unbound feet can help his husband with the field tasks.
3. Silent
