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
The interpersonal conflict is a conflict which happens between two or more people when they are involved in achieving the incompatible goal. This
conflict can also occur when the two people or parties agree with the goal but disagree with the manner in achieving the goal.
According to Beebe, Beebe and Redmon 1996: 297-300 , the interpersonal conflict can be divided into three types. They are pseudo conflict,
simple conflict and ego conflict. O-lan’s interpersonal conflicts happen because of the ego conflict. Ego conflict appears when personal differences attached to each
individual in a group. Isenhart and Spangle 2000: 14-15 resume the most common sources of
conflict into seven sources; they are data, interest, procedures, values, relationships, roles and communication. O-lan’s interpersonal conflicts are caused
by her relationships with others, in this case were Wang Lung and Cuckoo. O-lan knows that her husband, Wang Lung, does not like her appearance.
Wang Lung tries to avoid the reality that O-lan’s feet are big because they were PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
not bound. For that, Wang Lung searches for other woman and finally decides to take Lotus, a beautiful lady from a tea house as his second wife. O-lan tries to face
the conflict with Wang Lung, but Wang Lung always tries to find the excuses to avoid her. O-lan tries to find way to make Wang Lung like her. The conflict
between O-lan and Wang Lung is named accommodation style. This style is effective in situations in which one party feels the impossibility in achieving his or
her own that the outcome is not important Isenhart and Spangle, 2000: 26. In resolving their conflict, O-lan tries to use the integrative negotiation purposed by
Isenhart and Spangle. Integrative negotiation is a constructive and problem solving process Isenhart and Spangle, 2000: 45.
Besides her conflict with Wang Lung, O-lan also has a conflict with Cuckoo. Cuckoo used to be the most loved slave in the great House of Hwang.
Cuckoo was loved by the Ancient Lord. Cuckoo also liked to complain all the works that O-lan had done in the kitchen. O-lan already has the conflict when she
was a slave in the House of Hwang. The conflict arises when Cuckoo together with Lotus are taken home by Wang Lung. Cuckoo is a maid of Lotus. The
conflict between these two women does not end because O-lan tries to face Cuckoo until she dies but Wang Lung tries to find way to avoid the conflict
between these two women. The conflict between O-lan and Cuckoo can be classified as avoiding style. In avoiding style, one party denies that there is a
conflict Isenhart and Spangle, 2000: 26. In resolving the conflict, O-lan prefers to use win-lose problem solving purposed by Alder and Towne. In win–lose
problem solving, an individual reaches his or her goal while the other does not. For that, there is only one side that feels satisfied with the result of the conflict.
Here are the interpersonal conflicts felt by O-lan:
a O-lan Versus Wang Lung
The conflict between O-lan and Wang Lung appears because of Wang Lung’s disappointment about O-lan’s appearance. Wang Lung does not like O-
lan’s feet because they were not bound. It was a good enough voice, not loud, not soft, plain and not ill-tempered,
the woman’s hair was neat and smooth and her coat clean. He saw an instant’s disappointment that her feet were not bound. p. 19
However because Wang Lung is only a poor farmer and O-lan is a gift from the rich Hwang, he can not complain too much. For Wang Lung, a poor farmer,
having a wife means much rather than having no wife. Later when Wang Lung gets prosperous and becomes a landowner, he
needs not work at the field anymore. He already has enough money to hire worker and to let other people rent his land. People call him Wang from the Wang village
to praise. Because he does not work at the field anymore, Wang Lung usually goes to town to have a tea. Wang Lung goes to the tea shop to enjoy his time. He
feels that his life will be completed unless his embarrassment of his wife, who is ugly.
And it seemed to Wang Lung that he looked at O-lan for the first time that she was a woman whom no man could call other than she was a dull and
common creature, who plodded in silence without thought of how she appeared to others. He saw for the first time that her hair was rough and
brown and unsoiled and that her face was large and flat and coarse- skinned, and her features too large altogether and without any sort of
beauty or light. Her eyebrows were scattered and the hair too few, and her lips were too wide, and her hands and feet were large and spreading. pp.
160-161 Then, although in his heart he was ashamed that reproached this creature
who through all these years had followed him faithfully as a dog, and although he remembered that when e was poor and labored in the fields
himself she left her bed even after a child born and came to help him in the harvest fields, yet he could not stem the irritation in his breast and he went
on ruthlessly, although against his inner will, “I have labored and have grown rich and I would have my wife look less
like a hind. And those feet of yours-.” p. 162
O-lan knows how Wang Lung feels about her feet. O-lan as a mother of her daughter binds her daughters’ feet. There is a reason of doing this. O-lan
thinks that because of her appearance, Wang Lung seeks for other woman. She is smart enough to know that Wang Lung does not love her because of her
appearance. She tells her younger daughter about this. And at last she said in a whisper,
“My mother did not bind them, since I was sold so young. But the girl’s feet I will bind – the younger girl’s feet I will bind.” p. 162
And he looked at his young daughter when he came home and she was a pretty child and her mother had bound her feet well, so that she moved
about with small graceful steps. But Wang Lung looked at her thus closely he swathe marks of tears on her
cheeks, and her face was a shade too pale and grave for her years, and he drew her to him by her little hand and he said,
“Now why have you wept?” Then she hung her head and toyed with a button on her coat and said, shy
and half-murmuring, “Because my mother binds a cloth about my feet more tightly everyday
and I cannot sleep at night.” “Now I have no heard you weep,” he said, wondering.
“No,” she said simply, “and my mother said I was not to weep aloud because you are too kind and weak for pain and you might say to leave me
as I am, and then my husband would not love me even as you do not love her.” pp. 238-239
In order to keep the girl feet at a tiny size, the girl feet were bound in the ages between five and ten O’neill 1987: 94. O-lan’s daughter can only cry without
telling anyone about the pain. The most shocking reason O-lan gives to her daughter is about her daughter future husband. Latourette 1951: 680 in his book
The Chinese Their History and Culture states that a girl without small feet was PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
regarded as disgraced and it was impossible to get a desirable husband for her. For that reason, O-lan’s daughter keeps the pain to get her husband love in the future.
Even knowing Wang Lung does not love her, O-lan is still a diligent and hard worker wife. She still does the household work, takes care of Wang Lung’s
father and their children properly. After Wang Lung knows the feeling of being unloved, Wang Lung gradually realizes the kindness of O-lan as a wife. Wang
Lung notices that O-lan is sick. Day by day he cares more about O-lan until her death. O-lan knows that even if she stops doing the household work, Wang Lung
will not suddenly love her. For that, O-lan with her tough personality, she faces the fact that her husband does not love her.
O-lan conflict with Wang Lung is cause from their relation. This conflict is ego conflict since Wang Lung can not respect O-lan’s feeling as a woman. In
resolving this conflict O-lan applies the integrative negotiation. O-lan tries to make Wang Lung touch by her efforts explained above. She keeps trying until she
becomes sick and is noticed by Wang Lung.
b O-lan Versus Cuckoo
The conflict between O-lan and Cuckoo has begun since O-lan was in the great House of Hwang. O-lan is Wang Lung’s first wife. When Wang Lung takes
Lotus home, she was not alone. She takes her maid, Cuckoo together with her. O- lan is surprised that Wang Lung does not stop that. O-lan seems to have a conflict
with Cuckoo since both were slaves in the great House of Hwang. Cuckoo used to be a slave whom the lord loved the most. With the position as the most loved
slave, Cuckoo liked to keep O-lan busy in the kitchen. Cuckoo liked to complain on O-lan’s work.
But O-lan stood there solidly on her big feet and waited and when he said nothing she asked again plainly in the same words,
“What is this slave woman doing in our house?” Then Wang Lung, seeing she would have a answer, said feebly,
“And what is it you?” And O-lan said,
“I bore her haughty look during my youth in the great house and her running in the kitchen a score of times a day and crying out ‘now tea for
the lord’-‘now food for the lord’- and it was always this is too hot and that is too cold and that is badly cooked, and I was too ugly and too slow and
too this and too that ….” p. 194
O-lan once has a talk with Cuckoo when cuckoo asks her to cook more water for Lotus. O-lan refuses to do that. O-lan knows that she is no more a slave. To avoid
more fight, Wang Lung builds another stove in his house. Then there was nothing but that Cuckoo must herself boil water for her
mistress if she would have it. But then it was the time to stir the morning gruel and there was not space in the cauldron for more water and O-lan
would steadily to her cooking, answering nothing to Cuckoo’s loud crying, “And is my delicate lady to lie thirsting and gasping in her bed for a
swallow of water in the morning?” …. Then Cuckoo went complaining loudly to Wang Lung and he was
angry that his love must be marred by such things and he went to O-lan to reproach her and he shouted at her,
“And cannot you add a dipperful of water to cauldron in the mornings?” But she answered with a sullenness deeper than ever upon her face,
“I am not slave of slaves in this house at least.” Then he was angry beyond bearing and he seized O-lan’s shoulder and he
shook her soundly and he said, “Do not be yet more of a fool. It is not for the servant but for the mistress.”
….. Then his hand dropped and he was speechless and his anger was gone and
he went away ashamed and he said to Cuckoo, “We will build another stove and I will make another kitchen. The first
wife knows nothing of the delicacies which the other one needs for her flower-like body and which you also enjoy. You shall cook what you
please in it.” p. 196
When O-lan gets sick, there are times when she calls for Cuckoo for a talk. O-lan shows her pride as a wife of a man, she can bear sons for her husband while
Cuckoo still becomes a slave. After showing up her pride, O-lan speaks up her last PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
wish to Wang Lung. She wishes that neither Cuckoo nor her mistress is allowed to enter her room or touch her things although O-lan dies.
There were times when O-lan woke to herself and to what was about her and once she called for Cuckoo, and when in great astonishment Wang
Lung summoned the woman, O-lan raised herself trembling upon her arm, and she said plainly enough,
“Well, and you may lived in the courts of the Old Lord, and you were accounted beautiful, but I have been a man’s wife and I have borne him
sons, and you are still a slave.” When Cuckoo would have answered angrily to this Wang Lung besought
her and led her out, saying, “That one does not know what words mean, now.”
When he went back into the room, O-lan still leaned her head upon her arms and she said to him,
“After I am dead that one nor her mistress neither is to come into my room or tough my things, and if they do, I will send my spirit back for a curse.”
pp. 247-248
O-lan conflict with Cuckoo is also caused by her relation and categorized as ego conflict. This interpersonal conflict is avoiding style since both thinks it is not
important. However, O-lan decides to solve this conflict using win-lose solution. O-lan dares to face the conflict with Cuckoo, she knows she shall die but she want
none of Cuckoo goes into her room. She feels that her pride as a wife of a man shows that she is more worthy than Cuckoo, who is still a slave. Cuckoo knows
what O-lan says is correct, for that Cuckoo can not confront O-lan. O-lan gives no options to Cuckoo; O-lan tastes the victory. However the conflict between O-lan
and Cuckoo never really ends because O-lan dies. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
The last chapter of this study presents two main parts. The first part states the conclusions. They concern the answer of the questions stated in the problem
formulation. The conclusions are drawn from the discussion in the previous chapter. The second part is suggestions for future researchers and for English
teaching learning using literary work. The suggestions provide the implementation of a literary work in teaching reading and writing.
A. Conclusions
Based on the analysis in the previous chapter, there are two main points that can be concluded. The first point is about the character description of O-lan
which is based on the characterization purposed by Murphy. The second point is about O-lan’s personal conflicts. O-lan is also a major character in this novel since
she plays a big role from the beginning of the story. O-lan is also a complex character. O-lan plays as a protagonist character which leads the readers to have
sympathy on her character In analyzing O-lan’s characteristic, this study uses six of the nine method characterization purposed by Murphy. They are reaction,
mannerism, character seen by others, direct comment, speech and past life. Besides using Murphy’s theory, this study also analyzes the influences of culture
in O-lan’s character. The study shows that O-lan is an obedient person. She obeys whatever her
husband tells her to do. O-lan is not only an obedient wife but she is also a
54 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
