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
Wang Lung’s first impression through O-lan besides her appearance that is not beautiful is the silent face of O-lan. She seems to be silent and unspeaking.
Then Wang Lung turned to the woman and looked at her for the first time…. It was a face that seemed habitually silent and unspeaking, as
tough it could not speak if it would. pp. 20-21 O-lan always does everything in silence, she is a silent woman. She almost
never speaks except there is something important. But she never talked, this woman, except for the brief necessities of life….
But in the day her clothes, her plain blue cotton coat and trousers, covered all that he knew, and she was like a faithful, speechless serving maid, who
is only serving maid and nothing more. p. 30
O-lan’s character as a silent person, drawn above, is not only by Wang Lung’s view but also the direct comment by the author. In the first description, the
readers are brought to Wang Lung’s spectacle. O-lan’s character as a silent person is observed through other character, Wang Lung. In this point, Murphy 1972:
162 explained that character as seen by another is applied to make the reader gets, as it were, a reflected image.
In direct comment, the author describes or comments on a person’s character directly Murphy 1972: 170. In the second description, Buck
comments on O-lan’s character as a silent woman. The readers are explained in no doubt about the silence of O-lan.
O-lan hardly shares her feeling with others. In the house of Hwang, she PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
has no friends to share the feeling. It was the first time he had mentioned the house from which she came. She
turned on him as he had never seen her, her narrow eyed widened, her face stirred with dull anger.
“None in that house” she cried out at him. He dropped his pipe which he was filling and stared at her. But her face
was suddenly as usual and she was collecting the chopsticks as though she had not spoken. p. 33
Wang Lung feels like O-lan has a lot matters in her mind, but she does not
know how to express them. He seldom hears O-lan says so many words, but when he hears O-lan talks a lot, he feels amazed of the matter that is in O-lan’s mind.
“When I return to that house it will be with my son in my arms. I shall have a red coat on him and red-flowered trousers and on his head a hat
with a small gilded Buddha sewn on the front and on his feet tiger-faced shoes. And I will wear new shoes and new coat of black sateen and I will
go into the kitchen where I spent my days and I will go into the great hall where the Old One sits with her opium,, and I will sho myself and my son
to all of them.” He had never heard so many words from her before. They came both forth
steadily and without break, albeit slowly, and he realized that she had planned this whole thing out for herself. When she had been working in
the fields beside him she had been planning all this out How astonished she was p. 34
She never gives a brief explanation about what she felt, what she thought when
she works in the House of Hwang. Wang Lung never knows what kind of experiences felt by O-lan when she works with Hwang or when she was a child.
She is a very silent and introvert person who keeps her inner pain along with her. Once when Wang Lung forces O-lan to give him the two pearls, O-lan
with very hard feeling gives the pearls to him. Inside herself, O-lan feels very sad. Then slowly she thrust her wet wrinkled hand into her bosom and she drew
forth the small package and she gave it to him and watched him as he unwrapped it; and the pearls lay in his hand and they caught softly and
fully the light of the sun , and he laughed. But O-lan returned to the beating of his clothes and when tears dropped
slowly and heavily from her eyes she did not put up her hand to wipe when PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
away; only she beat the more steadily with her wooden stick upon the clothes spread over the stone. pp. 178-179
Though O-lan is hurt because of Wang Lung, she does not show her feeling by shouting out loud her pain. She only has herself cried while doing the
household. She with her silent face keeps her pain for herself. This act is called reactions. O-lan might cry out loud to let people knows but she prefers to let her
tears down without any voice of sadness of disappointment. In this stage, the readers are confirmed through the reaction of sadness.
4. Smart
