Tough The Characteristics of Orchid

creative is one characteristics of smart person. While the other wealthy children got their coolies man to fan them, Orchid’s creativity to cool down the temperature was out of the box idea than the other children who just sit and get fan by the coolies men. In the afternoon, when the heat became unbearable, I would organize the children to help cool the house. My sister and brother would fill the buckets, and I would pull them up to the roof where I poured the water over the tiles. We would go back to the water afterward. p.8 Moreover, Orchid is a fast learner too. When Orchid supports her family financially by work in a shoes shop, her boss, Big Sister Fann always tell everything about Forbidden City and her life. She likes to work there, besides she also enjoys Big Sister Fann’s wisdom about life. For a while, she learns about the place where she will live for the rest of her life, the gossips inside the Forbidden City, and the story of the previous Emperor and its family. There are so much evidence in the novel said that she learned many things by hearing Big Sister Fann story in once. Besides the example above, she also learned about the place where she lived, the story about the young Emperor, Imperial household, tradition, moreover the process of the imperial consorts selection, the true concept of beauty, how to dress, the eunuch’s life which were important for her in the future life as a concubine. There are a lot of benefits that she gets from her fast learner characteristics. Orchid says It was from Big Sister Fann that I learned about the place where I would soon live for the rest of my life. She told me that the hall’s ceiling alone housed 2,604 dragons, and each had a different meaning and significance. p.14 As a woman in patriarchal culture, a woman who could read and write was a special achievement. Moreover, Orchid was very helpful in government stuff. She was trusted to help Emperor Hsieng Feng take care the documents, proposals and decisions when he was sick while the others concubines were busy take care their beauty. “I suggested that His majesty squeeze the money out of corrupt bureaucrats. I proposed that he order government officials nationwide to report their incomes. In the meantime His Majesty should send inspector to audit their books to see if the reports matched what had really been earned. “That might provoke resentment,” His Majesty said. “Not if we add a clause to the decree stating that no one would be charged with embezzlement if the guilty individuals donated their improper money to the victim of the flood disaster. The decree worked beautifully.” p.249 The statements above show that she was quite smart to manage the state finances. As what Murphy said about characteristics. The characteristics of a character can be seen from herhis speech, thoughts and reaction. In the recessive situation, she could give the suggestion to the emperor and it was accepted. It worked beautifully. From the beginning she stepped her feet in Forbidden City, she had the willingness to compete with other concubines. She attracted the Emperor not only by her beauty but also by her intelligence which other concubine did not have.

3. Optimistic

Thought, reaction and mannerism are the dominant ways to find this characteristic. From the beginning of Orchid’s past life, she is an optimistic person whenever she faced the problems. From her thought, she knows that she is live in low financial, yet she is being grateful that her father did not sell her to pay off the debts. She said that, “We didn’t live in poverty, but I was aware that my neighbors had eaten earthworms for dinner and had sold their children to pay off the debts p.5 ”. Another example of her optimistic nature is in her childhood. In the afternoon on summer day which the heat was unbearable, she make her house keep cool otherwise she still got wet when she woke up. She has the optimist idea that inside the house will be cool which is logically it just make the atmosphere inside the house was cooked. As Holman and Harmon stated, the presentation of the character in action makes the writer conclude that she is optimist. She believed that the house will be cool whether the fact was not. She starts to live in poverty after her father dead, although she lived in poverty it does not make her give up in that situation. She keeps on living her life with any chance that she could get. When she is going to Peking with her mother and her siblings to deliver the coffin of her father, her mother ran out of money so she could not pay the footmen. Suddenly, a taotai presented a wrong package with three hundred taels of silver inside, he took the taels back but she still expected him to speak, hoped that he still give her some taels. It really happened, the taotai gave her some taels and she never forgot about him. The next optimistic thought that she had was when she heard about the decree on the city wall. Orchid got the most of the requirements, then she asked to Big Sister Fan whether she had a chance or not. Sister Fann was discouraged her