Silence and Struggle
—— Interpreting O-Lan in TheGoodEarth

○ Wu Xiayi Wang Yinping

(Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310018)

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Silence and Struggle
—— Interpreting O-Lan in TheGoodEarth

○ Wu Xiayi Wang Yinping

(HangzhouDianziUniversity,Hangzhou,Zhejiang, 310018)

TheGoodEarthis the masterpiece of Pearl S. Buck’s works on Chinese countryside. O-Lan is the female protagonist in the novel. The essay focuses on the two obvious features of O-Lan’s character: silence and struggle, the embodiments and causes of which are to be analyzed, too.

Pearl S. Buck,TheGoodEarth, O-Lan, silence, struggle

TheGoodEarth, published in 1931, is the most famous novel of Pearl S. Buck. It won the Nobel Prize in 1938 “for rich and epic descriptions of the peasant life in China.”[1]8-19Paul Hutchinson praised: “It is more helpful for understanding China from this novel than from many weighty volumes of expositions.”[2]Pradyumna Chauhan characterizesTheGoodEarth, with its mythic qualities, wide cast of characters and grand biblical tone, as an epic.[3]Guo Jianying holds the similar opinion thatTheGoodEarthis “an epic that reflects Chinese farmers’ lives.”[4]

TheGoodEarthis about how a poor Chinese peasant family becomes rich. O-Lan was not beautiful but capable. She was a slave woman in a local rich family Huang. After getting married to Wang Lung, a poor peasant, she not only burdened housework, but also worked in the land with her husband. Gradually, their life got better. Wang Lung bought more land, but afflicted by droughts, they didn’t have enough food, so they moved to the South. Accidentally, Wang Lung got a great treasure in the unrest. The family return hometown and bought more land. With O-Lan’s help, the family became rich, but Wang Lung married to another woman Lotus and abandoned O-Lan, which caused O-Lan’s death in desperation.

O-Lan is a typical traditional Chinese woman. She had two obvious features of her personality: silence and rebellion. The following of the article is devoted to interpret these features, the embodiments and causes of which are to be analyzed, too.

I. The Silent O-Lan

1.1 The manifestation of O-Lan’s silence

O-Lan was born an unfortunate woman. Her father sold her when she was ten. O-Lan became a maidservant in the House of Huang, where she was preyed upon by everyone in the house, because of her ugly appearance and humble status. As a servant girl in the kitchen, she had to work very hard every day. No matter how hard working she was, she received beatings every day. During that time, O-Lan gradually formed a habit of being silent. She didn’t complain about her suffering, she just did what she was told silently.

The Lady of the House of Huang sold O-Lan to Wang Lung as his wife. When Wang Lung took her home, she also kept silent until he asked her some questions. Later, O-Lan not only did the housework but also helped in the land. “These things she did without a word and without being commanded to do them.”[5]29Even when she was pregnant, she kept working in the land until the birth time and came back immediately after her childbirth. When Wang Lung was obsessed with Lotus, he asked O-Lan to hand over the two pearls that she treasured for a long time, he said: “Why should that one wear pearl with as her skin as black as earth? Pearls are for fair women!”[5]199O-Lan gave the pearls to Wang Lung, without a word. Most of the time, O-Lan kept silent in her own home just the same as she did in the house of Huang.

1.2 The reasons for O-Lan’s silence

Firstly, O-Lan’s childhood experience is the main reason. She was sold to be a servant, who was ordered to do works rather than speaking, so keeping silence was a habit which O-Lan developed from an early age.

Secondly, her silence results from her low self-esteem caused by her ugly appearance and humble status as well as the mocking from other servants. The suffering of dignity in the House of Huang made the weak O-Lan unable to fight against the tough situation. Keeping silence is O-Lan’s choice to face the cruel reality.

Thirdly, O-Lan’s silence is also caused by Chinese traditional Feudal Culture. In the ancient China, woman as a daughter must obey her father before marriage, and after marriage woman as a wife must be subject to her husband. Such a code called “Three Obedience and Four Virtues” prevented Chinese women from joining in social activities, and forbid them to be good daughters, wives and mothers-in-laws. As a traditional woman, O-Lan believed in such an ethical code. She regarded her husband as the one a woman should depend on. She also knew the importance of family to a woman so much that she put all her hope on the marriage. Therefore, O-Lan was eager to shake off poverty and got herself out of dilemma. She didn’t fight against Wang Lung because she hoped to rely on him for freedom. She was so afraid of being abandoned by her husband that when her marriage came across crisis, she stoop to compromise.

Ⅱ. The Struggling O-Lan

Although O-Lan was silent and obedient, she had a strong heart under her wooden image. In the novel, O-Lan revolted against her unfair life with courage and intelligence instead of blindly keeping silence. She tried very hard to search her living space in severe environment.

2.1 The manifestation of O-Lan’s struggle

O-Lan’s struggle is firstly manifested in her rebellion against the House of Huang. When Wang Lung suggested to find a woman in the House of Huang to help O-Lan’ delivery, she got angry and cried out: “None in that house!”[5]34It is the first time for O-Lan to show her disgust to the great house. When she got back to the House with her first son for the first time, she dressed her son beautifully in red coat and tiger faced shoes. She told her husband there was no child in the great house can be compared to their son in beauty and dress. For O-Lan, new clothes are the symbol of fortune and giving birth to a son is the proudest thing in her life. Both of them are the strongest weapons she has to be against the House of Huang and those who once bullied her.

O-Lan’s struggle is also shown in her way against Wang Lung. Although O-Lan remained silent most of the time in her marriage, she was the decision-maker in crisis. During the famine, Wang Lung didn’t know what to do and when the family had nothing to eat, he couldn’t bear to kill the old ox. It was O-Lan who took up the knife to kill the ox and made use of every part When villagers believed the rumor that Wang Lung had extra food, they burst into the house to rob. When Wang Lung felt quite helpless, O-Lan stood out and shouted: “You have all our food, we have not a bean or a grain of corn more than you. Heaven will strike you if you take more.”[5]78She stopped the villagers finally.

It was also O-Lan who made the decision that the whole family moved to the South for a while. She sold the table, beds, beddings, benches and even the cauldron from the stove[5]92to get money for tickets of a wagon to the South. In the South, It was O-Lan again who made the shelter for the family and begged in the street regardless of shame, which offered the possibility of the family’s survival. She also helped Wang Lung to get jewelry and money in the riot with her own life experience and made the family rich.

2.2 The reasons for O-Lan’s rebellion

Although O-Lan was self-contempt, there’s no doubt that the pride and dignity are stored deeply in her heart. Especially after she married to Wang Lung, which helped her to find a sense of belonging, she was no longer a maidservant dependent on others for living or the person in the lowest status. O-Lan had her own family on account of her marriage, regardless of whether it would be happy or not. She obtained the liberal personality and regained the dignity through her marriage, which gave her courage to fight. Having sons helped O-Lan to secure her place in family and gain pride to defend herself.

Tough life did not destroy O-Lan. Instead, it brought up an independent personality of her. O-Lan had great intelligence beyond men’s and ability to deal with external affairs on her own that made her a decision-maker on many situations rather than being a passive role. On one hand, she was tougher and more resourceful than Wang Lung. She was flexible enough to gain some autonomy to struggle against patriarchy in her small and confined living space. On the other hand, unlike other Chinese women, O-Lan’s suffering of being sold by her father in her very early age led her to depend on her own under many circumstances. For this reason only by having the independent personality could O-Lan survive cruel living conditions and gave her courage to articulate her inner voice. All these characteristics provide the prerequisites for her rebellion.

Ⅲ. Conclusion

The above interpretation of O-Lan inTheGoodEarthis by no means comprehensive but it can serve our purpose to demonstrate her charming personality. O-Lan is a typical traditional Chinese woman with unique personality. On one hand, O-Lan kept silent in the face of obstacles. On the other hand, she had enough pride, dignity and independent personality to fight back. InTheGoodEarth, Pearl S. Buck portrayed a charming Chinese woman — O-Lan.

[1]Canby Henry Sidel. 1938. The Good Earth: Pearl S. Buck and The Nobel Prize[J].The Saturday Review of Literature, 4.

[2] Hutchinson, Paul. Christian Century[N].May, 1931.

[3] Chauhan, Pradyumna. 1994. Pearl S. Buck’s The good earth: The Novel As a Epic[C]//Several Worlds of Pearl S.Buck: Essays Presented at a Centennial Symposium, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, March 26-28,1992. Elizabeth Liscomb, Francis E.Webb, and Peter Conn. Westport. CT: Greenwood Press.

[4] 郭劍英.賽珍珠評論集[R].漓江出版社，1999.

[5] Buck, S. Pearl. 1931. The Good Earth[M].New York: Harper & Row, Publisher.

吳夏奕，杭州電子科技大學外國語學院本科生；

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1672-8610(2015)06-0053-02

沉默與抗爭——解讀《大地》中的阿蘭

吳夏奕 王銀瓶

(杭州電子科技大學 外國語學院，浙江 杭州 310018)

《大地》是賽珍珠以中國農村為題材的代表作。阿蘭是《大地》中的女主角,她既傳統又擁有自己的獨特個性。本文著重從阿蘭個性中具備的沉默與抗爭這兩大特點入手，分析其沉默與抗爭的具體表現以及導致這兩大性格特點的原因，從而展示阿蘭獨特的人格魅力。

賽珍珠； 《大地》； 阿蘭； 沉默； 抗爭

王銀瓶，杭州電子科技大學外國語學院講師，研究方向：英美文學。