od 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."(204). O-lan also said to Cuckoo, "Well, and if I am ugly, still I have borne a son; although I am but a slave there is a son in my house. . . . Beauty will not bear a man sons!" (268). It is right that O-lan is revealing how she feels because, after all, she is a part of the success that their family is enjoying. Though she did say some signifigant things in the story, O-lan had one major fault, which was her silence and reluctance to stand up for herself.O-lan did many significant things that showed her to be the modest woman she was. One thing that is constant throughout The Good Earth is that O-lan is a very good worker and she has many talents, just as the Old Lady in the Great House of Hwang has said. . O-lan goes out into the fields and works day after day, even when she is pregnant, when she could be in the house doing housework. She works hard so many times, but it seems as if no one notices. O-lan has many different talents. One such example is before their marriage, Wang Lung invites some of his friends over for dinner, which is cooked by O-lan. they sit and eat in silence, except for when one of the comments on the food and how scrumptious it is. Wang lung hides his happiness that O-lan has made a delicious dinner from meat, sugar, vinegar, wine, and soy sauce. Her skill as a cook is apparent early. After their first son is born, Wang lung went again into the town and he bought pork fat and white sugar and the woman rendered the fat smooth and white and she took rice flour, which they had ground from their own rice between their millstones to which they could yoke the ox when they needed to do so, and she took the fat and the sugar and she mixed and kneaded rich New Year's cakes, called moon cakes, cakes, such as were eaten in the House of Hwang (47). This also pl...
