O-lan's most defining characteristic is her silence. She doesn't talk, she just does things. Wang Lung describes her like this: "[S]he never talked, this woman, except for the brief necessities of life. Wang Lung, watching her move steadily and slowly about the rooms on her big feet, watching secretly the stolid, square face, the unexpressed, half-fearful look of her eyes, made nothing of her" (2.16). Just like that description says, people ignore O-lan because she's silent. They take her for granted. She must know it, but doesn't seem to mind; she just keeps on doing her thing in the background. The thing is, O-lan's silence makes the words that she does say even more important than anything anyone else says. Think about it: since she normally