The story is a prime example of traditional Chinese ideals. This woman, who is referred to as Xiang Lin’s Wife, is often marginalized. In her early life, the woman lost her first husband and, as is finally revealed, ran from the rest of her family to work for a family elsewhere. As a widow she is looked down upon as it is not custom. Despite her determination to have a quiet and simple life of servitude she is later kidnapped by the family she once ran from. This family forces her to remarry for their own capital gain. The woman fights so desperately to escape a second marriage which goes against all her religious beliefs. Lu Xun really shows the problems in beliefs and is able to portray them through this story in a way that will make the reader step back and say to themselves “this isn’t right.” By constantly showing this poor woman going through traumatic life changing events and then showing how those who should care for her show no compassion for her circumstances, Lu Xun is able to reveal these flawed ideals to the public. She once again is tested in life in a way few could imagine as her second husband dies and her son is killed by a wolf. She returns to the town she once worked in and to her previous employers a broken human without the spirit she once had and is only met by superstition and treatment deserved by an outcast.
These terrible events cause her to question what her religious beliefs have in store for her and Lu Xun again is able to show Chinese ideals in a type of double standard held over women in these traditional views. These kinds of ideals are held over religions all around the world. This is just one prime example of how we as a society as a whole need to be the one to change these ideals. Times are changing and we need to keep up.
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