All posts by gh158498

Can “Medicine” cure a “Madman”?

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“Diary of a Madman”,like the title stated, is written in the form of a diary. This means that it is written in the eyes of the narrator or the protagonist. Right off the bat, we get an introduction of who the diary is written by, a person who is suffering from a mental illness. So these couple of journal entries are going to be written in the eyes of someone who is suffering from a mental illness.

The first thing the readers should notice motif on cannibalism. Cannibalism is everywhere throughout the diary and this isn’t the first time we have seen cannibalism being used in literature. We have read “A Modest Proposal” by Johnathan Swift who talks about cannibalism as a positive. Jonathan Swift describes cannibalism as an answer for the issue in his current society, albeit sarcastically. In the eyes of the madman, cannibalism is purely negative. The madman describes all of the cannibals like monsters. He say the people around him were “their teeth are bared and waiting – white and razor sharp. Those people are cannibals!” (246).

But Lu Xun clearly stated in the beginning that this diary is written by someone who has a mental illness, maybe paranoia or schizophrenia, so the reader shouldn’t believe his words, right? After all, “crazy” people are someone who is not reliable  But if we look at this way, the madman is actually the rebel of the story. The one who knows that there is something wrong in society. In past China, famine was a major issue and the citizens resorted to cannibalism to live on. Therefore, cannibalism was “normal”, something that was not out of the ordinary. In the diary, the elder brother of the madman even said that “it was all right to exchange children and eat them” (248). Lu Xun uses a madman, someone who should be “stupid” or “not fit to think”, as the rebel of the story. Only the madman himself realizes that cannibalism is something that is not correct, something that should be changed from “normal” traditions. The madman ends his diary with “Maybe there are some children around who still haven’t eaten human flesh. Save the children…” (253). Lu Xun made the madman the “thinker”, the “sane” person to represent this story despite his mental illness that makes him “crazy”.

Lu Xun wrote another story titled “Medicine”. “Medicine” talks about a young boy named “Little-Bolt” and is sick with tuberculosis. His parents are trying to find ways to cure him. The parents found a “way” to cure their child by feeding him a mantou with blood on it, more specifically, the blood of a rebel which was stated in the end. One of the quote in this story that caught my attention was, “A guaranteed cure, guaranteed!” which was said by Big Uncle Kang (257). Big Uncle Kang was introduced in the story as someone who is insensitive and almost “evil” and he is the one who says that making someone eat a mantou with human blood on it is a “guaranteed cure” because it “worked” in the past. But in the end, “LIttle-Bolt” still died from his disease and the “medicine” did not work at all and this cost the lives of two individuals.

Lu Xun uses “human blood” and “evils” towards humans as a metaphor to show that “norms” from before will not work. He wants change in his society and he shows that the sacrifice of humans is not “normal” and atrocities in the past should stay in the past.

One question I would like to raise the question for these readings is what if Lu Xun decided to make the main character of “Diary of a Madman” completely stable? What if he did not have any mental illnesses or paranoia? Will this have changed anything at all or will there be a different impact?

Also a question for “Medicine” is what if Lu Xun decided to make the blood on the mantou to be someone else, like say a random person that has no significance to the story? Do you think it would have changed the impact in anyway? I personally thought that it was more impactful when it said the blood came from a rebel who was executed for trying to change society.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass

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In the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave”, Frederick Douglass uses violent imagery to show the horrors and evils of slavery as well as the corruption within a society where slavery is legal.

The first time the violent imagery was used is in chapter I where Frederick Douglass narrates the violent punishment of Aunt Hester. Frederick Douglas narrated the scene as, “Her arms were stretched up at their full length, so that she stood upon the ends of her toes… after rolling up his sleeves, he commenced to lay on the heavy cowskin, and soon the warm, red blood (amid heart-rending shrieks from her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor” (239).  He continues with saying how he “was so terrified and horror stricken at the sight” (239) showing the intensity of the violence that was happening.

The second time he uses the violent imagery to show the horrors and evils of slavery is when he talked about Mr. Severe. He describe the imagery as, “I have seen him whip a woman, causing the blood to run half an hour at the time; and this, too, in the midst of her crying children, pleading for their mother’s release. He seemed to take pleasure in manifesting his fiendish barbarity” (241).  Not only is Frederick Douglass describing the violent scene with his narration, he also displayed the sadistic nature of the overseer through his words. Even with crying children begging him to stop, the overseer continues and even taking pleasure in dealing out the whipping.

The most prominent example of Frederick’s use of violent imagery to project the corruption of the society at the time was where he talked about the overseer, Mr. Gore. Frederick Douglass described the scene as, “Mr. Gore told him that he would give him three calls, and that, if he did not come out at the third call, he would shoot him… Mr. Gore then, without consultation or deliberation with any one… raised his musket to his face, taking deadly aim at this standing victim, and in an instant poor Demby was no more. His mangled body sank out of sigh, and blood and brains marked the water where he had stood”(246).  The  imagery of “blood and brains” marking the waters already shows how horrible the slaves were treated at the time. Frederick Douglass continues showing the corruption of the society by saying, “his horrid crime was not even submitted to judicial investigation. It was committed in the presence of slaves, and they of course would neither institute a suit, nor testify against him; and thus the guilty perpetrator of one of the bloodiest and most foul murders goes unwhipped of justice”(246).  This shows the corruption of the society when a murderer continues his job unpunished.

Slaves were considered objects rather than people. Through Frederick Douglass violent imagery,  he showed the horrors of slavery as well as the corrupted system of slavery.