All posts by Daniel Luong

About Daniel Luong

NO-CARD

Lu Xun’s, “Diary of a Madman,” and, “Medicine”

Uncategorized, ,

Lu Xun’s use of cannibalism in his short stories are not to focus on specific instances of cannibalism in China, but rather to highlight certain faults rooted in Chinese society. “Diary of a Madman,” is a story about a scholar who through studying, comes to see China as a country built on cannibalism. The diary writer states, “The whole volume was filled with a single phrase: EAT PEOPLE” (Xun 246). As a student, the madman would study classical Chinese literature based in Confucian thinking; while meant to provide knowledge and lead to thought that would regard the reader as genius in Chinese society, the knowledge that the madman received changed his perception on the world and created paranoia. The diary bits differ vastly from the excerpt at the beginning, where what is perceived as a calmer narrator directs.

One way to look at this is that Xun implies that different thinkers are treated as madmen in society and locked up without a voice. The Confucian classics were a mainstay acknowledged positively by most people in society; the very idea of finding fault in Confucian texts and implying that they corrupt people were not in favor until the early 20th century. Opposing rote memorization would lead to treatment as an outcast and one’s opportunities would be confined to a tiny area, much like the madman was confined in his room for many years, until he repented and was offered a government job after the elder brother said that the sickness was cured.

The idea of cannibalism happening for thousands of years can also be attributed to the heavily stratified society in China, where power was in the ruling dynasty and top government officials. The strong devour the weak and eat them whole; in other words, those in the top live in an excess of luxury, while the poor have trouble looking for food. The madman would represent the poor majority, where being confined in one area represents domestication and control over him. The poor would be confined to doing their jobs and paying taxes in this same manner; their lives hanging in the palm of the ruling class. The fear of the ruler is also replicated in the text, where the madman doesn’t dare make any physical resistance towards his captors.

The Mandate of Heaven which allows for legitimizing the ruler is part of the superstitious nature of Chinese culture addressed in, “Medicine.” The superstitions go to such extremes that people would buy a bun soaked in blood to heal tuberculosis. Ironically, this absurd legend contributes to killing the boy, as the burnt bun only encourages more coughing. Xun ridicules Chinese society of blind devotion of the superstitious when Uncle Kang continually calls the bun a, “Guaranteed cure” (Xun 256), even after the boy continually coughs in front of Kang. Relating back to, “Diary of a Madman,” the bun also represents a corpse, cooked after executing individuals who opposed the system and eaten by those in power (Xun 258).

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Uncategorized,

When authors write about their lives, many do so to chronicle their achievements and leave a legacy that lasts forever. When Frederick Douglass wrote about his life, he seemed to have different purposes in mind for his writing, to inform the uninformed of the horror that was slavery and to show everyone that skin color was irrelevant in determining the intelligence and capability of any person.

When Douglass writes, his style is descriptive and analytical. For example, when Douglass’ brother is killed, he writes, “A man who, but a few days before, to give me a sample of his bloody disposition, took my little brother by the throat, threw him on the ground, and with the heel of his boot stamped upon his head till the blood gushed from his nose and ears—was well calculated enough to make me anxious as to my fate” (256). At the same time, Douglass can put himself in the perspective of the slaveholders themselves when he writes, “The master is frequently compelled to sell this class of his slaves, out of deference to the feelings of his white wife; and, cruel as the deed may strike any one to be” (237). By doing so, Douglass appears less biased and can relate to even his enemies, thus appearing more humane and believable, especially to citizens in the North who had no knowledge of the horrible conditions in the South. At the same time, the ability to write this way belied a well-educated, open-minded man, a shock to stereotypes of the time and compounded with the fact that he was a former slave.

A big concern that Douglass raised, was the valuation of slaves and how information was twisted. In a vivid comparison, he writes, “There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children, all holding the same rank in the scale of being, and all were subjected to the same narrow examination” (256). With the Three-Fifths Compromise, slaves were to represent a part of a person, yet had no rights. When asked about a slave’s master, fear makes them say, “They are contented, and that their masters are kind” (244). Since even the oppressed are not voicing their agony, many believed that slave owners were benevolent to their slaves. Also, being considered property meant that slaves were tools to their owners, needing no education and largely looked down upon.

Information was also manipulated by slave owners so as to purposefully leave the slaves complacent and ignorant. Mr. Auld, who Douglass worked for as a child asserted that by teaching him, “There would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave” (254), meaning Douglass would be self-sufficient and question his servitude which would jeopardize the owner’s control. To flip that around, by learning to read and write by himself, Douglass was able to obtain knowledge and that made him thirst for freedom, as “Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever” (254).