When I read Lu Xun’s “Diary of a Madman”, I feel that the protagonist suffers mental illness like paranoia. He always thinks that his brother and all other villagers are planning to eat him even though children and Zhao family’s dog. This sounds ridiculous and irrational. The diary also doesn’t write down the date. It seems like some parts happen in a same day, but some parts include many days. These are consistent with what Lu Xun writes in the preface that this diary is from a man with a dread disease and he changes no word.
In Part One, there is a sentence, “But I’ve still got to be very careful.” I feel that the society is very danger, so the protagonist needs to “be very careful”. Protagonist is very sensitive because he can realize that villagers plan to eat him based on their actions and eyes. He discovers that old texts also talk about cannibalism. Villagers are very apathetic because they don’t stop although they know they are wrong. They let the bad things happen and don’t give a help. At the end, Lu Xun is yelling “Save the children.” This bad culture and apathetic behaviors cannot pass to younger generations. Lu Xun wants people to realize that the bad side of traditional culture and take a change.
My favors part of this Diary is, “There were no dates in this history, but scrawled this way and that across every page were the words BENEVOLENCE, RIGHTEOUSNESS, and MORALITY. Since I couldn’t get to sleep anyway, I read that history very carefully for most of the night, and finally I began to make out what was written between the lines; the whole volume was filled with a single phrase: EAT PEOPLE!”(Lu Xun 246) These two sentences said that traditional culture teaches people virtue like “benevolence”, “righteousness”, and “morality”, but the aim is to cover the brutal truth of “eat people”. People are influenced and assimilated imperceptibly, so people become apathetic.
I agree that the main character seems to suffer from paranoia. Everyone that he encounters he believes does not like him and wants to eat him. The fact that he believes that the family dog even wants to eat him is very funny. I also believe that through “Diary of A Madman” Lu Xun was showing his passion for changing modern day society. Just like many other authors we have read in this class he is showing his interest in change through writing. He uses the analogy of cannibalism to do so. He makes the characters seem cruel and cold-hearted. He shows that they are constrained by their tradition. He says “Change this minute! Change from the bottom of your hearts!.”(252) He means that people in his society need to change and need to start the change now. He wants to “Save the children.” (253) This is Lu Xun’s solution. To him they are the key to change and by “saving” them they will in return change society as a whole.
From the diary of the madman, I realize the thoughts of protagonist, who suffers from paranoia. From the point view of protagonist, all people, include his brother, dog, women, fifth village want to eat him. In this diary, Luxun use ironic to shows his disgust about the “eat people” society. The author does not agree the classical China and wants to improve it. I feel interesting that author use weather to show the feelings of protagonist. “Moonlight’s really nice tonight” (Lucun244) shows protagonists feeling are good. Then, “No mood night at all tonight”(Lucun244) demonstrates the change feeling of protagonist. He became worry about the things that all people look at him in a different view. “The sun doesn’t come out”(Lucun248) in chapter 11 explains protagonist’s despair about the facts of “eat people” Author wants to teach people the harm of “ eat people” through protagonist in the 10the chapter, who keep showing the weakness of this facts and wants people act as a moral people.
I agree with what you said, the author created a crazy main character to expose societal dark. When I read this diary, it seems like the diary from a crazy person, but I find it’s not a real meaning the author tried to express. According to the author pointed out “There were no dates in this history, but scrawled this way and that across every page were the words BENEVOLENCE, RIGHTEOUSNESS, and MORALITY.”(246). The author capitalized these three words because it’s the main points that the author wanted to express. Because of BENEVOLENCEE, RIGHTOUSNESS, and MORALTY; people were “eat” each other in society.
It is true that the protagonist of Diary of a Madman suffers mental illness, but not all his words are crazy. The whole diary describes that almost everyone who lives around the protagonist wants to eat him. Why? Why does the protagonist talks about a single phrase: EAT PEOPLE in Chinese history? In the diary, it records, I read that history very carefully for most of the night, and finally I began to make out what was written between the lines; the whole volume was filled with a single phrase: EAT PEOPLE! However, why people choose to eat each other? In order to survive, people have no choice. To eat other people is the only way for them to save their life. It is different to Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal that the author use satire to cause people and government to pay more attention on their social problem. The ancient Chinese’s social issue is so serious that people cannot survive if they cannot eat each other. Lu Xun’s aim of writing the Diary Of a Madman is to weak up apathetic Chinese people to change their life and society, or they would live in the cannibalistic society forever.
It is true that it is Chinese people’s characteristic that as soon as people can survive in the society less Chinese people would try to change the current situation, for example, overthrowing the rule of ancient Chinese feudalism. People who are familiar with Chinese history can find that Chinese feudalism takes the longest time in Chinese history because of people’s apathetic. Revolution of overthrowing the social system was the main issue that Lu Xu was fighting for at that moment.