- In “Diary of a Madman,” what is the main issue Lu Xun wants to explore? Why does Lu Xun talk about cannibalism?
- In The Metamorphosis, Why Kafka writes through Gregor’s point of view? How does this Gregor’s point of view affect readers’ understanding of the story?
Author Archives: QINGXIU LI
Mahmoud Darwish’s “Identity Card”
“Identity Card” is a poem about Palestinians’ feeling and restriction on expulsion. Darwish repeats “put it on record” and “angry” every stanza. This shows Darwishs’ feeling against foreign occupation. “Record” means “write down”. Darwish wanted Palestinians to write this history event down and remember that they have been excluded. People feel angry when their property and rights were taken away. Palestinians had lived in that land from generation to generation. They took many efforts on their land, so some Palestinians would not want to give up their land.
This poem relates to Mahmoud Darwish’s experience. In the Arab- Israeli war of 1948, Israeli government occupied Birweh, so Palestinians were forced to move and leave their hometown. This recalls me about the American history that U.S. government forced the Native Americans to move to reservations. Many sad stories happened when Native Americans were forced to move. People who experienced exile need to give up some of the property like land they have before and move to another place. This was a hard time for Palestinians because their lives were destroyed, and they needed to start their new lives in a new place.
Lu Xun’s “Diary of a Madman”
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.
Midterm Questions
1.What message did Herman Melville try to send out through “Bartleby, the Scrivener? Why Bartleby always said “I prefer not to”?
2. “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” has some female characters such as Sophia Auld. What is the role of these female characters?
Adding “Women”
In Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls wrote about why women should be independent form men. She enlightened women to realize that they were suffering in the unequal situation. When I first time read Seneca Falls’ Declaration of Sentiments, I felt this article was very impressed because she used the language of Declaration of Independence to fight for women rights. I think that write in this way can address readers’ attention. For the people who had read Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence before, when they read this article, they might feel the article was interesting and want to know the detail, and then they might read closely. Some readers also contract this article with Declaration of Independence to order to see how Seneca Falls expressed her different opinions in the same written format of Declaration of Independence.
Jefferson wrote “all men are created equal.” Seneca Falls changed the whole feeling and meaning of the sentence by adding “women”. This difference makes me feel ironic. This adding makes people feel that those famous people who decided the draft of Declaration of Independence, like Jefferson and John Adams forget to write “women”, so she amended this in her article. This shows that the men and society were used to neglect the importance of women. Adding “women” emphasizes that women are equal as men. This action also sent out a message that if you, men, don’t give us the equal rights and always neglect our human rights, we will take actions to fight for this.
I think it is very difficult to express one’s own opinion by using the language of a famous document, so Seneca Falls did a great job. Her Declaration of Sentiments is very successful.
Simple, Happy!
At the end of the novel, Candide, Cunégonde, Cacambo, Pangloss, Martin, and the old woman settle into a farm. Their lives on the farm are simple, but they are not happy because they feel the lives are too simple and not the lives they want. After they meet a farmer who lives simple and enjoys his life, they start to work hard without thinking about the philosophical speculation, and everybody learns a skill to support their lives.
I think that this is a happy ending although it is very simple. At lease they don’t suffer hunger and live as slaves even though they don’t fulfill their desires or become very successful people. Compare to them, many people live outside their garden are still suffering.
Most people are suffering from the problems which caused by their desires. People are always looking for better lives. Money, security, peace, leisure are people’s desires. I think Voltaire want to express that people to feel happier when they are satisfied with their lives and don’t always think about the useless things. Sometimes, a simple thing can make people happy. However, I also think that if people just satisfy with their current situations, people would not improve.
Do you feel satisfied of your current situation?
“Weak Characters” of Society
Mary Wollstonecraft was a feminist. She fought for the rights of women, and she thought that women lived like slaves. She also believed that both Men and women need to have same education, and women would be more independent after receiving education in great degree. However, women’s rights and positions were oppressed by the society, so women become “weak characters” and “more useless members”. At that time, women just had some basic knowledge; they even cannot have formal education. Their jobs were take care their children and do the housework. They depended on their fathers and husbands.
I think that women’s social standing was decided in ancient time. In ancient time, men were more powerful and can gain more food. This made women need to relay on men, and men also saw women as their property. They set up the rule to adjust women’s behaviors and positions. As the time pass on, “they do to-day, what they did yesterday, merely because they did it yesterday.” Mary Wollstonecraft also said, “All the difference that I can discern arises from the superior advantage of liberty, which enables the former to see more of life.” Men had more power and can receive more education, so they can see more. People can see more means they can know more things and control more powers. They didn’t want women to become out of their control. At that time women were “blind obedience” to their men. Therefore, I knew Mary Wollstonecraft was in a very difficult situation when she decided to stand up and speak for the rights of women because she didn’t have enough power to fight against men. Now, women still face prejudice when they work outside.