When I first began to read Lu Xun’s Diary of a Madman, I read it in a very literal way and was a little bit confused. At first I asked myself questions like “Is he living in a poor society where people eat each other?” or “Is he crazy?” In the beginning, a man describes that he is visiting a friend who has been sick, but the illness is not identified. As I began to read deeper into the text, I understood that the man in the diaries suffers from paranoia. He is overwhelmed with hallucinations and fear of cannibalism. He is gripped by the fear that everyone, including his brother, his caring doctor and his neighbors are preparing to eat him. In the mind of the “madman,” he portrays his everyone in his neighborhood as heartless and cannibalistic. Despite the brother’s apparent genuine concern, the narrator still regards him as a big threat as any stranger, showing just how distrustful he has become.
For example, the second diary even begins with his obvious paranoia. “There were seven or eight other people who had their heads together whispering about me…A shiver ran from the top of my head clear down to the tips of my toes, for I realized that meant they already had their henchmen well deployed, and were ready to strike.”
It becomes more apparent in Diary four that the narrator is suffering from a mental-like illness (maybe schizophrenia), when the doctor comes to check on the narrator. The doctor says “Don’t let your thoughts run away with you. Just convalesce in peace and quiet for a few days and you’ll be all right.”
The idea of courage that repeats itself in the diaries. In the fourth diary, the narrator states “But the more courage I had the more that made them want to eat me so that they could get a little of it for free.”
I realized that there is a deeper meaning than the literal translation of these diaries. The text had to be referring to a broader picture or maybe an issue in the society at that time. I began to analyze the diaries as an attempt to describe the oppressive values in the Chinese society. It may even be referring to the corrupt government and upper-class people who fed off the work of the lower-class people while limiting their freedom. By using cannibalism, Lu Xun illuminates the problems of the society without an obvious assault on the corruption in China. Because the Chinese government was extremely oppressive especially when it came to freedom of speech, Lu Xun’s use of such metaphors to connect cannibalism to a critical issue in society worked very well. It also made it comprehensible for many people in society. Cannibalism referred to the outdated values that individuals held at that time, and the narrator is one of the few people who dares to counter those values. This brought me back to the use of the idea of courage. The narrator possessed courage which was rare trait at that time, so people wanted to eat him in order to gain some for themselves.
The narrator comes to the conclusion that his older brother ate his younger sister when she was a child, that perhaps he himself unknowingly consumed her as well, and that his mother either did not know or would not speak of the cannibalism because it was inappropriate to speak of such things.
He enforces his concern for the future generations and the children. His last plea is to “save the children…” He retains hope that maybe there are some children who still haven’t eaten human flesh. In other words, he hopes that the future will learn to stand up against oppression and gain the bravery and courage to speak their minds. Even in the beginning of the diaries, he says “But the children? Back when they hadn’t even come into the world yet. Why should they have given me those funny looks today?…That really frightens me. Bewilders me. Hurts me. I have it! Their fathers and mothers have taught them to be like that!” In other words, the narrator is saying that if the oppression and fear to speak up continues, parents will teach their children to be timid and lack courage.
Diary of a Madman is a notable landmark not only in Lu Xun’s writing career, but also in the progress of Chinese society. I absolutely agree with Marissa’s viewpoint that this short fiction implies the writer’s anger and sadness about the feudalism, which had lasted for over two thousand years in China.
Actually it is a litter bit difficult to get the idea from this version of translation, or if you have no awareness of the Chinese contemporary history. Even though I am a Chinese, it was also hard for me to understand the meaning of this fiction while I read the original story in high school. Refer to Lu Xun’s experiences, he had studied at Sendai Medical College at Japan and he was willing to use the professional skills to treat poor people in China. However, he found that the real problem of the poor was not physical health issue, but was about their ignorant attitudes towards the feudal system; that was why he gave up his medical education and started to write.
In this story, the madman who is diagnosed as psychological disorder indicates the emerging generation, such as Lu Xun himself, who had fresh thoughts about the Chinese social system and norms at that time. Many of those people had studied abroad and learned advance ideas in other countries. They desired freedom and democracy, thus, they were against the old feudal system and looked forward a revolution in China. Nevertheless, most Chinese people had lived in the shadow of feudalism for too lone time and they were educated to follow the feudal rules in order to survive, which could “eat” their fighting spirit at all. While the madman recognizes that cannibalism is widespread around him, even his old brother attempts to eat him, he was extremely fearful. Madmen’s helpless situation shows how those young reformers were ruthlessly persecuted and suppressed by feudalism.
On the other hand, Diary of a Madman makes me connect to a book titled The Road, which is written by Cormac McCarthy. In The Road, the entire land is burned in the post-apocalyptic America. There are a group of guys called Roadrats, driving a truck and capturing others. They eat one accompanier’s dead body after he was shot. There are more; the two narrators—the father and the son, discover some naked people and pregnant women who eat newborn babies. Different from Lu Xun’s story based on the madman’s imagination of cannibalism, McCarthy creates a world where cannibals do really exist and the story is more bloody and cruel. The similarities between the two stories are—those cannibals all eat human in order to survive and the two writers both depict children as the symbol of the hope of humanity.
— LU LIU
I would have to agree at first I read this from a literal point of view. It was a gory story with a vivid description of self-preservation and survival methods one must use. As I read on I assumed it was a fictional character that was hallucinating and being paranoid. After sharing ideas of the text and hashing out other peoples interpretation I can see how some this work targets the structures in society. Lu spoke of his view of society and was able to create an indirect interpretation of what many people face; not only in China but I feel it relates around the world. I understood his diary to have highlighted the many issues people face in a society where class segregates us. In the text the character describes how he lived with the constant fear that he is going to be a victim of cannibalism. I thought he was a delusional character, because of the ways he describes the different people he walked by in the street. “The meanest looking one of all spread his lips out wide and actually smiled at me!” and this brought chills down his spine. When in reality a smile is something heartwarming and kind. He feared everyone and trusted no one not even his very own brother; who he accused of wanting to eat him. In his mind all who he crossed paths with was to blame for being a cannibal. I interpreted his thoughts as us who live in this world shouldn’t be so guarded or selfish. That we should share with others and become better acquainted with many of those who we might not trust. I feel like this piece of literature is also open to everyone’s very own interpretation. You could even interpret it as the many non-reliable beings that cannot be trusted and you have to protect yourself and what you work hard to accomplish. As some might better understand it, “It’s a dog eat dog world” and we have to look out for yourself because no one else will.
As few of my classmates, at first I understood Lu Xun’s story literally. “Diary of a Madman” begins with description of the moonlight which makes him “feel like a new man.” Sounds weird, I though, as a bunch of stories came to my mind, where a man turn into a beast under the moonlight. But when the author mentions the “dirty looks the Zhao family’s dog” gave him, I was completely convinced- this guy is clearly insane. Throughout the reading I kept thinking that the author of the diary suffers some form of schizophrenia. I thought how skillfully the author conveys feelings and thoughts a mad person would have. Insane people never accept the fact that there is something wrong with them. In Lu Xun’s story that’s exactly what’s happening; the man doesn’t consider himself mad, on the contrary, he thinks that everyone else conspires against him, even the dog and neighbor’s kids. Glimpses of doubt about his insanity, however, crossed my mind. Along with extreme madness, expressed in the fear of being eaten by others, the author shows deep understanding of the social issues of the time. Behind the veil of insanity the author skillfully hides some of the most sensitive problems. The part when he talks about ancient times and the history book he read is caught my attention. He says: “there were no dates in this history.” This history? What does he mean by THIS history, and why are there no dates in it? Is he talking about the history on oppression? “Across every page,” he continues reading,”were the words BENEVOLENCE, RIGHTEOSNESS, and MORALITY… finally I began to make out what was written between the lines; the whole volume was filled with a single phrase: EAT PEOPLE!” To my understanding, he is saying that throughout the history, those who ruled often covered their crimes and violence with the mask of benevolence. Most wars went under a slogan of liberation or some sort. I think that Lu Xun’s “Diary of a Madman” is a very strong and impressive piece that makes people think. Artfully disguised, it conveys a powerful message.
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