In the reading “Diary of a Madman,” Lu Xun is using the same ambiguity and extreme approach as Kafka did in “The Judgment” to send a message to the reader that the Chinese feudal society must change. In class we discussed that these artists want and look to break apart the wrongs of their respective societies. Aware and unhappy with the way things are done Lu Xun takes to literature in hopes of “breaking down” the unjust feudal system. Using the nasty and extreme act of cannibalism to cause a reaction out of the readers. He expressed ideas like exchanging children to eat, the act of him eating pieces of his own sisters flesh and the man who dipped his bread in the blood of another human (Xun 252). This reminded me of Kafka’s use of the suicide and the hidden intercourse message that we all seemed to have overlooked. Lu Xun was aware with the injustice, he knew that the upper class of the Chinese system was brutally oppressing the lower. Although he also knew that he was not the only one aware and we can see that when he writes “I could tell at a glance that they all belonged to the same gang, that they were all cannibals. But at the same time I also realized that they all didn’t think the same way” (Xun 251). Here he is giving light to the conformity of the people into this cannibalistic gang even when they “didn’t think the same way.” They were aware of the issue yet stayed on the oppressing/eating side, that is why beforehand he states “They want to eat others and at the same time they’re afraid that other people are going to eat them” (Xun 250). It was survival of the fittest, eat or be eaten, and if you did not conform than you would be this madman that they refer to him as.

Lu Xun even explicitly asks for the change, saying “you can change! You can change from the bottoms of your hearts!” (Xun 251). He knows that change could come if people truly want and look for it. Again going back to “breaking” this system together and as a whole. Breaking the way things are viewed in efforts to show how it should be viewed. Lu Xun has hopes by ending the reading with “maybe there are some children around who still haven’t eaten human flesh. Save the children…” (253). Going back to the idea of pure forms and how the view of an innocent child is the right approach. Ambiguity and extreme approaches are used in both the readings in efforts to break the negative aspects of society. Ambiguity causes the reader to focus solely on the message the author is trying to convey and the extreme approaches emphasize the severity of the issues.