The Diary of a Madman by Lu Xun is a story about a man who one day sees the natural order of society. The man had been isolated from society for over thirty years but on a whim decided to take a walk. Throughout the story the man realizes that his walk through town was unusual because he saw how strange the people of the town were acting. Whenever his presence was known he heard whispers from his neighbors and could not understand why he felt as though he was ostracized. He recalls that a criminal was beaten to death in a neighboring town and his organs were consumed which lead him to conclude that the people of his town were also cannibals plotting to kill and eat him. He compares people to cannibals because of the traditions and cultures that influenced China during the early 20th century.

The man sees the people as predators who were willing to eat one another for their own survival. Furthermore the man wonders why the people of the town decided to eat one another and states “I tried to look this up, but my history has no chronology, and scrawled all over each page are the words: “Virtue and Morality.” Since I could not sleep anyway, I read intently half the night, until I began to see words between the lines, the whole book being filled with the two words—”Eat people.”All these words written in the book, all the words spoken by our tenant, gaze at me strangely with an enigmatic smile.” (III). Virtue and morality are traits that represent the goodness in people but his interpretation of the two behaviors is that it is a facade. Any person can act virtuous or moral but their real intentions can be cannibalistic. The madman begins to question his own place in society and asks himself if he is to eventually be a cannibal as well. He hopes that the children are not influenced by this evil and can one day stand firm against turning on one another and can be better than the previous generation.

The Diary of a Madman relates to Kafka’s Judgement because of how different the two characters are. Georg in the Judgement was an indecisive man who was influenced by what others told him and always felt inadequate. He had marital problems, his father constantly scolded him, and he was envious of the free life that his friend seemed to enjoy. Georg never stood up for himself from his father’s harsh words and allegations which eventually made him commit suicide. The madman was the complete opposite of Georg in that he always made conclusion based off of what he saw and believed to hear. He mustered his courage and stood up against the cannibals clearly shown when he confronts the cannibals and states “All these people wanting to eat human flesh and at the same time stealthily trying to keep up appearances, not daring to act promptly, really made me nearly die of laughter. I could not help roaring with laughter, I was so amused. I knew that in this laughter were courage and integrity. Both the old man and my brother turned pale, awed by my courage and integrity.” (IV). He believed that people needed to rise up against their oppressors and that the way people conformed to the idea of eating one another to survive was not the answer. The comparison he makes of cannibals in the story relates to events that occurred in China during the early 20th century such as the Russo-Japanese War and the Xinhai Revolution. During the Russo-Japanese War, China and Korea were occupied by both Russian and Japanese forces which caused many innocent casualties in both of the oppressed countries. Furthermore the Xinhai Revolution is considered to be one of the most historic events in China as it lead to the successful coup of the last Chinese imperial dynasty which allowed China to transition into the Republic of China.