The Madman's Diary By Lu Xun

1125 Words3 Pages

Throughout Chinese history, there have been many points where literature played a fundamental role in changing the government and society. Literature was used as a device to express one’s frustrations with the government and as a call for action in their communities. Lu Xu, a writer during the 20th century, was no different, he used his writing to open the eyes of the reader even if he was hesitant. Lu Xun used his writing in “A Madman’s Diary”, as a device to challenge and express his opinions during the May Fourth Revolution and to call citizens into action to change the future direction of the country. During the time that Lu Xun lived, it was a turning point in history where the May Fourth Revolution raged. At the time that “The Madman’s …show more content…

Lu Xun portrays his ideas by creating a narrator that seems like a madman to display that the people have gone blind to the negative effects that Confucianism has developed. The idea that a man became so paranoid that he believed everyone around him was going to eat him, really drives the story to become more emotional. The madman feels so oppressed and nervous that if he says something out of line he will be eaten. That is to say that in the time that this story came out, Confucianism became so oppressive that any opposing doctrine was viewed very closed-minded and had strayed from the original idea of Confucianism. With this character, we can see the consequences of this pattern and the author wants to change the structure. This can be inferred through this quote, “What they like best is for a man to take off his belt, and hang himself from a beam; for then they enjoy their heart’s desire without being blamed for the murder.” (CP 225/13) The quote is describing how during this time they wanted every person to act exactly the same, to sacrifice themselves, and not have freedom to think freely without punishment. Lu Xun uses this drastic wording to shock the reader to realize how dire this situation has become. He says that basically Confucianism wants you to be committed only to their cause and does not want to be at fault because it “has no

Open Document