Lu Xun’s Diary of a Madman was China’s first real major modern short story. Xun unusually avoided traditional short story writing techniques. He tends to stray from the omniscient narration and replaces it with the author’s subjective, personal point of view. This can be seen as untraditional because it was almost completely unprecedented in Chinese literature of this era. Xun’s ‘I-narration’ (“at school I had been close friends with two brothers whose names I will not omit to mention here.”(p.21) This provides an effective way of further distancing himself from the text and creating a reading of the diary, which allows readers to form different perspectives on the literature. It could be argued that this is slightly ironic as he cleverly …show more content…
These memories have the quality of a personal memoir, however they are largely fictional in that he did not actually experience them. However, this does not take any credit away from his work. Critics such as Frank O’Connor declare the event “central to his art”. Furthermore, in 1931 Babel sent his own mother a package full of the stories and he added the note: “All the stories are from the childhood years, with lies added, of course, and much that is altered." Diary of a Madman can be seen to be an indirect criticism aimed at the youth, intentionally attempting to rewire their mindset. Lu Xun’s diary, inspired by Nikolai Gogol’s Diary of a Madman was arguably one of the most influential pieces of literature that caused talk among the younger generation in China, before the May Fourth Movement. The story’s narrative reliability is further questioned by the collapsing mental state of the protagonist. Lu Xun chooses to employ a madman as the voice of his political discontent. Literary critic Chinnery however, criticizes Xun’s use of the madman as a way of voicing his political discontent. He highlights the fact that using …show more content…
The enigmatic ending of the short story: “Save the children!” (p. 31) may be in line with the youth ethos of the May Fourth thinkers. These revolutionaries called for the creation of a completely new Chinese culture that would be based on globalised western standards, especially within the fields of democracy and science. Beyond its addressing of a specific historical situation, the story is marked by a deep sense of and feeling for the deceptions often involved in human social life. The narrator questions the nature of these occurrences and asks “So its wrong? Then why is it going on?” (p.27) He falls back to his reliance on history in order to distinguish the lines between what has happened for the last “four thousand years” (p. 31) and further insinuates that although cannibalism has been a part of history and is “written in all the books” (p. 27), “does that make it right?” (p. 27) The constant asking of questions further illuminates the narrators struggle to accept what is happening, this is key to the structure of the diary. In accordance to the narrative structure of both texts, Russian literary Critic Zsuzsa Hetényi also writes on Babel’s novel of the importance of examining the structure. He comments on the importance of investigating “the storyteller’s position and the highly complex narrative relationship between the author
Some of the more fascinating documents of the Han period in ancient China were arguably those written by women. The writings were at once contradictory due to the fact that they appeared to destroy the common perceptions of women as uneducated and subservient creatures while simultaneously delivering messages through the texts that demonstrated a strict adherence to traditional values. Those are the paradoxical characteristics of prominent female scholar Ban Zhou’s work called Lesson for a Woman. Because modern opinions on the roles of women in society likely cloud the clear analysis of Zhou’s work, it is necessary to closely examine the Han’s societal norms and popular beliefs that contributed to establishing the author’s perspective and intent.
Children are considered as Gods, pure and innocent. Children are new in this vicious world and have yet to discover the world and witness life and this is what makes children innocent. Children have done no wrong as they barely have entered the world. The novel ‘Night’ by Elie Wiesel displays how a child can be rapped of their innocence. ‘Night” is about a young boy named Eliezer and his eye awakening life in World War 2. Being a Jewish teen, Elie lost his innocence for a chance of survival due to the major traumatizing events Elie witnessed. It took a great toll on him, not only physically, but emotionally and mentally. Through what Elie has seen he was undoubtedly stripped of his purity.
The novel is about two teenagers. "Luo, who is good a story telling and an unnamed narrator, "a fine violin player" who are sent to be re-educated after the Chinese cultural revolution. They are sent to a mountain called "Phoenix of the Sky because their parents were publicly denounced and recognized as enemies of people. The general idea behind the Cultural Revolution was element of control. And Mao thought that all intellectuals were a thread to his power. The reason for that was that most of the intellectuals had the ability to think for themselves. Mao foun...
Chapter one, The Observers, in the Death of Woman Wang demonstrates the accuracy of the local historian; Feng K'o-ts'an, who compiled The Local History of T'an-ch'eng in 1673. The descriptive context of the Local History helps the reader to understand and literally penetrate into people's lives. The use of records of the earthquake of 1668, the White Lotus rising of 1622 and rebels rising vividly described by Feng the extent of suffering the people of T'an-ch'eng went through. Jonathan Spence stresses on how miserable the two-quarter of the seventeen-century were to the diminishing population of the county. The earthquake claimed the lives of nine thousand people, many others died in the White lotus rising, hunger, sickness and banditry. P'u Sung-ling's stories convey that after the loss of the wheat crops there were cases of cannibalism. On top of all of this came the slaughtering of the entire family lines by the bandits. The incredible records of women like Yao and Sun in the Local History present the reader the magnitude of savagery the bandits possessed. All of these factors led to the rise of suicides. The clarity of events Spence given to the reader is overwhelming.
The mood of Night is harder to interpret. Many different responses have occurred in readers after their perusal of this novel. Those that doubt the stories of the holocaust’s reality see Night as lies and propaganda designed to further the myth of the holocaust. Yet, for those people believing in the reality, the feelings proffered by the book are quite different. Many feel outrage at the extent of human maliciousness towards other humans. Others experience pity for the loss of family, friends, and self that is felt by the holocaust victims. Some encounter disgust as the realization occurs that if any one opportunity had been utilized the horror could of been avoided. Those missed moments such as fleeing when first warned by Moshe the Beadle, or unblocking the window when the Hungarian officer had come to warn them, would have saved lives and pain.
Cao Xueqin’s Story of the Stone is a classic in Chinese literature, showcasing the life and exploits of the wealthy Jia clan during the feudal era. Through Cao’s depiction, the reader is afforded a glimpse into the customs and lifestyle of the time. Chinese mode of thought is depicted as it occurred in daily life, with the coexisting beliefs of Confucianism and Taoism. While the positive aspects of both ideologies are presented, Cao ultimately depicts Taoism as the paramount, essential system of belief that guides the character Bao-yu to his eventual enlightenment.
There is no better way to learn about China's communist revolution than to live it through the eyes of an innocent child whose experiences were based on the author's first-hand experience. Readers learn how every aspect of an individual's life was changed, mostly for the worst during this time. You will also learn why and how Chairman Mao launched the revolution initially, to maintain the communist system he worked hard to create in the 1950's. As the story of Ling unfolded, I realized how it boiled down to people's struggle for existence and survival during Mao's reign, and how lucky we are to have freedom and justice in the United States; values no one should ever take for
A story of a young boy and his father as they are stolen from their home in Transylvania and taken through the most brutal event in human history describes the setting. This boy not only survived the tragedy, but went on to produce literature, in order to better educate society on the truth of the Holocaust. In Night, the author, Elie Wiesel, uses imagery, diction, and foreshadowing to describe and define the inhumanity he experienced during the Holocaust.
The constant changing of technology and social norms makes difficult for different generations to understand one another and fully relate to each other. Diction and slang change as years pass and what is socially acceptable may have been prohibited in the previous generations.
The delineation of human life is perceiving existence through resolute contrasts. The difference between day and night is defined by an absolute line of division. For the Jewish culture in the twentieth century, the dissimilarity between life and death is bisected by a definitive line - the Holocaust. Accounts of life during the genocide of the Jewish culture emerged from within the considerable array of Holocaust survivors, among of which are Elie Wiesel’s Night and Simon Wiesenthal’s The Sunflower. Both accounts of the Holocaust diverge in the main concepts in each work; Wiesel and Wiesenthal focus on different aspects of their survivals. Aside from the themes, various aspects, including perception, structure, organization, and flow of arguments in each work, also contrast from one another. Although both Night and The Sunflower are recollections of the persistence of life during the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel and Simon Wiesenthal focus on different aspects of their existence during the atrocity in their corresponding works.
In the video, Grant Voth explains the main concept of Chinese literature. Unlike Greek literature, which emphasizes the importance of heroism, Chinese stories (e.g. poems) depict ordinary people and life lessons. An example of a Chinese poem is the “Boat of Cypress.” In the “Book of Cypress,” an unknown person (possibly a woman) seemed to be forced to do something she did not want to do. Based on this main idea in the story, it sets a distinctive mood throughout the story, particularly negative feelings and thoughts from the protagonist. Another Chinese story is “The Analects,” which was an assortment of ideas by the Chinese philosopher Confucius and his students. This story mainly shares details concerning human relationships (which
This is an odd little book, but a very important one nonetheless. The story it tells is something like an extended parablethe style is plain, the characters are nearly stick figures, the story itself is contrived. And yet ... and yet, the story is powerful, distressing, even heartbreaking because the historical trend it describes is powerful, distressing, even heartbreaking.
The idea that resulted in the Little Seamstress leaving the mountain maybe viewed as ironic by the reader. The ideas of being different and individual, that Lou held and put to practice were what communist Leader Chair man Mao Zedong originally feared. This was why the texts were originally banned in the first place, and viewed as revolutionary trash. As it was thought that they may result in an u...
Saboteur, written by Ha Jin exposes a difficult period of China: the Cultural Revolution and its consequences on people’s life. Through the author’s skillful use of setting, symbolism and the main character’s dynamism, the reader is able to understand the theme of the story that is revenge.
In his poem, “Notes from the City of the Sun”, Bei Dao utilizes obscure imagery consistent with the Misty Poets and veiled political references to illustrate the struggles in Chinese society during the Cultural Revolution. The poem is sectioned into fourteen short stanzas containing imagery that are symbolic of the cultural hegemony in China under the rule of Mao Zedong. Bei Dao, born Zhao Zhen-kai, is an anti-revolutionary poet and one of the founders of a group known as the Misty Poets. The Misty Poets wrote poems that protested the Cultural Revolution led by Mao Zedong. Therefore, a lot of Bei Dao’s poems speak out against the Cultural Revolution and the restrictions that it placed on any form of art. Bei Dao’s poetry is categorized as “misty” because of the ambiguity in its references to Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution. An obscure imagery that occurs twice in “Notes” is the sun imagery. Another imagery that depicts the injustice of the Cultural Revolution is the description of freedom as scraps of paper. In the poem, Bei Dao also equates faith to sheep falling into a ditch; this is a depiction blind faith during the Cultural Revolution. The purpose of this essay is to analyze how Bei Dao’s use of the Misty Poet’s ambiguous imagery and implicit political context in the poem “Notes from the City of the Sun” to illustrate the cultural hegemony in China under Mao.