Setting(Kelu)
"A Madman's Diary" is Lu Xun's first vernacular short diary novel and also China's first modern vernacular novel. Lu Xun's "Diary of a Madman" reveals the thousands of years of civilization history of Chinese society through the image of a madman, a rebel of the feudal society with modern consciousness. In essence, this is a history of cannibalism; the feudal family system and feudal ethics cloaked in the cloak of "benevolence, justice and morality" have exposed the extreme hypocrisy of "benevolence, justice and morality". At the same time, the author called for "Save the Children" and called on the people to wake up and overthrow the feudal system.
Our madman initially stumbles onto “the Records of the Past”, and is greatly disturbed by what he reads in it.
He has begun to startle the villagers, and the villagers begin to give him strange looks and gossip about him. This feeds his paranoia, he is constantly afraid of being eaten. The paranoia boils over when he confronts his brother.
From the madman’s perspective, he is against this cannibalist society. This is a Lu Xun work so this is work is steeped in Metaphor, specifically the Iron house metaphor
“A crowd gathered around the gate, Mr Zhao among them, craning forward to listen in, some faces remained only a blur, as if masked in gauze; on others, I saw the same bleached pallor, the same bared fangs as before -their lips distorted into smiles."
“However rude a nation was in physical health, if its people were intellectually feeble, they would never become anything more than cannon fodder or gawping spectators''
Scene 4 (Kunjiu Li)
Main content: the madman's brother asks the doctor to treat the madman, and in the madman's imagination the doctor and the brother plan to "eat" the madman together. The main focus of this scene is character development and the portrayal of the madman's brother.
Three stages of development
The first stage: madman imprisoned. "A bowl of steamed fish, its eyes glassily white, its mouth gaping like the village cannibals. After a few slippery mouthfuls, I could no longer tell whether I was eating fish or humans." (Page 24) The scene is very depressing, and the lunatic is imprisoned in the house. The madman compares himself to a dead fish and his brother to a man-eater. The madman hints at his fate through the fish. This passage provides a preview of what the madman will face next
The second stage: the madman begins to resist being "eaten". They were all after my flesh, but They couldn't be open about it. I burst into uncontrollable roars of mirth- a laughter that rang with righteous courage." (Page 25)The madman began to resist. The madman shows that he is not actually sick, but that his illness is a figment of the imagination of those who want to "eat" him. The doctor and his brother think the madman will become weak and compromised, but they find that his moral values are still correct and strong. They are terrified by the madman, proving that his resistance is working.
The third stage: The desire of the cannibals is aroused to accelerate the fate of the madman being eaten."To be eaten immediately." (Page 25)This passage hints at the final fate of the madman, and at the end the madman roars.
My own brother was a cannibal ! I was the brother of a cannibal ! And destined to be eaten myself - this brother of a cannibal.
Theme 1 - Metaphor of Cannibalism (Winnie Hsiao)
"Diary of Madman" is a symbolic depiction of "the fest of eating human flesh." The Madman - a persecution maniac patient- is the short story's protagonist, symbolically revealing cannibalism in feudal society. In the Diary of Madman, cannibalism is physically eating human flesh and spiritual cannibalism.
The world of Cannibalism
The use of animals metaphor for the people under the feudal society
“Fierce as a lion, cowardly as a rabbit, cunning as a fox…” (VI)
- Indicating people are lions, thinking about how to “eat people,” while they are also cowardly as a rabbit, afraid of bringing conflict and killing people; lastly, they make up reliable reasoning for their action of eating people, just like a cunning fox.
Unification teaching and collective unconsciousness - "loyal to etiquette"
“I've had enough of this. You shouldn’t be talking about it” (VIII).
- People explain their cannibalism behavior as “loyal to etiquette." The younger don’t have independent thought; they only know it has been like this since immemorial.
“I know what happened to my sister, I can see her now, in all her heartbreaking vulnerability; only four years old when she left us. I remember my mother's uncontrollable sobs, my brother's efforts to stop her. He'd probably eaten her himself, and all the crying was making him uncomfortable. If he had any conscience left... I wonder if Mother knew” (XI).
- People had lost their basic sympathy for their fellows and their basic judgment. Instead, they find happiness in the pain of others and become ignorant, forgetful, and insensitive.
Theme 2 Delusional patient - Madman (Kelu)
"Sorrow their misfortune, anger them Indisputable".
- Symptom 1: Sensitive and suspicious.
"Then why does Zhao's dog look at me twice?"
"Zhao Guiweng's eyes are weird, he seems to be afraid of me, he seems to want to harm me, seven or eight people are whispering, afraid that I will see it."
The neighbor on the street beat his son and said viciously: "I want to bite you a few times!"
- Symptom 2: delusions and hallucinations.
"The fish has white eyes and an open mouth, just like the group of people who want to eat people."
After seeing the lunatic, the doctor told the eldest brother to "eat quickly", referring to taking medicine, but the lunatic interpreted it as cannibalism, and he thought that the cannibal was the elder brother.
Therefore, Lu Xun's novels revealed the feudal society's spiritual enslavement and poisoning of the Chinese people from the perspective of ideological revolution, and created a Chinese The theme of examining and transforming national character in modern novels. Lu Xun's heavily rendered images of pathological characters are the most typical images of all the characters in his novels.
Theme 3 Anti-Feudal system (BingJie Zhu)
“Diary of Madman” is an extremely strong anti-feudal system article from some different aspects. To begin with, writer borrows the character “Madman” who is not feudal to expose the relationship among people is “eat people” but they still pretend themselves by using the image “virtue”, “respect” and “peace”. This detail means that the people who want to bully others but they are cunning and timid. “Eat people” is so clear to display the feudal system. The Madman fights against with the “Eat people” can equal to fight against with the Feudal system.
In addition, this article blames to the hypocrisy and reactionary of feudal system in the morality and politic seriously. Just like the person eldest brother in Diary of Madman is the representation of feudal system. He eats people but he says many moral things to people. It is no doubt that his purpose is to use the feudal system to bully the weak people. The writer creates some “eat people” people like eldest brother as negative image can also reveal the absolute anti-feudalism attitude.
Moreover, the article also exposes a deep harm of feudal thinking. It is not only limited to people’s living and politic stress, but also spread to the thinking control. In Diary of Madman, the people who eat people use the feudal morality and ignorant politic to control people who are eaten by so many examples of people who are bullied but have to accept. Even some people believe the words “Ever so”. This negative harm can show the terror of feudal thinking. It also expresses the anti-feudalism.
Finally, the word "saving kids" in the end of "Diary of Madman" can also reveal the anti-feudalism attitude. Apparently, in this hypocritical and dangerous society, most of people have been feudal yet, but the kids are different with them. As we all know, all of people’s nature at birth is good. They are easy and pure. These two words can, in large extent, express the idea that making the next generations avoid to accept feudal thinking. It can mean that the anti-feudalism attitude is strong enough forever.
Works Cited
Gu , Nong. “Lu Xun's Self-Evaluation of ‘Diary of a Madman.’” Journal of Tianjin Normal University, vol. 2, 1981, pp. 18–22.
Yan, Jingyi, and Zhiyuan Zou. “On the Image of ‘Cannibalism’ in ‘Diary of a Madman.’” Journal of Yanbian Institute of Education, vol. 33, ser. 2, Apr. 2019, pp. 10–12. 2.
Lovell, Julia, and Lu, Xun. “The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China: The Complete Fiction of Lu Xun ; Translated with an Introduction by Julia Lovell ; with an Afterword by Yiyun Li.” United States, Penguin Books, 2009.
Lu, Xun. " Diary of a madman : and other stories / Lu Xun ; translated by William A. Lyell." Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, 1990.