A Madman's Diary by Lu Xun Essay Example

In the short story "A Madman's Diary" by Lu Xun is a figurative picture of a feudal way of life in a backward society. The narrative started as the narrator Lu Hsun travels back to his hometown and decides to visit two of his childhood friends. In the narrative, the author or the narrator can depict the ironic exploration of the Chinese culture, history, as well as socialization in a stress submissive to an authoritarian society. Lu Xun portrays the ultimate compliance to tradition with constant manipulation of the masses through the madman had a better view of the social interactions and interests of the changing world than anybody else. As Lu Hsun reads the diary of one of his old friend, the madman, as an autobiography of his experiences with insanity contained in thirteen different fragments recorded at different occasions without dates but had differentiating elements in the descriptions of the days and events. Through the narration, the author grabs the attention of the audience in the confusion, between spiritual insight, lunatic sensitivity, paranoia, and the convergence of Chinese virtue and morality. Therefore, it's against this backdrop that the current resume will make an evaluative analysis of the short story as well as exploring the figurative of speech employs and the literary devices that are used to relay the narration.

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The context the narration of the story "A Madman's Diary" is at first glance an incomprehensible mental illness ordeal but, it is necessary for the audience to employ proper decoding for effecting understanding of the issues of concern raised on the cultural and social contexts of the Chinese society. In insanity is instigated by past experiences of the madman under unfair prosecution causing psychosis. The element in insanity attributes to his perception of other people as man-eaters cause his mistrust of everyone around him including his brother, mother, doctor, and neighbors with ghastly green faces and protruding fangs. The madman has a critical evaluation of the behavioral conduct of others within his vicinity, especially how they perceive him described by how they looked at him. Although misjudgment would pass his reactions as influxes of his mental illness he was very cautious of the social and cultural reaction of the society surrounding him regardless of their relationship. The author is intrigued by the madman's discontent, mixed reactions, confusion in portraying the situations befalling him that was passed for insanity though he was accurate in his expression of pain and fear to depict the circumstantial misery attributed by social injustices, prosecution, ill-treatment, and oppression. The translation of the madman's incapacitation upholds the overhaul feudalism and his advocacy for equality promotion as well as the call for fair treatment for all in the man-eating society.

In this tragic story, Lu Xun intertwines misery and comic experiences of the madman in his recordings of the thirteen fragments as a diary recording of the past mental illness of his fears of the man-eating society he was living in (Puchner et al 2012). The story has employed various literal devices and figures of speech in the plot and character development. For instance, the author uses symbolism to depict the madman's aspirations for greatness in his life. The symbolic application of the moonlight shows the madman's struggle to free himself from his oppressive past and believes in the situations he is in and the time of the day. He uses the symbol of the moon to show the fear that haunted him because of the darkness that befell him when he was overpowered by fear and the thoughts of man-eating society. Again, the use of madness as a symbolic representation of the effects and outcomes of life frustration because of the classification and structural grouping of the people based on their socio-economic status signifies that life struggles and lack of opportunities have traumatizing effects on the people's lowering mental and spiritual fulfillment. The development of the primary motif of the short story, the imagery of flight, shows that the madman's association of the character of his elder brother and the tenant farmer as one of freedom and social class escapist. Further, Lu Xun employs the use of metaphoric expressions to give the story in-depth meaning to the audience. For instance, the use of tender in the description of his sister who died at the age of five depicts his perception of this female character to show her physical beauty as well as social vulnerability to the man-eating society causing her cannibal elder brother to serve her meat to the unsuspecting family. The metaphoric description of gendered sophistication shows the advantage of the elite members of society whose advantage over the oppressed made considerable difference to drive the oppressed insane in his perception, the madman perceived that the man-eaters were on the upper hand to the real men. In the tragic representation of the metaphor of mystery, the madman shows his frustration when the uncertainty of the silence of social isolation signified the magnitude of the suffering from the pain and fears that affected his emotional, mental and spiritual soundness. As a shared of hope when he uses the metaphoric representation of mercy to show how the society tried to help him out of his insanity especially when he was placed in psychic isolation he felt the response in the symbolism of his insanity interpretation of the "tender' treatment by the doctor as metaphoric understanding of the mercy deeds accorded to him as he emotionally drew to despair for the man-eater to wait for him to get tender and fat.

In this short story genre, the author uses different literal devices like similes to communicate to his audience with similarity depiction of situations as a comparison of insanity to reality. For instance in the use of the simile "as sour as vinegar" Lu Xun was able to depict the situation of the madman to the reader as unpleasant, bitter, and displeasing. Further, to show the range and rivalry in the life of the madman and his perception of the situations he was in, the author used the simile "savage as a lion, timid as a rabbit, and crafty as a fox" (Puchner et al 244) as a mixed feeling that the madman was feeling towards his elder brother and everyone else with cannibal characters to show their inhumane nature to have animal traits. Although he felt that her compassion radiated brilliantly like a fire, her soul was so dark and furious like the same fire aluminate his life though threatening to consume him with rage. Another simile "his skin was used as a sleeping mat" Lu Xun depicts the reality and truth of his situation as he hallucinates during his misery in the perception of the shamelessness of the man-eaters in their society.

Conclusion

Finally, in the application of different figurative language elements, literal devices, and decoding analysis of the genre "A Madman's Diary" the audience is exposed to rhetorical appeals in the persuasion of the different situations affecting the plot, setting, and character development. The relationship between the characters is drawn from a different perception of the author's witty depiction of the situations affecting the development of the thirteen fragments from the madman's narration of the different ordeals suffered during his mental illness past. The circumstantial evidence provided in the misery suffered by the protagonist, the madman, shows the in-depth challenges faced by the ancient Chinese society of the day.

Works cited

Puchner, Martin et al; The Norton Anthology of World Literature (Fourth Edition) (Vol. Package 2: Volumes D, E, F) Fourth Edition, Lu Xun Diary of a Madman, (1918), Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc, 2012 p. 240 - 249.