Essay on Connections Between Diary of a Madman and the Metamorphosis

Introduction

Notably, the interconnectivity of ideas and opinions from different writers are a critical integral piece of literature work. In other words, comparing two pieces of literature plays a very crucial role because it helps in sightseeing each work in a more detailed form to develop some view and opinions. Therefore, when analyzing two or more works of literature does not necessarily indicate comparing two novels or books in one essay. It means exploring the two by finding connections and digging further regarding these connections by focusing on the most crucial issue from the works. This essay focuses on analyzing and synthesizing two renowned works from two different eras: modernist and postmodernist. The prior focus on Lu Xun while the latter focuses on Franz Kafka and the analysis is based on their famous literature works, Diary of a madman and The Metamorphosis respectively.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Lu Xun and Franz Kafka

Regardless of their differences in literary works, comparative studies reveal that both Lu Xun and Franz Kafka tends to share a collective concern regarding their perception on the repressive nature of history as well as the authority understood from it. The prior is viewed to be a leading prominent writer of the modern Republic of China. In the preface of his writing and using classical Chinese language, the author adopts an ironic method in revealing how a social appearance exclusively makes a friendly and false world. On the other hand, Franz Kafka is considered one of the greatest fiction writers in the literature of the twentieth century. The writer is renowned for his lengthy, drawn-out sentences as well as his partiality for ambiguity.

Diary of A Madman and the Metamorphosis

The "Diary of a madman" story is a rebuke of how the traditional believer culture where the Madman sees a man-eating society. The story uses ironical classical Chinese to show a false polite world of social appearances. The language used suggests a direct, immediate, and genuine expression of the heart set against the word of society. The "Metamorphosis" is the story of a traveling salesman who wakes up to find himself transformed into a monstrous vermin. It begins with the climax, protagonists work formation and pivotal moments of fiction and then gets plopped up.

Analysis of Writing Styles from The two Works

Language

Lu Xun's "Diary of a Madman" and Franz Kafka's, "Metamorphosis" are literature stories which offer a challenge to the idea of reality. In Diary of a Madman, an insane first-person view is depicted when the author visualizes the texts in his readings which say humans are going to eat him. In Metamorphosis, the reader keeps guessing whether Gregor is an insect due to its vague use of language and slick metaphors. Both "Diary of a Madman" and "Metamorphosis" bring out the human process of thought, helping the reader to challenge the idea of sanity within a human being. The "Diary of a Madman" begins with a prolog which ends with the text, "I have got a good reason for my fears" (Lu Xun 238). The statement is placed strategically for the reader to reason and question everything within the story. In the two stories, there is a blurred vision of the idea of distinguishing sanity from insanity and the concept of reasoning. Through Madman speaking about the study of humans, I conclude that he is the one that studies humans, hence is seen as an outcast. Any human being who is knowledgeable in society is labeled as a nerd rather than a professional (Lu Xun 238). The Diary of a madman makes me challenge the notion of Madman being insane and the view of reality.

Narration

Lu Xun and Kafka use the physical body to present personal criticism in the aspects of modernity, political, social, and economic changes. The nature of modernity of bringing out change encourages feelings and thoughts across the body of humanity that reflects individual mentalities (Veg 49). Lu Xun and Kafka create protagonists that show the body of humanity through behavior and physiology, inviting readers to reflect on changes and how they are victims of modernity. Kafka's introduces his text by saying, "I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me" (Kafka 100). The statement represents the requirement for an internalized wit to be brought out via physical activity for it to be understandable and clear. Both Lu Xun and Kafka manipulate the notion of the presentation of the human body to reveal some facts about internal feelings and thoughts towards the currentness of their characters, reflecting on their beliefs of modern society.

Themes

The mental manifestation of modernity is madness. If Cannibalism is what Lu Xun's protagonist is afraid of from the past, then what he fears is from the future is madness. He is aware of the villagers labeling him as a madman and gets worried about his changes towards madness. Lu Xun uses language to outline the physical demonstration of his protagonist as, "a hound gone wild that assaults, without distinguishing them, his master and his masters guest" (Lu Xun 241). Xiaobing Tang illustrates the Madman to be more like an animal that cannot be controlled with vast physical wildness rather than the mentality of a real human being. The mad man's image is related to that of an animal, "I could not tell whether the slippery morsels were fish or human flesh" (Lu Xun 244). Lu Xun is almost unable to make distinctions between the traditional body and the modernity body, yet makes his audience aware of the struggle that occurs between these two bodies. In Kafka's story, the physiologic is not directly related to madness, but Feud's recognition of the surreal through the theory of logic is the ultimate link between the body envisioning of Gregory and his thoughts, which in turn are linked to the current world. Kafka's protagonist has thought processes which can be called abnormal n more subjective terms.

Direction to an Interpretive Essay's Thesis

Different ideas of modernity are seen from his reactions towards change; his succumb to his animalistic thoughts and his response to his first fights (Kafka 136). Madness can indicate many cultural problems and break away from social norms. Kafka draws his representation of insanity from the individual subordination of the surrounding realities and the thoughts that go beyond what humans perceive as evident. Lu Xun's society believes that madness is an illness that can be related to physical and not the mentality of an individual.

Direction to an Interpretive Essay's Thesis

Both Lu Xun and Kafka use the idea of the mind to represent the body and the body to represent the mind, interchangeably. They share the view of the struggles that are found beneath the weight of the society and the past authority. Regardless of their differences, they have a concern towards nature and what they see as the oppressive nature of the past and the administration that is drawn from it.

Works Cited

Pollard, David E. The true story of Lu Xun. Chinese University Press, 2002.

Williamson, Edwin. Borges: A Life. New York: Viking, 2004