Lu Xun does a very effective job at portraying Chinese society in a much different sense, cannibalism. Just like Chinese society “devours its members,” the reader can see the same thing taking place in Diary of a Madman (1919). In the story the cannibals could represent the actual Chinese society, while the madman represents the members of the society. Also, the madman makes it clear that in order to even understand cannibalism, or the society in comparison, “you really have to study something before you can understand it” (1922). In the story, the madman feels as if everyone is looking at him with “green faces and protruding fangs” that want to eat him (1922); in comparison, he may feel as if the Chinese society is constantly devouring the members of its society. Also, the madman says that he saw the words “benevolence, righteousness, and morality” written across every page, but yet “eat people” was what was really written between the lines (1923). This could serve as a crucial example of the Chinese society; the words found could represent what the society wanted you to think, but yet there was something written between the lines that they truly did not want the members to see. Throughout the story, the madman is realizing that even his own brother, along with many others, were becoming cannibals (1924); this example shows that many people did not have the courage to stand up against the Chinese society. Towards the end of the story, the madman is telling Old Fifth Chen that he can change and that in the future cannibalism will not be allowed, but if they do not change “a real human being’s going to come along” and get rid of the cannibals (1928). I believe that example is one of the most significant in the story and can truly portray the Chinese society. This example could shows that eventually the way of Chinese society will no longer be accepted, and because of this a more accepted society will come and get rid of the Chinese society. Lu Xun does a wonderful job at implicitly portraying the negativities of the Chinese society in her story that is about cannibalism.
Is the madman portrayed in the story really insane? Why or why not?
Personally, I do not believe the madman in the story is insane. In fact, I believe he is saner than those around him. Throughout the story I felt as if the other characters tried to make the madman seem as if he was insane so that they could actually cover up their true insanity. For example, he is the only one in the story that is sane enough to have the courage to not become like everyone else, cannibals. The madman writes in his diary that these cannibals “camouflage their real intentions” probably so that no one will think that they are insane (1924). Also, in the story it is the madman who appears to be the only one that thinks that cannibalism is immoral because he questioned a cannibal whether or not the business of eating people is right (1926). It is the person that he questions that denies that such a thing is happening, but then agrees that it is; this could show that he was trying to cover up his insanity by saying cannibalism does not even occur. Although the reader may instantly infer that the writer of this diary is the one insane because of the title, Diary of a Madman, he seems to have more sanity than the other characters in the story.
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