From Realization to Recognition

While analyzing the Eastern culture and their literary connotations one can still envision rudiments that stem from the Enlightment Era: societal traditions that are yet enforced to suppress certain knowledge as well as to contain chaos and remain as an orderly respectable society. Lu Xun’s Diary of a Mad Man displays a great deal of greed and power in a communistic way in which the conformity in their society is revealed. The cannibalistic overtures can and does come from the history of early 20th century China, whereas the belief of devouring human flesh is symbolic of attaining one’s spirit and power within themselves, thus gaining supremacy amongst their community and officials. This is depicted as the narrator states, “[b]ut the more courage I had, the more that made them want to eat me so that they could get a little of it for free” (Lu Xun 1924). These feelings and thoughts show that the narrator thinks that the people around him hold true to their customs of obtaining what the next man has through cannibalistic ingestion and fears for his life. Are these the mad preposterous ramblings of a mental patient? Or does his way of thinking have merit? How about when the narrator noticeably accepts the ways of his tradition at the end of the story and suspiciously remarks, “Although I wasn’t aware of it in the beginning, now that I know I’m someone with four thousand years’ experience of cannibalism behind me, how hard it is to look real human beings in the eye!” (Lu Xun 1929). The evidence of guilt is illustrated with the recognition of his traditional societal customs and the solemnity of his acceptance to the realization that he practices cannalbalism too.