Analysis Of A Madman's Diary By Lu Xun

During the 19th century, the social structure of China positioned the masses at the bottom with relatively few people at the top. “A Madman’s Diary”, written by Lu Xun, is a Chinese story that was published in 1918 and is considered one of China’s first modern short stories. The story is comprised of a handful of diary entries written by a madman who begins to think everyone around him is a cannibal and that they are out to get him. He turns his attention to the younger generation because he is afraid that they will also be cannibalized. Xun ultimately uses madness to warn China against passing bad ideas and practices down to the next generation because of its corrupt system.
It is evident in Xun’s writing that he makes various social criticisms
Throughout the story, he expresses the idea that children determine the direction for the Chinese nation. He uses the phrase “save the children” (Xun) near the end of the story to suggest that there is still a chance for China to refrain from exposing its future generations to the corrupt society they grew up in. In the story, the madman asks a young man if it is right to eat human flesh, but the man becomes pale and says it is not right to talk about such things. The madman comes to the conclusion that the young man “must have been taught by his parents. And I am afraid he has already taught his son: that is why even the children look at me so fiercely” (Xun). He uses the story to emphasize that the parents are the ones who teach their kids what society deems as correct. The responsibility of the children and their behavior is in the hands of adults. Children learn how to act in society from the environment they grow up in. His fear does not arise until the madman questions that the children are being exposed as cannibals and says, “then what of the children? At that time they were not yet born, so why should they eye me so strangely today, as if they were afraid of me, as if they wanted to murder me? This really frightens me, it is so bewildering and upsetting” (Xun). The madman’s fears reflect Xun’s fears for the future prosperity. Xun’s purpose was to warn people about the dangers of their actions and eliminate the downfalls of society in which they lived