Lu Xun described it as follows in "Diary of a Madman": "I looked up history and found that there is no chronology in this history. The words 'benevolence, righteousness and morality' are written on every crooked page. I couldn't sleep anyway, so I read carefully for half the night, and then I saw the words between the words, and there were two words 'eating people' written all over the book." The author used the words of a madman to criticize feudal ethics.

Character introduction

The madman is a person who suffers from persecution phobia and is a typical image of an ideological enlightenment created by Lu Xun. In the novel, the madman's unusual thoughts and behaviors lead to him being ostracized and hostile in his living environment, and he is considered "sick". The weird words and deeds of the madman are complete and pure. The environment described by the madman in his diary lacks realism, but it reveals the social essence of "cannibalism" in China's feudal society for thousands of years.

The madman in the work is actually a symbolic image. Lu Xun clearly writes about the madness of madmen, but in fact, what he writes touches the readers' heartstrings as they think about the times, society, and the true meaning of life. The madman is not an ordinary typical character, he is symbolic, an artistic symbol of the angry thoughts of the pioneers of the entire May Fourth era.