A Madman’s Diary leaves the audience with the knowledge that the madman has rejoined the ‘cannibals’ and pretends to be none the wiser, because he could not convince anyone, even his brother, to abandon the barbaric tradition. In New Woman, Wei Ming commits suicide, and her legacy is both literally and metaphorically stamped on by the uncaring masses; Tzu-chun leaves Chuan-sheng and later dies, and Chuan-sheng is reabsorbed into the apathetic majority as a consequence of his apathy toward Tzu-chun. Rarely do the protagonists accomplish anything positive, and when this does occur, it is generally temporary, later reversed or negated by other events, such as Wei Ming’s novel being overshadowed by her suicide. The truth in Lu Xun’s short stories as well as New Woman is that taken individually, the revolution cannot make great progress, and in some ways is held back by occurring in
A Madman’s Diary leaves the audience with the knowledge that the madman has rejoined the ‘cannibals’ and pretends to be none the wiser, because he could not convince anyone, even his brother, to abandon the barbaric tradition. In New Woman, Wei Ming commits suicide, and her legacy is both literally and metaphorically stamped on by the uncaring masses; Tzu-chun leaves Chuan-sheng and later dies, and Chuan-sheng is reabsorbed into the apathetic majority as a consequence of his apathy toward Tzu-chun. Rarely do the protagonists accomplish anything positive, and when this does occur, it is generally temporary, later reversed or negated by other events, such as Wei Ming’s novel being overshadowed by her suicide. The truth in Lu Xun’s short stories as well as New Woman is that taken individually, the revolution cannot make great progress, and in some ways is held back by occurring in