Analysis Of The Book ' Diary Of A Madman '

From “Inside Rikers”, written by Jennifer Wynn, Wynn shares the lives from the “world’s largest penal colony” the inmates from Rikers Island. She really humanizes criminals by giving them faces and names because she does what most American are unwilling to do because they are afraid, that is forgiving people and giving them second chances. She really does see the good in the hearts of some staunch criminals. At the same time, she is a clear sighted humanist on how hard it is to leave the criminal lifestyle. Drawing all the difficulties and complications that our society has placed in the way of the newly released inmate. Not to mention the persuasions of the criminal lifestyle itself. The first chapter is Welcome to the Rock, where Wynn introduces the narratives of Angel, Kenny, Charlie, Alfonso, and Benjamin. Chapter two is titled, From the Belly of the Beast to New York Streets where both Frank and Mike are introduced here. In Chapter Three, the Captain and Harry tell the stories of Keepers Of The Kept, Convicted At Birth with Rico, Napoleon, Hilton, and James in Chapter 4.

In Ken Kesey's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Kesey shows the reader the idea of sanity versus insanity. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is about the struggle between chaos and order. There is no freedom without a little chaos, yet to maintain the order there must be oppression. McMurphy upsets the routine of the ward by asking for schedule changes and aspiring resistance during therapy sessions. He teaches his fellow inmates to have fun, and encourages them to embrace their human desires. He does this by convincing them that not only are they sane, but they are man (real people), in contrast nurse Ratched as an authoritarian. He soon discovers due to this that he is not only trapped behind physical walls but mental ones as well. Many patients

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is about a mental ward, its patients, and the head nurse, Nurse Ratched, a sadistic woman who overpowers her patients by making them feel small, incompetent, and incapable of belonging to society in a normal manner. Two of the patients, Billy Bibbit, a shy and fearful man with a bad stutter, and R. P. McMurphy, a very smart and outspoken man, each play a big part in the movie. They are both examples of wrongful treatment within the institution. In the end, Billy commits suicide as a result of Nurse Ratched’s threats towards him, while McMurphy undergoes a lobotomy and is eventually put out of his misery by his friend, known as Chief Bromden, so that he would no longer suffer as a vegetable.

As I was reading the book American Literature by Nina Baym, there was a story that caught my attention. This story is based on how a pastor tries to persuade his congregation from the sins and make them be fearful of the divine wrath of God. I personally can relate to this story because of my religion. I am Pentecostal and I can see why Edwards would use such words towards his congregation so that they won’t perish and go to hell. My Pastor uses similar approaches like this when she preaches. In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Edwards uses frightening words and religious metaphors to divert people from the congregation from the sins and condemning them to hell if they provoke the wrath of God and to establish that everyone should be fearful of him.

“You may be exaggerating a little,” he said holding her hands. “Come on… I doubt your mother is that bad?” Pete gazed out the window.

The statement “Drama reflects real life on a stage” is shown through the powerful dramatic play by Reginald Rose, ‘Twelve Angry Men’. Reginald rose through the effective use of characterisation, conflict and tension, symbolism, language and setting, Rose dramatically reflects human experiences with ‘Twelve Angry Men’. It is a play that directly appeals to our sense of justice and equality and questions audiences to contemplate the arguments on a ‘fair trial’ in a judicial process when ‘reasonable doubt’ is also taken into consideration. Reginald Rose also reflects human nature and experiences by taking into account the emphasis on each individual’s civic duty and responsibility to maintain fairness through the eyes of the law and shows how easily unbiased truth can be blinded by personal prejudice when conflict and tension are involved.

People who suffer from mental disorders are treated as outcasts; they are seen to hold no valid insight nor importance. However, this is far from true. In Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Chief Bromden suffers from mental illness yet provides thoughtful insight about the world. Throughout the novel, he makes references to the Combine, which he believes to be the controlling forces of society. He also frequently talks about how society lacks individualism and uniqueness, as well as how he is treated by those who are normal. Although Bromden may be considered insane, he has a very clear view of the nature of society and people.

Simon Winchester’s interesting story, The Professor and the Madman, explains the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary by an unlikely pair. The creators of the dictionary receive little credit for their hard work. Simon Winchester reveals the masterminds behind the Oxford English Dictionary’s long process and shocking creation story. The subject of the story is the main character. The main character, Doctor William Minor, is a mentally ill man who is locked away in an asylum for murder. He offers his knowledge and love of literature to James Murry, the professor, to help with making the Oxford English Dictionary. The purpose of the story is to bring awareness to William Minor’s mental illness. Simon Winchester uses a candid and honest tone to relay the subject and purpose of The Professor and The Madman.

Like any piece of good literature, “Diary of a Madman” does not just apply to the time it was written. It can also be seen as a critique on the world today. However, the relation between the story and the modern world is not easily visible on the surface. One must dig deeper in order to see the parallels. Once one examines the symbolism that is used, it is clear that the story is relevant to today’s world just as much as it was to the world in which Lu Xun wrote it. There are many parallels between the story and our society, so many that this story could just as easily be a critique of our society as a critique of China in 1918.

What Lu Xun and all the other authors have in common is that they have passion for what they do and it portrays through their work. The unique characteristic that I noticed in Chinese literature was just like in most cultures, family is very important to them. In the “Medicine” Big-bolt and his wife go through great lengths in order to make sure their son gets cured from Tuberculosis. The text states, “He longs to take this package of new life, transplant it in his own home, and reap crop of happiness” (Volume F, 254). It’s refreshing to know that writers like Lu Xun aren’t afraid to talk about a subject which was and still is considered to be taboo. Lu Xun’s “Diary of a Madman” and “Medicine” both talked about cannibalism in different ways

This changes after he begins to fear he’s being watched, he becomes paranoid and “can sense others’ scepticism… staring at him intently. They believe I’ve gone mad.” He is consumed by fear that people are watching him and he begins to follow people in the hope they are the ones watching him. Others watch on claiming that “bloody bonkers. But there you are.

In “A Madman’s Diary”, the impetuosity for rebellion drives the storyline within the main character. The madman is the only individual that has an amiss, rather than the conventional view on the way society treats inferiors. Xun equates cannibalism allegorically with the dismantling of subordinate people in Chinese culture. Consequently, Lu Xun’s short story, ¨A

Simon Winchester unravels the complex mystery of the Oxford English Dictionary and its contributors in his book, The Professor and the Madman. Already a unique piece of literary accomplishments, the OED is even more set apart from the rest by its unusual history. Winchester explores the life of one of its most prominent benefactor and his bizarre fingerprint he made on the creation of the first complete dictionary.

Lu Xun’s story “Diary of a Madman” serves to demonstrate his discontent with traditional Chinese cultural, not only by the fact that it clearly addresses the incidence of cannibalism that is believed to have occurred but also symbolizes the oppressive nature of Confucian principles.Lu Xun’s madman has the ability to recognize the oppressive elements of Chinese Confucian culture serves to mock established but out-dated traditional scholarship and symbolizes the greater wisdom of cultural reform, especially as it is advanced by modern intellectuals of the period.

Different from traditional ways to tackle history, in this story, the roles of perpetrator and victim coincide exactly and irrationally to be the protagonist, which, on the other hand, indicates the madman’s symptom of schizophrenia. When performing the nose-cutting, he “look[s] as if he were happily blowing on a harmonica” (157); when cutting his leg, he “laugh[s] for a long time” (159). Not frightened by pains, he instead enjoys punishing himself, which is like a parody of those utterly inhuman perpetrators in history, who tortured their prisoners even with pleasure. The punishments he chooses are also highly symbolic since they are all traditional tortures in Chinese history. In critic, Mo Luo’s view, these punishments as historic knowledge overlap with his personal experience in the revolution, which forces him to face the continual violent experience of the whole Chinese nation, lasting not merely ten years of the revolution, but for thousands of years (60). The continuity and severity of the punishments are then not limited to this particular period but extend to the long process of