Comparison between The Loner and Diary of a Madman

Analysis

Overview

The Loner follows the story of a protagonist who meets a man by the name of Lianshu, renowned for
his eccentricity and deviation from the traditional beliefs of their town “S----”. They become closer
following the funeral of Lianshu’s grandmother’s funeral, where he has an extreme reaction to her
burial, which intrigues the protagonist. He then begins to become acquainted with Lianshu’s family
and unusual way of living and thinking. Lianshu’s views begin to shape the protagonist’s own
perspective. Before long, the two become separated and send letters. The protagonist arrives home
to find that Lianshu has passed away from an illness, and he finds himself reacting similarly to how
Lianshu did with his grandmother when they first met.

Main themes

o Isolation and abandonment

o Ostracization/ judgement
o Nature vs nurture
o Self vs society
o Meaning of life and mortality
o Desperation to live

Key quotes

 “Probably his own failure to have a family and the solitude in which he lived contributed to
his reputation for eccentricity.” (Page 233) --> diction and foreshadowing themes of
ostracization + self vs society
 “Lianshu was an unreasonably progressive type who’d converted to the foreign devil’s
religion.” (Page 233) --> symbol of how social deviance is equated to evil in this society
 “Like the nocturnal howls of a wounded wolf in the wilderness, rasping with an agonized
grief.” (Page 235) --> simile likens Lianshu’s grief for his grandmother to a wild animal’s
primal experience. This line is referenced in the final moments of the story, where the
protagonist’s reaction to Lianshu’s death is referred to in the same way.
 “Who likes visiting a park in winter?” (Page 241) --> Analogy depicts Lianshu’s self-
perception, explaining that his experience with depression is what drives people away from
him. The isolation experienced as a social outcast is revealed by the one who experiences it.
 “My colleagues, by contrast, seemed constitutionally inured to hardship and perfectly
contented with their menial positions and meagre fifteen- or sixteen-dollar salaries, their
thin, pale, long-suffering faces bend constantly over their work.” (Page 244) --> This use of
visual imagery offers a stark insight into society’s perception of success, thus revealing that
‘outcasts’ may be the most fulfilled. The protagonist’s experience with Lianshu over time has
allowed his perspective to grow.
 “Now if he’d listened to me, all that while back, he wouldn’t be lying alone in the cold and
dark like he is now. At least he’d have a few people to cry for him.” (Page 252) --> ignorant
tone reveals that societal judgement transcends death.
Overview of Diary of a Madman

Diary of a Madman is a short story about a man who is considered ill by his brothers and then
through his so called illness, he sees the corruption of the Confucian society as it is all about
exploitation and common states that the people are “eating” each other further conveying his belief
that the society is all about exploiting and using each other. The madman is commonly judged by all
the people around him including children in the street, he believes the dog as well and his own
brother, and believes that they want to eat him throughout the story. He eventually reflects on how
the children are becoming “cannibals” through how their parents raise them, and also believes that
the children need to be saved from Confucian society’s corrupting nature.

Lu Xun, Comparison Between The Loner and Diary of a Madman

Key Similarities

The Loner and Diary of a Madman both convey children as starting out as innocent and then
becoming corrupt and losing their innocence, when they get older and societal pressures cause them
to become just like all the other corrupt people.

Diary of a Madman questions “Are there children who have not yet eaten human flesh?” and then
states, “Save the children…”, and The Loner, depicts the children and their innocence as being
“precious” in the mind of Lianshu, the friend of the narrator, both conveying the innocence of
Children as being very important to the Chinese society.

Both follow the themes of isolation as in The Loner the friend of the narrator Lianshu is outcast from
the rest of society and in Diary of a Madman, the madman is isolated from society.

This is because both short stories convey these characters as outcasts of society, who believe
different things to the traditional views of the Confucian Chinese beliefs, and convey beliefs that the
Confucian Chinese beliefs encourage corruption within their texts. For example, in Diary of a
Madman, the character of the madman interprets the Confucian principles as he glimpses in
between the lines of the Confucian books and sees the words “Eat People!” conveying his realization
that the Confucian books are encouraging exploitation of people in that you take parts of people for
your own personal gain.

Both short stories have the key theme of self-versus society, as both Lianshu in The Loner and the
madman in Diary of a Madman are both against the social norms of society. However they have
some differences within the two characters as Lianshu is defying the social norm through his various
actions and his values of the innocence of children even when the children are physically repulsive
by societal standards, while Diary of a Madman is a character having a realization that every person
who he sees is only acting to help themselves, and wanting to symbolically take bites out of people.

Both stories, explore the meaning of life and morality through the views of the two characters that
have views that defy the social norms of society. Diary of a Madman depicts the meaning of life as
exploiting people for personal gain, even on actions that appear to be good, such as getting the
madman help from a doctor being seen as the doctor trying to eat him. Meanwhile it explores the
meaning of morality when the character is criticizing what the Confucian society considers to be
good and socially acceptable.
Key Differences

The theme of abandonment is far more prevalent in the short story of The Loner than of Diary of a
Madman, especially later into the story as Lianshu gets abandoned by both the narrator as well as
society when the characters are afraid of the personal problems that they will experience from being
associated with Lianshu, while a large portion of society is against him.

The key themes of nature versus nurture are far more prominent within the short story of The Loner
rather than Diary of a Madman as Lianshu in The Loner, explicitly shows his beliefs that the
corruption in the children is caused by the nurturing of the Children and the narrator who is a friend
of Lianshu believes that it is nature that causes the corruption to be developed within the children’s
minds, and that the children are born with “seeds of evil”.

The key theme of the desperation to live is far more prevalent within Diary of a Madman, as the
madman can be seen as living in fear of his own family metaphorically eating him and even
questions whether the family dog is going to exploit him for personal gain.