In the story, Diary of a Madman, by Lu Xun, we meet a man visiting his brother, only to realize that something is wrong, but at As the story progresses, the protagonist seems to unveil a horrible secret about the village, but is the village the horrible one, or has the protagonist gone mad? Lu Xun's way of telling the story using the character's point of view, the pacing of the story, and the wording can affect the meaning or interpretation for the reader. As the name of the story suggests, the events taking place in the village are in the perspective of the protagonist, and the villagers view him as the madman; leading to his inevitable imprisonment. In the story, the reader is constantly wondering if the villagers are savages or if the protagonist is thinking and correlating things, creating a conspiracy theory. His conspiracy began to develop in part three, when he heard a mother scolding her child and telling him that she would consume him, because she was so angry. The protagonist connects this with an incident where a farmer was beaten to death and his organs removed, with the fact that the villagers were eating people and that he would be next. The protagonist thinks to himself and says: "This woman who scolds her son – 'I could eat you!' - these whitened faces and their bared fangs, their bursts of laughter; the farmer's story; all the signs are there. I don't see that their speech is poisonous, their laughter sharp, their teeth terribly white – teeth that eat people. Xun, Part III, p.23). A reader may get the impression that the protagonist is actually crazy, because who could conjure up such a crazy idea and how could it be true. Looking away from what the protagonist is thinking, but actually looking at the evidence he presented...... middle of paper ......rs, but then what's interesting is that this happened when he reported there. was a "famine", implying that a lack of food is about to occur, so the villagers decide to eat it right then and there. Lu Xun's narration is exceptional and the vocabulary is very subtle, yet distinctive enough, for a person to read it. through the story and get some clues, Lu Xun may or may not have wanted the reader to understand and decide the meaning of the story for themselves. The speed of the story adds to the rush of a person, the correlation of how a paranoid person can quickly correlate words and actions into a fabrication or conspiracy-proven reality. The character's perspective adds a layer above the words and narration, leaving the final decision as to whether the village was actually eating its own people or whether the madman was actually psychotic..