Lao She's Novel Rickshaw Analyzed

In the novel Rickshaw by Lao She, the main character Hsiang Tzu goes through many trials and tribulations on his journey in life. The author portrays Hsiang Tzu as mostly becoming a victim of fate. It seems as Hsiang Tzu lives his life, things are constantly happening to him that are out of his control. When he first buys his own rickshaw, Hsiang Tzu takes the rickshaw into a bad part of town and ends up getting kidnapped by soldiers. Hsiang Tzu did make the decision to go into this part of town; however, only by fate could he be met with soldiers of this type.

After being captured by the soldiers, they took his rickshaw and made him their slave. Hsiang Tzu decided he needed to escape the soldiers as quickly as possible, so he began to formulate an escape plan. When he saw soldiers bring camels back to camp, he knew he must be in the mountains. Hsiang Tzu waited for the soldiers to leave to go fight again and then left the camp, bringing the camels with him. When he brought the camels into town, he happened to run into an old man who had camels of his own. Fate and a little bit of luck was the only way that Hsiang Tzu would sell the camels to the first man he spoke to in town.

Selling the camels and making thirty five dollars was a piece of fate that would lead the rest of his life in specific direction. After receiving thirty five dollars for the camels and cleaning up a bit, Hsiang Tzu returned to Jen Ho agency for the first time since he had bought his new rickshaw. The Jen Ho agency rented rickshaws to men willing to pull them, and Hsiang Tzu was one of the owner's favorite rickshaw men. The owner of the Jen Ho Agency, Old Liu, often gave Hsiang Tzu a place to stay and a secure place to hold his money. In fact, whenever Hsiang Tzu had money he wished to save, he gave it to Old Liu because he knew it would be in safe hands.

Hsiang Tzu return to Old Liu's agency brought about many changes in his life that would have never happened without fate stepping in. Hu Niu, the daughter of Old Liu, began to take a fancy towards Hsiang Tzu. Eventually, Hsiang Tzu ends up marrying Hu Niu almost against his will. Hsiang Tzu came back to the agency one night while Old Liu was out of town and found Hu Niu waiting for him. After a few drinks, Hu Niu seduced Hsiang Tzu and they ended up consummating their relationship that evening. Hu Niu then faked pregnancy to Hsiang Tzu and forced him into marrying her. If Hsiang Tzu would have never been kidnapped by the soldiers, he would never have earned the money and would have never ended up at the Jen Ho Agency. These events did not occur as Hsiang Tzu would have wanted, they occurred without a whole lot of control.

Hsiang Tzu seems to often be the victim of fate, without making many decisions himself. He consistently lets things happen as opposed to making them happen himself. At one point in the novel, the author even states that Hsiang Tzu would "…just do as Heaven willed in all things."(She 130). Hsiang Tzu goes through his entire life, living with what life gave him, not what he gave himself.

Some could argue that Hsiang Tzu was not a victim of fate at all, yet someone with sufficient free will to escape his own problems on his own. This, however, is an incorrect assumption. Hsiang Tzu did make many decisions in his own life which were intended to help him succeed. Every time he attempted to make a decision like this, however, fate stepped in and brought him back to earth. Although it does not seem as though Hsiang Tzu really wants to succeed in life, really only wanting to pull his rickshaw and be free to do what he wants.

In the end, the author offers no real ultimate hope for Hsiang Tzu. The novel ends with Hsiang Tzu standing near a reservoir as the town crowds to see the captured Yuan Ming. According the novel, Hsiang Tzu "…was already habituated to getting money by fraud" (She 246). Hsiang Tzu received sixty dollars to give information to authorities about Yuan Ming. This information led to the captured and the assumed death of Yuan Ming. The last line in the novel proclaims about Hsiang Tzu "No one knows how many funerals he marched in, and no one knows when or where he was able to get himself buried, that degenerate, selfish, unlucky offspring of society's diseased womb…" (She 249) The author offers no comfort, no closing and no real hope for Hsiang Tzu.

The short story Diary of a Madman offers a much different picture of society as the main character knows it. The 'madman' is stuck in his own corrupt society and there is no way he can really get out. He obsesses over the eating of human flesh carried out by the people around him in his town. The townspeople would eat the organs of courageous men in order to gain that courage. The madman begins to believe that his older brother eats flesh and that the doctor that came to help him did as well.

At one point in the story, the madman asks a young man if he believes that eating human flesh is right. The man avoids the question and the madman pushes him further. After much interrogation, the young man says that the cannibalism in Wolf Cub Village is nothing new that, "it has always been like that" (Xun 14). The madman responds by saying, "It is right because it has always been like that?" (14).

At this moment, the madman realizes that he is trapped in a society that eats humans. He believes that everyone is taught by their parents that eating human flesh is the right thing to do because it has been done forever. The madman cannot escape this school of thought because it has been engraved in all the young people by their parents. This causes him to be trapped in a society that he believes is doing unjust things to its people.

In the end, the author offers very little hope for the madman in finding his way out of the cannibalistic society. The madman comes to believe that his brother ate his dead sister and that man-eating has been going on for thousands of years. The madman ends his diary with a simple hope, "Perhaps there are still children who have not eaten men? Save the children…" (Xun 18). While the madman hopes that man-eating will go away, society offers no real signs of stopping.