How difficult can it be in conflict with traditional bad habits in community? The answer is very difficult; however, the novel The True Story of Ah Q is the most obvious one that bring readers some of the most thought provoking literature. This story took a tremendous success as it was publishing. Lu Xun used his disturbing realism which interconnects the plot and character development to let many people do some self-reflection (Davies 58). This book is still as an appearance to expose and criticize the citizens' bad qualities and natural evils by describing an ignorant, naive and lamentable traditional Chinese people and his daily life.
The narrative takes place in Weizhuang, a fictional place. The main character, Ah Q, who is an odd-job man that "used to be much better off", "a good worker," and almost the perfect man. (Lu 51). He does not have certainty name, place of origin, even the background. He just lives in Weizhuang but sometimes lives in other places. He has contempt to everyone who lives in Weizhuang and town; in fact, all people can make joke with Ah Q because he cannot strike down them. Every time Ah Q is blew, he always use the “means of winning a psychological victory” to comfort himself.
Although Ah Q is weak to most people, he likes to pester the people whom is horrible to him. He is beat by Whiskers Wang and Imitation Foreign Devil for his action. In order to vent his anger, he shames the little nun and makes jokes with her to please other people. However, this event make Ah Q miss women with sex that it leads him to molest Amah Wu, the only maidservant in the Chao household (Lu 59). This causes that he is banished and feed a barrel of money. Mr. Chao hire Young D to replace him to work. He has to go to the town to find job opportunity. After a few days, Ah Q returns to Weizhuang as a rich man. All people revere him because of his change; after a few days, people know that he works as a thief in town and then they do not scare with him.
The most important element in the story is “the revolution”. When revolution happens, all the people feel fear with the revolution, including the successful provincial candidate and Mr. Chao. Ah Q hates revolution because he thinks that “the revolutionaries were rebels and that a rebellion would make things difficult for him” (Lu 70), but he is also entranced to the “revolution” when he knows the fear of those big people. He wants to join in the “revolution” but he is forbade by Imitation Foreign Devil. After Chao family is robbed, he is caught as the “revolutionary” and then he is judged blankly, admits his “crime” blankly, and is shot strangely.
The main character Ah Q is highly regarded because he was typical of the time in China. Many people realized that Ah Qs were around them, or themselves. As Vladimir Belinski says "With a true talent, every face is a type and every type, for the reader, is a familiar stranger." (Morris, 94). This role embodies a concentrated reflection of the old Chinese common customs: backwardness, slave, and “means of winning a psychological victory”. Meanwhile, this role is lively and plentiful to deep engrave in people's mind because of its distinctive. Ah Q is a typical Chinese literary image based on Chinese society.
Ah Q is a backward image as millions of old Chinese people. In the author's pen, he describes the background and position of Ah Q very clearly and his personality is very prominent. We know that Ah Q is a poor who can do any works. According the first two chapter, we know that he lives in in poverty as a homeless laborer, but he has the traditional good traits of Chinese farmers as hard-working, honest, and simple in nature. Certainly, Ah Q also has some negatives what are caused by social impact and oppression. His traits are very simple and very obvious so that the most people are recognized. The question is how to learn about the conflict between the Ah Q’s position and his traits.
In the first Chapter, author writes a
