Ah-Q By Lu Xun

Every author, artist, and musician chooses each word, stroke, and lyric with strong intent. Lu Xun, a pivotal contributor to modern Chinese literature in the 20th century, is no different. He makes decisions of word choice in how his characters are named and addressed by their fellow characters. Naming characters is a way of indirectly applying symbolism and metaphors to the life of the individual with the goal of emphasizing a certain theme of the story. Lu Xun not only applies certain names to his characters to draw attention to plot points and important lessons, but he takes the opportunity in some cases to leave characters nameless with the same intention: highlighting themes. The means of achieving the goal are not the same, but he artfully uses the same tool in a different way to convey different types of themes. Specifying which themes are being addressed by a character name is
He shows the variety of ways to bend name choice to help lead the reader to the same conclusion as the other literary devices used within the piece. Whether the decision is to call a character by a name whose meaning has pertinence in relation to the plot or if the author feels as though nameless characters are more appropriate for their purpose, both options can be explored and used with equal meaning. Mr. Zhao, Ah-Q, the characters of A Happy Family, and Xianglin’s wife each play their parts in the plot well while carry names, or not carrying names, that add a level of depth to their importance. Lu Xun was a politically involved man, and he never wrote a story without a message for his peers. The clarity of these messages was improved by numerous elements woven together into his work, and the naming of his characters may have been one of his more subtle tools, but it was used wisely and