Lu Xun’s Medicine

In Lu Xun’s Medicine it is implied that in the early 1900’s the Chinese (at least in the village) believe that blood directly relates to the soul. And if the blood of a person with a good soul in ingested by a sick person then the sick person will be cured. In the story Medicine a little boy named Little Bolt has tuberculosis. In the story you can tell that his family tries everything to cure him, they event tried the “guarantied cure” which is a mantou (roll) that is covered with the blood that was from someone how has been executed. Little bolt ate the mantou (roll), but it seemed like it had no effect on him but his parents still had high hopes, eventually he ended up dyeing from tuberculosis. I believe that the mantou (roll) didn’t cure Little Bolt because the blood on the mantou (roll) was from a boy who was killed unjustly. The boy who was executed in the story was executed because he had these radical ideas that the government had found threatening.
In the beginning of the story you are introduced to Big Bolt leaving his tea shop which is also his home to get this “guaranteed cure.” The seen that is described is a dark street early in the morning before sunrise. As Big Bolt walks down the street he comes to an intersection where there are a group of shoulders and a crowd of people. The crowd of people are making noise when he first sees them and then shortly after the crowd becomes hushed and then there is a loud sound and the people left just as quickly as they came. Then a man dressed in all black, who I believe is the executioner, begin a conversation that I can only relate to a drug dealer and an addict, give me the money and I’ll give you what you need. Even when people talk to Big Bolt about the mantou he seems like he is ashamed, and doesn’t want people to know that he has bought the mantou to try and cure Little Bolt. Later in the story, Lu Xun briefly speaks about the boy who had been executed and how the boy didn’t like one of the leaders in