The use of the physical body by Lu Xun and Kafka allows them to present personal criticisms of aspects of modernity and the social, political and economic changes of the movement. Modernity, by its nature as a bringer of change, encourages the development of thoughts and feelings in the "body" of humanity, which in turn reflects the personal mentality of each individual. Kafka and Lu victims". of modernity – relating to the victimization of thousands of people through recent wars, uprisings and revolutions. Kafka's introduction to his text, "Metamorphosis," portrays the need for the internalized mentality to be brought out through the physical to make it clear and understandable. He writes: “I can't make you understand. I can't make anyone understand what's going on inside me”1 - as if he couldn't find a way to explain the changes of modernity in relation to himself - it would be difficult to convey such a feeling through thought alone, so there it requires physicality to fully explain. The interaction with the environment is both physical and mental, and Lu Xun and Kafka as modern authors try to emphasize this and present change as a response to modernity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Consumerism, as a modern ideology, emerging in the early 20th century, forced development in the production, acquisition, and trade of goods that enabled the gross economic growth of modern nations. Lu Xun's "Diary of a Madman" encapsulates this ideology in reference to culture through cannibalism: that one strand of culture can be consumed by another due to economic pressure. The protagonist of Lu This statement can be read by Lu cut a piece of his flesh and cook it for them." The realism of practice in traditional Chinese medicine is particularly relevant here, as the consumption of one body by another for the purpose of appearing “good” becomes a metaphor for social bodies and political strands, such as the rise of capitalism in In the West, communism in the East must, to gain power, metaphorically consume the other, ingesting and then digesting, then destroying its influences. The diarist, after visiting his doctor, speculates that “he simply used the pretext of feeling my pulse to see how fat I was; for by doing so he would have received a part of my flesh.” The diarist in this case is nothing more than a victim of Western consumer society and its influences in China – he is aware of his nature, used in a social “pretext”, which will ultimately lead to his destruction in order for the rise of others . Lu in which they believe a particular "body" ofpeople. The idea of ​​the physical body, whether personal or collective, is necessary in this way to categorize different strands of modern politics. As Oswaldo de Andrade claims in the “Manifesto of Cannibalism”, “The spirit refuses to conceive without a body. Anthropomorphism". Lu malleability of society and ease of social relations change and reform shown through cannibalism in Lu Xun's "Diary of a Madman", Kafka's "Metamorphosis" shows a similar mutability of the social norm through the presentation of the human body: anthropomorphic traits they are lost in the development of social mobility, as if the general hierarchy of all beings is broken: an unknown and unidentified body is instead given to those who are consumed by the idealisms of modernity. Kafka suggests that the human body is trapped in limitations of the society of which he is a part – its protagonist, Gregor Samsa, is recognized as “the boss's creature, mindless and spineless”. His body is completely controlled and defined by his society, he himself does not have a “mind” to be able to think freely, or a “backbone” to be able to defend his rights. In essence, he is nothing more than a creature, easily manipulated, constrained and owned by society. Kafka comments on the nature of modern confinement through the body becoming “mindless and spineless”, a “creature” – losing all human characteristics that allow freedom of thought or movement so that the body is trapped. Kafka's protagonist has a deep understanding of the problems of modern society, he recognizes that “they had just gotten used to” his work, “the family as well as Gregor, money was received with gratitude and given with pleasure, but without a particular feeling of the heat no longer accompanied him”1. The modern world, in which Gregor is forced to work without the "slightest negligence" for fear of the "gravest suspicion", is cold and alienated. The emotion that was felt before the changes of modernity has been lost, and since emotion is more commonly associated with humanity as a species, it gives an image of humanity "doomed", trapped within the limits of society, rather than the freedom of “pleasure”. As Lillian Robinson argues in “New Literary History,” “modernism denies us the possibility of understanding ourselves as agents in the material world” – all sense of the personal, agency in general, is removed in order for humanity to become “mindless and spineless”. like the "creature" of Kafka's "Metamorphosis". This strange body is the image of social reform and political change. Moving away from human naturalism, the idea of ​​the unnatural is prevalent in the modern era due to changes within society: Lu Xun's presentation of artificial cannibalism emphasizes the idea of ​​the unnatural which is prevalent in the modern era a cause of its strangeness, as cannibalism is for contemporary Western civilization, despite its acceptance in Eastern medicinal practice. Everything new seems unnatural – and just like Kafka's animalistic body, cannibalism and what it represents in terms of Chinese identity is unnatural to Lu Xun's modern readers because it doesn't happen in their society. The madman wonders whether cannibalism was accepted in his village, a microcosmic representation of the larger Chinese culture, so easily “because it has always been that way,” and wonders whether it was he who found himself “in the darkness,” far from a reality in which the corruption ofbody was normal. Xiaolu Ma's 'Transculturation of Madness' suggests that there is a "belief that his madness allows the madman to reveal the truth and that cannibalism plays a significant role in the Chinese national character." But Xiaolu argues that madness, a phenomenon of transculturation during the modern era, is influenced by the geographic location of the sufferer and allows for different manifestations of madness to occur in literature. In Lu The unnatural nature of cannibalism, or at least the way Western society perceived it, is the basis for Lu Xun's questioning but also glorification of tradition; it becomes a weapon against the postcolonial European nations attempting the modernization of the East as it becomes representative of the European body they attempt to consume, receiving a "share of meat", taking possession of the Chinese physical body by changing their mentality to better adapt it to that of modern Europe. The action in Lu Xun's story appears entirely physical, however, despite the clear mental reaction to it. This physicality may suggest the grotesque nature of the body of modernity so clearly seen in “Metamorphosis.” Behavior, such as madness, as representative of the "strange" is exchanged in Kafka's text with the appearance, the physical body, of his protagonist – even if a series of strange behaviors develop from this, it is the transformation in itself – the “Metamorphosis”, as Kafka describes it so well. Gregor's animalistic body is used to show the grotesque nature of modernity in physicality. Kafka describes the creature, after an encounter with his father, as having a “pathetic and repulsive form,” a “grave wound, from which he suffered for more than a month – the apple remained embedded in his flesh as a visible reminder since no one dared remove it” – after the accident the apple is left as part of his body, as described by Kafka as a “souvenir”, a reminder of the ugly confrontation between Gregor's radicalized body which, having understood the constraints of society, broke away by them through his transformation and his father as his opposite illustrates the tension between the oppression of tradition and the rise of modern thought. Vladimir Nabokov claims, in one of his series of lectures on literature, that "the Samsa family around the fantastic insect is nothing more than mediocrity around the genius." The very act of “metamorphosis” in Kafka's tale allows for thought beyond the body, and Nabokov invites us to think in this way about the mind and the meaning behind the construction. Gregor's physical body makes him "brilliant" because he is capable of detaching himself from what is seen as "normality", while those around him remain the same throughout the story. The body of the unknown creature is easily unrecognizable to us compared to a typical human figure and possesses an aura of strangeness, much like the escape from modern life that Gregor seeks; his modern world becomes unrecognizable as he attempts to escape what is considered normality: it consumes him so much mentally that his physical body changes. Later Kafka describes his protagonist as “completely covered in dust; he dragged himself with him on his back and along his sides”, and the reason is “his indifference”. Kafka makes use of visual appeal, as is evident in the case of the apple, to explain the mentality of some characters and the possible parable of his story, his hidden commentary on modernity. In this way the physical body becomes an example – something that makes Gregor stand out as a genius not only in his mentality, but also in his difference inphysicality and detachment from anthropomorphism. Likewise, Lu Xun's use of the persecution complex allows him to subtly comment on the nature of Chinese politics without fear of damaging his reputation in any way, avoiding being seen as radical. The use of primitivism and the use of the practice of cannibalism is what allows Lu Xun's commentary on the traditions of the East to function in this way. Xiaobing Tang argues that "the human body is subject to the direct inscription of social meaning" – agreeing that the physical body can often comment on its surroundings and that the body of cannibalism directly refers to LuXun's meaning in writing" Diary of a Madman" as part of the New Culture Movement is perhaps to break with traditional Chinese values ​​by presenting them as unnatural. The changing mentality of modernity through the generation of fear of cannibalism acts as an allegory of the changes believed in by those who were part of the New Culture Movement; their most appropriate cause was disillusionment with Chinese culture. The disillusionment continues in Lu of a fox...", "some men were transformed into fish, birds, monkeys" – different men were transformed into different animals, perhaps representing different social conditions and cultures, but all are bound by the tradition of cannibalism, without ever hoping “to face real men”, the men of modernity because they are primitive in thought. Those around the protagonist, however, relate to him as if he were clinically insane since they fail to see his kind of intuition, his anger and therefore radicalism against the naturalistic and traditional Chinese lifestyle in which the inhabitants are stuck of the village generalized. He refuses to be consumed by cannibals on two levels: literally and metaphorically, being consumed in the beliefs of the main "body" of society: the madman, like Kafka's brilliant creature. The comparison between anthropomorphic and animalistic bodies similarly allows for a commentary made by Kafka on modern society; having a recognizably human family dynamic penetrated by an alien and different creature reflects the differences between traditional and modern values ​​by presenting a comparison, similar to how Lu Xun shows disillusionment with traditional Chinese values ​​by mocking them. Only by carefully looking at Gregor's description does one realize how drastically different he is from the human form: “his back is hard, as if he were armoured, and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domed brown belly divided into stiff arched segments above which the bed quilt was struggling to stay in place and was about to slide off completely. His many legs, pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes.” This description of the creature's body, of how the body has transformed, of the nature of human physiology is clearly demonstrated to match or not match those of the surrounding society – showing an externalization of changing internal ideals, bringing out internal adaptations by building a body which is totally alien and alienated, to represent internalized ideals of the same standards. In Kafka's text, his fascination with morphology and the act of metamorphosis acts as a representative of the change that modernity brings: those who are stuck in tradition cannot understand this change, they are stuck in their ways and therefore cannotadapt. Although Gregor's change makes him appear "helpless", once he gains control of his body his feat can be described as nothing less than spectacular: having the ability to move with ease, climb both the floor and the wall and transform the small bedroom in his. world of exploration. As his body develops into the “wild”1 world around him, his mind opens up to infinite possibilities. Madness is the mental manifestation of modernity. The obsession faced by Lu madness of the diarist. If cannibalism is what he fears in the past, then madness is what he fears for the future: knowing that the villagers have already labeled him a “madman,” he worries about his transformation through madness. The language used by Lu more like an uncontrollable animal, endowed with great physical ferocity, rather than a mentally ill human being. Once again we are given animalistic images in relation to the madman's mind: "I couldn't tell whether the slippery morsels were fish or human flesh" - slowly he is less able to distinguish between the body of tradition and the body of modernity, but as an audience that makes us more aware of the struggle that occurs between them. Although in Kafka's tale the physical is not directly linked to madness, the surreal, recognized by Freud through his theory of dream logic, is a key link between Gregor's bodily images and his mental processes, and in turn creates links with modernity. The mental processes of Kafka's protagonist are often very different from those we would subjectively define as normal. His reaction to the change, the way he responds and his initial struggle and then succumbing to his new animalistic and radicalized ideas show us many different points of view regarding modernity. We are invited to think only of the mind in Kafka's tale as the normal body is eliminated, all the emphasis is placed on the mind and the decisions made, Gregor's changing thought processes and adaptations. Lillian Feder describes madness, in her study on 'Madness in Literature', as "a state in which unconscious processes predominate over conscious processes"11. Feder argues that madness in literature is actually representative of many things besides itself: madness can reflect on a multitude of cultural issues and can also be read as a rejection or break with these social norms; the physical state of madness is representative of a personal dominion over the surrounding realities, and this is how Kafka manages to draw connections between his physical representation of Gregor and his mentality towards modernity. Its unconscious processes, the thoughts that go on behind what we see as obvious – the animalistic body – are what reveal intuition and truth, as was often thought of those who were once considered crazy. Lu Kafka also using this basis to comment on the changing construction of modernity and the acceptance, even welcoming, of the madman, the., 1980.