If I am understanding this correctly, the eating of man is a metaphor for taking advantage of other's labor? Such as the older brother extracting money from the tenants.
yes, but it's also literal. the thief from the Wolf-cub village probably was literally eaten, just like the revolutionary mentioned in the footnotes was a real person. He uses it as both a metaphor for social systems that exploit and destroy humanity, as well as literally as the ultimate indictment of Chinese society's moral degeneration.
There's a whole genre of fiction where the crazy protagonist has a clearer view of society than those sane people around him.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lu-xun/1918/04/x01.htm
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If I am understanding this correctly, the eating of man is a metaphor for taking advantage of other's labor? Such as the older brother extracting money from the tenants.
yes, but it's also literal. the thief from the Wolf-cub village probably was literally eaten, just like the revolutionary mentioned in the footnotes was a real person. He uses it as both a metaphor for social systems that exploit and destroy humanity, as well as literally as the ultimate indictment of Chinese society's moral degeneration.
I see. thank you.