A little incident summary by Lu Hsun

 

“A Little Incident”

                     _Lu Hsun

BEING HUMAN IS GIVEN. BUT KEEPING OUR
HUMANITY IS A CHOICE.

The story "A Little Incident" was written by Lu Hsun. He was a Chinese writer, essayist, poet and literary critic. In this story, the writer narrates the mentality of people who are not aware of others pains and sufferings. Even they are not ready to listen and help them. In this materialistic world, people mind are occupied by technology. This leads to the un empathetic situations in the world. The writer tries to convey the importance of empathy and helping tendency by one little incident.

The Incident in Narrator’s Life:

The narrator talks about an incident that happened in six years before when he came to the capital from the village. During that time, many events are occurred known as  ”affairs of the state”. In our life we had seen or heard lot of things that changed and affected our heart but most probably we doesn’t have a strong impact on them and we forget that events by the running of time. But one little incident alone is deep with meaning to the narrator. He is unable to forget the incident even now. The narrator begins, it was a winter day in the sixth year of the Republic and a strong Northern wind blew furiously. He had to be wake up early and on the way to duties and encountered rarely anyone. After much difficulty, he finally succeeded in hiring a rickshaw. He told the puller to take him to the southern gate. The wind moderated its fury and its wake the streets were left clean of the loose dust. The puller ran quickly and approached near to the south gate. At the time, somebody ran in front of them and got entangled in the rickshaw and fell down to the ground.

The Rickshaw Met With Accident:

 The rickshaw suddenly met with accident. It was a woman with streaks of white in her hair and she wore ragged clothes. The woman suddenly came from the side of the street and directly crossed in front of them. The puller tried to stop the rickshaw but they caught with accident. Fortunately, the puller slowed his rickshaw otherwise she would have been injured. The narrator was irritated because the rickshaw puller stopped the rickshaw and helped the woman. The narrator thought it might delay his journey. Otherwise, he did not hear and care about her.

The Rickshaw Puller’s Action:

The puller did not hesitate for a moment after the old woman said that she was injured. He helped the woman and walked carefully ahead with her. The narrator was surprised by the action of the puller. He took that injured woman to the police station. No one was there and nobody noticed the accident but
the puller was honest and he did not tried to escape. Instead of that, he helped that woman.

 Sudden Change in Narrator’s Mind:

After that, the narrator experienced a curious sensation. He didn’t know but he suddenly felt a bodily pressure which came from rickshaw puller’s direction. It seemed almost pushed out from all the littleness that hid under his gown. He felt week, blood frozen, stunned, thoughtless and sat motionless until he saw an officer emerged from police station. The police man said to the narrator “get another rickshaw”. The narrator without thinking rushed his hands into his pocket and took a handful of copper coins and said the policeman to gave to the puller. But he cannot understood why he was done like that.

The narrator till now remembered that experience strongly remains in his memory. He felt shamed and tried to better himself. This little incident teaches the lesson to the narrator which is memorable for all his lifetime. An educated young man from the upper social class learns a valuable lesson of humanity from a simple rickshaw man. It also shows people must be courteous, considerate and caring among people instead of being selfish and thoughtless.