Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out Analysis

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It is not everyday that a human being is offered another chance at life after death. Mo Yan’s protagonist, Ximen Nao, of the novel Life and Death are Wearing Me Out, experiences a day unlike any other when he receives a blessing to return to earth after having faced bloody execution; his return to the world of the living, however, did not go as intended. With every tantalizing offer, there existed a set of terms and conditions. Without awareness of the aforementioned terms, Ximen Nao cursed himself with the blessing he received. This novel tugs at readers’ senses of morality and of perspective.

Ximen Nao was a beneficiary of the pre-Communist revolution and of the Nationalist party; successful and self-made, he was not a proponent for the