"Medicine" tells the story of a tea-shop owner, Hua Laoshuan, who buys a steamed bun soaked in the blood of an executed revolutionary in hopes of curing his son's tuberculosis. The story is dense with images, including blood, the autumn dawn, the graveyard, and a wreath placed on a grave. Students are quick to label these as symbols, and the real grading question is whether they can explain what each one does.

A common weakness in symbolism essays is the one-to-one translation, where a student writes that the bun represents ignorance and moves on. That statement may be partly true, but it stops before explaining how the image works within the story's events. Strong feedback asks what the symbol reveals about the characters who touch it and why Lu Xun placed it at that moment.

Because the story has two families and two deaths, it also offers a good chance to teach structure. Students who notice that the plot is split between the Hua household and the mother of the executed man can write richer essays about parallel construction. You can reward that observation even when the student's reading of individual symbols is still developing.

Separate interpretation from evidence

One of the most helpful distinctions you can teach is the difference between what the text states and what the student infers. When the narration describes the crowd craning their necks like ducks pulled upward by an invisible hand, the observation is textual, while the claim that it shows mindless spectatorship is interpretive. Asking students to label which sentences do which work improves clarity quickly.

• Quote the exact image before interpreting it
• Explain the effect on the characters, not only the reader
• Connect the image to at least one other moment in the story
• Avoid claiming that a symbol means only one thing
• Tie the interpretation back to the thesis in the closing sentence

Grade the handling of the ending

The final scene at the graves, where the two mothers meet and a crow refuses to fly up at the wreath, is the part students argue about most. Some read it as hopeful, others as bleak, and many cannot decide. Rather than rewarding a particular answer, give credit to essays that acknowledge the ambiguity and still commit to a defensible position.

Invite students to compare their interpretation with a classmate's during a short peer discussion before they write. Hearing a different reading often forces them to sharpen their own evidence. You may find that the final essays are more nuanced because students have already defended or revised their view aloud.

Help students use context without overusing it

The story was written in the early 1920s, and Lu Xun's own history with medicine gives students an attractive biographical hook. It is fine for an essay to mention that background, but it should not replace analysis of the story itself. Feedback can remind students that context supports a claim and that the claim still has to be proved from the text.

A useful rule of thumb is to allow one context sentence per body paragraph, followed by a sentence that ties it directly to a quotation. This keeps the historical material focused and gives you a clear target when grading. Students who follow the rule usually produce tighter, more persuasive essays.

Plan for a revision pass

Symbolism essays improve dramatically with a second draft because students often discover their best idea in the last paragraph. Ask them to move that idea to the introduction and rebuild the essay around it. This single revision task teaches more about thesis development than most direct lessons.

When time is limited, grade the revision only on the new thesis and the two paragraphs that support it. That narrower focus lets you give high-quality feedback without rereading entire essays. Students tend to appreciate the clear expectation as well.