The Man Who Would Be King Analysis

The Once and Future King, or King Arthur, is a legend that is, despite its age, known by all. Everyone has heard of King Arthur and his loyal knights that make up the Round Table, but the rest of the famous legend is less known. If asked about Arthur’s parentage or birthplace, most people would not know. How many people can name off Arthur’s knights? Everyone knows Arthur’s name, but the details are less defined. Arthurian legend has many parts, the first being how Arthur came into being, then the most well-known part of the legend, but there is also his famous knights, the possibility of a historical Arthur, and how the legend has evolved over the ages.

1. how do carnehan and dravot’s first encounters with kipling (the character) compare to their visit to kipling’s newspaper office collectively? what do you learn about carnehan and dravot via their actions?

Mr. P is thinking about eating him. At this instance Wart has enough time to turn around and swim away just in the nick-of-time to escape from Mr. P.

A main strength of this book is the authors eye for non-judgment, detail, discussing human behavior through power. An example of this would be an incident when the governor was injured in the novel. The governor was wounded by a spear thrown at him and the British interpretation was that the British believed an Australian naïve threw a spear at the enemy in simple panic (M, 2012). Clendinnen does not agree with this interpretation because there are not enough details to verify the reason. The explanation is based off an assumption and the reputation of the Australian natives that the British believe in. Even though Clendinnen does not know the motive behind the throwing the spear she does suggest an explanation based off Australian history where Australians performed a ritual to humble a person who had hurt them without destroying their larger alliance with him (M, 2012). Clendinnen also paints a picture for the reader with her vivid choice of words. With detail, she discusses the viewpoint from an Australian native hiding a bush observing the new people stepping on their land, wondering

India was under imperialistic rule by the British Empire or the “Bristish Raj” from 1858 to 1947.The region under British control—commonly called “India” in the British period included areas directly administered by the United Kingdom as well as the “princely states” ruled by individual rulers under the paramount of the British throne. In my recent visit to London precious jewels and Indian made goods are displaced in Windsor castle under high security. Most of the goods accumulated from India were under Queen Victoria’s reign; the other monarchs who were reigning during this imperialistic time were Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII, and George VI. W.E.B Dubois writes in “the Souls of White Folks,” “We see Europe’s greatest sin precisely where we found Africa’s and Asia’s,—in human hatred, the despising of men; with this difference, however: Europe has the awful lesson of the past before her, has the splendid results of widened areas of tolerance, sympathy, and love among men, and she faces a greater, an infinitely greater, world of men than any preceding civilization ever faced.” England took advantage of its darker counterparts by showing superiority through color, religion, and technological advances.

1. According to Kipling, and in your own words, what was the "White Man's Burden?"

land in the north of England after both the Earl and Anne died. He was

Rudyard Kipling's "The Man who Would Be King" deals with man's ability to rule. The character Dravot's success and failure in ruling derives from the perception of him as a god, instead of a king. Kipling uses the perception of Dravot as a god to show that though a king can rule as a god, he becomes a king by being human.

However, some westerners actually genuinely thought that they should help and westernize the inferior countries of the world. The British went into Africa, thinking that it was their duty to spread their advances of medicine, law, western civilization, and the Christian religion. This was proved to be embraced in the "anthem of imperialism," called the White Man's Burden by Rudyard Kipling. He expressed in the poem that the duty of the "white man" was to teach and help the people who they cast the inferior rank to. However, it is hard to believe that this was Britain's most important goal in their imperialism.

The poem makes clear Kipling's view of attitudes that allowed colonialism to proceed. Although a belief in the virtues of empire was widespread at the time, there were also many dissenters; the publication of the poem caused a flurry of arguments from both sides, most notably from Mark Twain and Henry James. Mark Twain asserted that Kipling wrote the poem to help persuade many doubting Americans to seize the Philippines, which seemed to be a fair point of view for that time period. In the New York Herald, October 15, 1900, Twain describes his transformation and political awakening, in the context of the Philippine-American War. He recognizes his transformation from being Pro- imperialist to Anti- imperialist. Many Anti-imperialists like Mark Twain acted on the popularity of the poem to attack the McKinley’s policies as too great a "burden" or

At the close of the 19th century Rudyard Kipling preserved the prevailing attitude of Britain’s intellectual elite in a poem - “The White Man’s Burden”. In his work Kipling confirms the hubris of a generation of Britons who were entirely convinced that they were culturally, rationally, and morally superior to the “new-caught…Half-devil and half-child” natives of the British colonies. This belief in the superiority of western values manifested in the flight of thousands of philanthropically minded Victorians across the British Empire. These emigrants consisted of a section of society driven to do their duty and fulfil the “national

The story of “Rikki-tikki-tavi” directly describes the English present in India and also the idea of domestication. The story “The White Seal,” exemplifies how India’s resources were taken and the brutality of the natives being forced from their homes by the British. Imperialistic ideas are visible throughout the novel as

Kim gives a vivid picture of the complexities in India under British rule. It shows the life of the bazaar mystics, of the natives, of the British military. There is a great deal of action and movement, for Kipling's vast canvas painted in full detail. The dialogue in the novel makes use of Indian phrases translated by the author, they give the flavor of native speech in India. They are also touches of the native behavior and shrewdness.

Kipling uses Daniel Dravot’s ultimate downfall as a representation of the downfall of the British Empire. Much like Dravot, the Empire was very prideful and powerful. They wanted to expand and expand, believing that their mighty empire was invincible. Ultimately, they overextended, becoming power-crazy, and it led to their demise. Dravot became engulfed with it, leading him to a similar end. This parallel was shown when Carnehan says “Therefore, such as it is, we will let it alone, and go away to some other place where a man isn’t crowded and can come to his own. Therefore, we are

Very early on in the novel, the reader is shown the sheer effort the British have put into keeping themselves separated from the natives of the land over which they rule. On the rise above the city of Chandrapore they build an entire community for themselves that is shielded from the native land, and physically above the native population. This lends much credence to the idea that the British felt they were better than, or above, the native peoples (Forster 4). There are homes, gardens, and even a community club where it would be almost impossible for a person to tell that they were in India. Everything is modeled around making it seem like they are still in their homeland of England. This separation from the native