What Was The White Man's Burden

Weighed down, overwhelmed, accountability, and responsibility. These are all aspects of having a burden, but what exactly is the burden of a white man? Labor? Money? Extreme temperatures? No, far from it actually. In the poem the White Man’s Burden, Kipling portrays the “Burden” as having to civilize the uncultured heathens of Africa. The family in The Poisonwood Bible have this particular burden. However, the family is divided on how they think about this so called “burden”.

The reading of The white man’s burden is written by Rudyard Kipling. In this poem is he starts off by saying how white people to "Send forth the best ye breed" to go into "exile" and help their "captives." Some of the other main points stated were how white people should use small words and patiently repeat themselves in order to help the others such as black people in understanding them talking. Some other points

Starting in the mid-nineteenth century, Europeans developed a superiority complex when comparing themselves to the people of less-developed nations. During the age of imperialism, many European powers ventured into Asian, African, and South American lands in order to colonize and impose the rules of Western society. Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “The White Man’s Burden”, properly depicted the racist ideals that developed with imperialism, as Europeans believed it was their duty to civilize the people they viewed as savages. Europeans held a racially superior point of view for almost an entire century. In the latter half of the twentieth century, however, waves of immigrants began flooding into various European nations. This caused the perception

“Take up the white man’s burden--send forth the best ye breed--Go bind your sons to exile to serve your captives’ need…” -Rudyard Kipling, The White Man’s Burden, 1897

The white man’s burden was to convert them into Christianity in order to make them ‘better’. However, I believe the white man’s burden was selfishly driven and ended with the Ibo people left in chaos. The white man’s burden is explained as “[A] hundred times made plain - To seek another’s profit - And work another’s gain” (Lines 14-16). In his poem, Kipling also saw the white man’s burden as greedy. When he says, “To seek another’s profit” (Line 15). He believes that the white people had other motives besides simply spreading their religion. They wanted to take advantage of the abundance of resources the people had. This was a contributor to things falling apart because the white people not only brought their beliefs about God, but also about how to live, and how things should be ruled. They got so power hungry because they knew once they had fully taken the Ibo people over, they could not only take away their faith, but also their land and their

The infamous poem by Rudyard Kipling captures that feeling if taken literally. Titled “The White Man’s Burden” it

Cultural attitudes greatly fueled national competition. For example, Rudyard Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden" showed the superiority of the white Europeans towards the Africans (Document F: Rudyard Kipling, "The White Man's Burden," 1899). This superiority shown illustrates the need Europeans felt to help the Africans and improve their conditions. Also, John Ruskin mentioned in a lecture that England need to teach their future African colonists (Document B: John Ruskin, lecture at Oxford University, February 8, 1870). This shows that the Europeans believed that colonization could be a way to educate the Africans, thus imperialism. These cultural attitudes were the roots of

The white man’s burden is an idea that the white men have a job to take care of the uncivilized beings and develop them to be a more socially endowed race. Their belief that they are superior to the natives is where this is rooted. This idea excused racism and portrayed it as more of a positive element in our society, rather than the destructive mechanism that it actually is. It also caused white men to truly believe that they are better than any other race out there. In “Shooting an Elephant,” by George Orwell, the narrator’s brain is subconsciously imbedded with this notion. He claims to be opposed to imperialism and everything about it while also hating his job and the people associated with it. These two things cannot go hand in hand.

How Effective is Black Like Me? John Howard Griffin was a writer in the 20th Century. From the early 1940’s he began writing about controversial racial issues in Newspaper articles, and in 1961 he published Black Like Me. The book was written during a time of extreme racial segregation in America, especially in the Southern states.

One of the most philosophical and literary arguments of all time was between two prominent and powerful men representing the same race. Despite these two great men’s literary talents in reading and in writing; they have many differences with how the African-American man should live economically, politically, and socially. Nonetheless, DuBois’s approach of resilience reaches out to many more African-Americans because DuBois believes now is the time for a change.

In Gwendolyn Brooks's poem, the white troops had their orders but the Negroes looked like men, Brooks writes from the perspective of white troops during World War II, as they have their first encounter with African American troops on their side. Throughout the poem, Brooks contrasts what the white troops initially believed and what they are physically observing and experiencing in order to convey that despite doubts regarding segregation that arose in war, segregation as a whole is wholly unimpacted.

Europeans contained the belief that their customs and religious values were the sole method in living. Missionaries from throughout Europe desired to journey to foreign lands in order to teach the civilized and Christian ways of living to the natives. Often missionaries were in competition for converts, and thus supplied imperialism with other drives (Patterson, par. 10). The Social Darwinist ideas were prevalent in this time. The Europeans believed in the survival of the fittest, and it was generally accepted that the Anglo-Saxons were the superior race. In the 1890’s Rudyard Kipling published “Whiteman’s Burden”. This poem defines the white man as responsible for civilizing the “others”. It is supportive of the imperialism of other countries

Rudyard Kipling’s attitude towards the British Empire was significantly negative. The novella essentially expressed Kipling’s feelings towards British Imperialism and his overall frustration with the British Empire. However, there are several positive qualities of the Empire pointed out by Kipling several times throughout his novella. Despite his mixed feelings, he is ultimately dissatisfied with the British Empire, claiming that it is “the White Man’s Burden”. Kipling was a steadfast imperialist, living in a time of British domination and oppression. He shared similar outlooks with the natives, that the majority of them were oppressed by the government and the wealthy. The upper class was greedy and wanted working men to do all of the work for them so that they could reap the profits. Kipling conveys his attitude towards British Imperialism through parallelism and figurative language.

Rudyard Kipling was an English writer well known for a variety of works like 'Just So Stories’, 'The Jungle Book,’ and ‘The White Man Burden.’ He got the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature. Rudyard Kipling's, "The White Mans Burden" is an unequivocal articulation of social Darwinism. Amid the Industrial Revolution Americans and Europeans Were starting to Expand into Africa. They

     In one of his most famous poems, Rudyard Kipling said, "Take up the white man's burden!" (146). He was only one of many who believed in the virtues of imperialism in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. During that period, imperialism was on the rise, and Africa was being swallowed up by competing European nations. The imperialists had many arguments supporting imperialism. They said it was beneficial and, in some cases, essential. Their arguments did not satisfy everyone, but that did not bother them. The justifications ranged from economics to social services, while touching on everything else in between (Hayes 222-3).