1. I think that by writing The White Man’s Burden, Kipling meant that what man does, it eventually pays for. An example from the poem that shows how man ends up paying for imperialism is “But toil of serf and sweeper- / The tale of common things. / The ports ye shall not enter, / The roads ye shall not tread, / Go, make them with your living, / And mark them with your dead.” It shows how people would go to “imperialize” a part of the world, and because they did, war broke out and many lives were lost. When Kipling writes, “And when your goal is nearest / (The end for others sought) / Watch sloth and heathen folly / Bring all your hope to nought,” he could also be implying that hard work might have been put into imperialism, however, when they got to their goal of imperialism, he asked them to question if it was worth it, and they lost their hope because they realize what their greed has done (such as wars).
2. I think Kipling does justify imperialism because in his poem, The White Man’s Burden, he does say that men pay for what they have done, such as when he mentions “Take up the White Man's burden! / Have done with childish days- / The lightly-proffered laurel, / The easy ungrudged praise: /Comes now, to search your manhood / Through all the thankless years, / Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom, / The judgment of your peers.” This could explain how he shows mankind “paying their dues” for imperialism because he describes them as being judged, and their wisdom being cold, as if from their greed. Furthermore, I think he justifies imperialism with this phrase from his poem, “But toil of serf and sweeper- / The tale of common things. / The ports ye shall not enter, / The roads ye shall not tread, / Go, make them with your living, / And mark them with your dead.” I think this also show how he justified it because he, in a way, makes it seem as if they know that by extending their rule over foreign countries, they are going to lose something, even after they gain. Perhaps that is why he wrote, “To seek another's profit / And work another's gain.” That ties in to knowing they will lose something because when they “imperialized” that area, they could take over what it gained, in place of the lives they lost.
2. I think Kipling does justify imperialism because in his poem, The White Man’s Burden, he does say that men pay for what they have done, such as when he mentions “Take up the White Man's burden! / Have done with childish days- / The lightly-proffered laurel, / The easy ungrudged praise: /Comes now, to search your manhood / Through all the thankless years, / Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom, / The judgment of your peers.” This could explain how he shows mankind “paying their dues” for imperialism because he describes them as being judged, and their wisdom being cold, as if from their greed. Furthermore, I think he justifies imperialism with this phrase from his poem, “But toil of serf and sweeper- / The tale of common things. / The ports ye shall not enter, / The roads ye shall not tread, / Go, make them with your living, / And mark them with your dead.” I think this also show how he justified it because he, in a way, makes it seem as if they know that by extending their rule over foreign countries, they are going to lose something, even after they gain. Perhaps that is why he wrote, “To seek another's profit / And work another's gain.” That ties in to knowing they will lose something because when they “imperialized” that area, they could take over what it gained, in place of the lives they lost.
3. In my opinion, such justification would be so appealing because the “imperializer” or “the white man” has to now forever carry this burden. His cold wisdom, his greed, his gain, and his loss all add up and equal the burden that Kipling writes about. The White Man’s Burden would attract interest through this justification because of how, as it is stated, “Take up the White Man's burden- / Send forth the best ye breed- / Go, bind your sons to exile / To serve your captives' need; / To wait, in heavy harness, / On fluttered folk and wild- / Your new-caught sullen peoples, / Half devil and half child,” the effect that imperialism had, and what exactly it did to the “white man,” who was so overcome with greed, gain, wisdom and loss.
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