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The White Man's Burden

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The White Man's Burden
Kipling’s poem is condensed with rhetoric and one of the key devices is ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is the belief in inherent superiority of one’s own group and culture. “The White Man’s Burden” is based on white supremacy and the title itself is an example of ethnocentrism. For something to a burden of someone it will have to be a load and a load weighs people down. Kipling obviously compares the slaves to a load. Therefore, he states that they are lesser compared to Americans. Which means the whites are superior. Within line 8 he calls the Filipinos “Half-devil and half-child.” Due to the residence of the Philippines not worshiping the same god as him. Kipling believes that they are half-devil. They are not made out to be completely demonic.

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