The White Man's Burden Literary Analysis

Intro:
While there is plenty of evidence for Kipling’s racism and imperialism in both Kim and White Man’s Burden, there is more to the story than simple labels can describe. In Kim Kipling’s descriptions of native Indians is both curious and compassionate, the Indian characters are more interesting than the English. Kim’s character himself was born, like Kipling, in India under British rule and through the story Kim struggles between the culture of India and his British heritage. In the end, although Kim was raised almost solely by Indians in an Indian culture, he is still inherently full of imperialist tendencies that Kipling describes in The White Man's Burden. This is possibly descriptive of Kipling’s own views, in that he appreciated the
When Reverend Bennett and Father Victor first encounter Kim they assume he is a native thief, “What were you doing? You're a thief. Choor? Mallum?” (Kipling). It is not until they discover that he is the son of O’Hara that they have any care or interest in him and Kim’s non-Christian and non-British mannerisms and appearance shock them “Powers of Darkness below, what a country! . . . It's O'Hara's boy, sure enough. O'Hara's boy leagued with all the Powers of Darkness” (Kipling). In this encounter Father Victor repeatedly disrespects the lama and through the novel English characters display great ignorance and lack of care towards native customs. When Kim resists the idea of becoming a soldier, Reverend Bennett takes on an almost imperialist attitude towards him, “You will be what you're told to be, and you should be grateful that we're going to help you” (Kipling). Even though Kim is English by birth, he is culturally very different and this is seen as almost more of a problem than if Kim were Indian. If Kipling was simply racist and full of imperialist tendencies, why would he have written British characters such as these in such a negative