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essay, research paper: kipling

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If you need high quality, fresh and competent research / writing done on the subject of literature: george orwell, use the professional writing service offered by our company. In contemporary times, much criticism has been placed upon rudyard kipling for his support of british imperialism george orwell went so far as to call him the prophet of british imperialism during its expansionist phase. To be sure, a considerable portion of kipling's works were written in celebration and support of imperial expansion, but it is short sighted to simply label him as an imperial propagandist or apologist. Two of his most oft condemned poems, recessional and the white man's burden, actually were used by both sides of the colonial issue at the time.1 a reading of recessional, taken in the context of the prevailing attitudes of the time, seems to indicate that it is a piece about hubris rather than a promotion of the empire.

And the burden that kipling writes on, while patronizing, was indeed a genuine burden.2 the fact that the british empire went far in alleviating famine and disease in the conquered territories should not be ignored. It is beyond a doubt, however, that kipling was convinced of britain's superiority in the world. In for all we have and are, for instance, the reader is convinced with the last two lines, what stands if freedom fall?/who dies if england live? kipling was not by far the most vociferous of the jingoists having been somewhat of an outsider all for his life, he showed great sympathy for those whose lives were wasted in the expansion of the empire, and criticized the imperial machinery that used them. His poetry as told by the common british soldiers show his ability maintain his status as poet laureate of the empire while telling the stories of its victims, and at times, condemning it for the way it treated those soldiers.

Kipling published barrack room ballads in 1890, and it immediately gained him great success in england. A collection of poems written in the voice of a london cockney, they display kipling's remarkable breadth of understanding of soldiers and soldiering during the victorian era. More fatalism and the unwillingness to speak directly of the horrors of battle surface in the widow's party. We broke a king and we built a road a courthouse stands where the regiment goad. Not only does kipling create a brutal contrast between the soldier's description a party and the battle that actually took place, he injects a small amount of disgust that good young men died, all for the purpose of expanding the empire into some godforsaken land that few in england had ever heard of.

More of this veiled disgust surfaces in the widow at windsor, written as a british soldier who does not see the empire as any kind of divine design: walk wide of the widow at windsor, for half of creation she owns: we have bought her the same with the sword 'an the flame, an we've salted it down with our bones. Poor beggars! it's blue with our bones! take 'old of the wings o' the mornin', an' flop round the earth till you're dead but you won't get away from the tune that they play to the blooming' old rag overhead. Poor beggars! it's not overhead! the theme that overrides in much of kipling's poetry, however, is his sympathy for the common soldier and his treatment by those he is serving. Tommy endures to this day as the best commentary on the relationship between the soldier and the non combatant public: i went into a theatre as sober as could be, they gave a drunk civilian room, but 'hadn't none for me they sent me to the gallery or round the music 'alls, but when it comes to fighting', lord! they'll shove me in the stalls.

We aren't no thin red 'heroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too, but single men in barracks, most remarkable like you an' if sometimes our conduct isn't all your fancy paints, why, single men in barracks don't grow into plaster saints. They had neither food nor money, they had neither service nor trade they were only shiftless soldiers, the last of the light brigade. The parallel between the plight of kipling's troopers and the homeless veterans in the united states today rings too true to overlook.

In english society, enlisting in the army had generally been a last resort before going to the poor house, and, as such, soldiers were not held in high esteem. With barrack room ballads, and with later writing, kipling established himself as the friend of the soldier, and brought new insight to the public into the life of the soldier. Kipling also brought a novel view in regard to the enemies of the empire as well. He often portrayed the indigenous peoples that fought the british in the same manner as the noble savage as in the ballad of east and west, or as unfortunate victims of circumstance.

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Referring to the sudanese, kipling writes in fuzzy wuzzy: then 'ere's to you, fuzzy wuzzy, an' the missing an' the kid our orders was to break you, and of course we went and did. We sloshed you with martinis, an' it wasn't hardly fair but for all the odds aging you, fuzzy wuz, you broke the square. He also introduces the concept of respect for the enemies of the empire, going so far as to state, if we 'hadn't lost some messmates we'd help you to deplore, implying that, from the soldier's view, respect for valiant conduct on the battlefield transcends any loyalty to the crown. Another piece, piet, also carries with it the idea that the british soldiers did not carry with them a great deal of loyalty to the empire, rather, they were simply paid to do a job, and set about doing it.

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Along the way, they were impressed by the manner in which their adversaries performed their jobs. Kipling moves from admiration to compassion as well, in a scene that could have come from our own civil war: i've heard him crying from the ground like abel's blood of old, an' skirmished out to look, an' found, the beggar nearly cold. I've waited on 'till 'e was dead which couldn't help him much , but many grateful things piet said to me for doing such.

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