Mabel
By Somerset Maugham
About W sommerset from Wikipedia
About W sommerset from Wikipedia
The amazing travels of a man and his hopeful wife across the far reaches of the British Empire.
mandag den 20. maj 2013
Lesson30 - White Man's Burden
Nedenfor finder I et uddrag af en kursist-besvarelse.
Meningen er at den skal kunne hjælpe jer med jeres arbejde til mdtl. eksamen, hvis I nu skulle være så heldig at trække en tekst med det pågældende tema.
Check også dette link
http://blellol.blogspot.dk/2013/01/british-empire.html
White Man’s Burden
Rudyard
Kipling
/Modern History Sourcebook
/Modern History Sourcebook
The white man’s burden
3: What are the
peoples of the colonies like? What is your reaction to this description?
Kipling describes the people of the colonies like
half-devil and half-child. He also writes that they are new-caught, sullen
people. At first I was surprised. You would think that it is the American who
would be the bad ones but Kipling makes it sound like it’s the peoples of the
colonies that are wrong.
9: How will the
colonial peoples react to the white man’s attempt to improve their lives?
They don’t react very well. They react with anger and
hate.
10: Explain the
meaning of the words ”light” and ”night” here: What do you associate with
those two words?
Light and night are opposites. It seems like the
Americans are trying to “help” the colonial peoples but they don’t want that
help.
13: How does
Kipling compare life in the home country (England) to life in the
Empire?
The life in the home country is much safer compared to
life in the empire. When they move from England to the Empire they go from
being boys to being men. They are forced to act like men now.
14: What would
”the judgment of your peers” be, if the white man did not take up his burden?
They have no choice. The white men can’t be weak and
that is also why Kipling calls it a burden. If the man doesn’t take up to his
burden his “friends” would judge him and consider him weak.
A: What is the white man’s burden?
The white man’s burden is that he is supposed to help
and make sure that the colonial peoples are doing well but that can be very
hard when the people don’t want help and fight against him. The job is very
hard and that is why Kipling calls it a burden.
B. How would you
describe Kipling’s attitude to the peoples of the colonies?
He doesn’t
like them and he even calls them half-devil and half-children. Maybe he feels
that the colonial people really needs help to get a higher standard of living
and he thinks that they are unfair and ungrateful to the white men whose job is
to help. But you can also understand the colonial people.
C.
How should white people behave towards the natives?
They should treat them with respect. It was their
country after all.
Lesson27 + 28 Shooting an Elephant
Nedenfor finder I et uddrag af en kursist-besvarelse.
Meningen er at den skal kunne hjælpe jer med jeres arbejde til mdtl. eksamen, hvis I nu skulle være så heldig at trække en tekst med det pågældende tema.
Meningen er at den skal kunne hjælpe jer med jeres arbejde til mdtl. eksamen, hvis I nu skulle være så heldig at trække en tekst med det pågældende tema.
Shooting an Elephant
George
Orwell -
/New Writing - 1936
/New Writing - 1936
1.
Paragraph 1, page 1:
-
How did the
Burmans feel about the British, and how did they express this?
-
Why did they
choose this way of expressing their feelings?
-
What was Orwell’s
reaction to this?
-
Look at his
formulations in lines 5, 8, 11: What do these passages tell you of his attitude
to them at the time?
The Burmans absolutely hated the
British, they did not mind showing them that either. This was shown by various
attempts of insults and mockery. They must have been very agitated by the
British intrusion of their country, and felt no other way of showing how
disgruntled they were, but to mock and insult the British. Orwell was very
insulted by this and was at the same time in turmoil because of his own desire
for a liberated independent Burma. Just by the fact that he mentions that the
priests, holy men, was the worst of them all, tells us that he was fed up with
the attitude of the Burmese people.
2.
Paragraph 2, page
1 to page 2, line 5: How did Orwell
feel about the British Empire, and why?
Orwell feels very upset about the
inner conflict he has towards the British Empire, on one hand he feels that the
British invasion has been wrong from the start, and on the other he feels
guilty for the things he have seen and experienced, the Empires “dirty work” as
he calls it. But he is as said very conflicted; he wants to get out of there as
soon as possible, not only because of his guilt, but also because of the
natives way of treating Europeans, their oppressors.
3.
Why did he feel a
(personal) intolerable sense of guilt (line 22)?
He feels this guilt because he was a
part of this oppression of the Burmese people, and he wanted nothing to do with
it.
4.
Why did he have to
think these critical thoughts in secret (line 17) and in utter silence (line
24)?
He has to hide these thoughts,
because he would not want his own government to think that he was a traitor of
his own country. He did not feel that he was allowed to sympathize with the
Burmese.
5.
Orwell says that
in theory he was ”for the Burmese and all against their oppressors” (line 17).
Compare this with Kipling’s attitude to the Empire.
As far as I have understood, Kipling
thought of the Empire as a necessity, where Orwell feels that the empire is
imposing, invading countries they should have no authority and presence in.
6.
Page 2: Summing up: How did Orwell’s thoughts and ideas
about the British Empire fit with real life as he experienced it in Burma?
As I see it, Orwell’s always thought
of Burma as a place where the British should not have invaded, but as he tells
us in the story, they as so many other, need authorities to take charge of
things, for an example the incident with the elephant. But Orwell felt as if
the Burmese population did not appreciate the British being in their country.
10. Page 3: What is
your reaction to the description of the dead Indian coolie? (Do we get any
details? What is the purpose of the description?)
Orwell describes the Indian coolie
very precisely, my first reaction to the description, was that he wanted to
visualize the horror and damage the elephant could inflict, and I think that
the fact that he tells us about the dead coolies crucified arms, is a
symbolism, maybe to show Christianity as an evil entry this society. It did in
some way barge in and “destroys” Burma as an elephant in the streets.
13. Page 3 lines 25 – 27: What do these lines show us about Orwell’s attitude to the Burmese
population?
He thinks of the Burmese as savages,
who wants nothing but destruction and chaos. Even though he in the start of the
text show sympathy towards the Burmese, he seems to somehow recent them as well
for their savage and ill-educated ways.
-----------
-----------
2.
What did he
conclude that he ought to do, and what did he base this conclusion on?
His conclusion is that he has to
shoot the elephant, not because he wants to, but because the immense crowd
expects him to do so.
4.
At this page
Orwell makes his important discovery of the real nature of imperialism – the
discovery he gave us advance notice of on page 2, lines 7 – 9. Find the key
formulations of Orwell’s insight into imperialism on this page.
In the very first paragraph on page
4, he mentions that it is a “very serious matter” to shoot a working elephant,
this working elephant is a symbol of the British imperialism in India. From a
long distance it might not look like it does a lot of harm, but when you look
at the British imperialism up close, like Orwell did, you see how the Empire
manipulates and “harvests” India for its resources and demolishes everything in
its way (just like the elephant) to gain influence and seize control.
5.
In line 29 we have
one of the key formulations. Did Orwell himself feel that his freedom had been
destroyed? (Think of his situation in general as well as of the incident with
the elephant.)
He felt as if he had no choice but
to shoot the elephant, the pressure of the crowd forced him to do so. His
freedom was taken away from his, not only by the Burmese (with the elephant
issue), but also with the British imperialists since he tells us how he does
not want to have the power to decide what is right or wrong for the Burmese,
but his government forces him to.
6.
In line 32 we have
another interesting formulation of what happens to the white man when he turns
imperialist: his face grows to fit a mask. How would you explain this?
He takes on the mask of the British
government, and the more he wears it (enforce their control on the Burmese) the
more it changes him to become what his government want him to become.
10. Look again at the last part of the description of the
dying elephant (page 6, the last paragraph to page 7, line 6): Can we
tell from this what effect the scene had on Orwell? Look especially at the
words he uses.
He clearly wants the elephant (the
empire) to die, but as the British Empire, it cannot easily be killed, it is
like a machine which cannot be stopped. It has affected him very deeply; you
can tell this by the phrases in the last paragraph where he tells us that he
could not stand it any longer.
11. A. Why is the description so long? (It is 1 whole
page!) B: Could the elephant’s death be a symbol of something?
It is as said above, clearly I
think, a symbol of the British Empire, he describes the elephants death for so
long, because he wants to demonstrate to us that the British Empire cannot be
defeated (or at least not easily).
12. Finally, concentrate on the last paragraph:
a.
What were the
reactions after the shooting of the elephant?
b.
Comment on the
reaction of the younger men
c.
What was Orwell’s
attitude to the coolie’s death?
d.
Look at the final
lines: What fact does Orwell repeat as his conclusion to the essay?
This was the “political aftermath”
of the whole episode; it is sort of a “round-up” to why it was okay to shoot
the elephant, or in translation; why it was okay to invade Burma. The reaction
was divided amongst the Europeans, Orwell says that the older ones said he was
right to shoot the elephant and the younger ones disagreed. The younger men’s
reaction shows us that they are more open to the idea of an Imperialistic
regime; they think that a few casualties are a small price to pay for a wealthy
British empire. Orwell justifies his actions by saying he was right to shoot
the coolie, because it was “necessary” for the greater good.
He repeats the fact that he has to
avoid looking a fool, as mentioned earlier in the text when he is approaching
the elephant.
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