What Is Kipling's View Of Imperialism

English journalist, Joseph Rudyard Kipling used his writing to express his complicated views on the expansion of countries and Empires. The Man Who Would Be King, his most famous work, tells the story of two British adventurers and their desire to become kings of a remote part of Afghanistan. The story is told through the eyes of an unnamed narrator and direct quotes from one of the adventurers, Peachy Carnehan. Though Kipling’s other ambiguous works would suggest he may have had a bitter view of imperialism and the British Empire, I think The Man Who Would Be King and other historical pieces by Kipling would suggest a more complex view. Historical connections in the novella and the elements of his novella indicate this.

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Literary critics often find it worth noting that his views on imperialism and Jingoism were so controversial at the time that his works are normally paraded as satirical or housing an underlying theme. His views regarding imperialism and the message behind another of his works that drew parallels from The Man Who Would Be King were validated in a letter written to an American soldier. “For you see, you are on the threshold of your work which, thank God, is the white man’s work, the business of introducing a sane and orderly administration into the dark places of the earth that lie to your hand…” he wrote. He continues to explain that much like in The Man Who Would Be King, you will return broken, unenthusiastic, yet the goal you set out to complete will have been fulfilled. However, it lays in the hands of the natives to continue your plans which is where the weakness of imperialism and expansion lay. This can be drawn back to The Man Who Would Be King, where Dravot entrusts the message of his Empire only in the hands of Peachy because he is white. The same idea can be seen in final stanza of The White Man’s Burden and even in the beginning of the Jungle