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A review by sbotelho
The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling
4.0
This is a story written in 1888 that shows the Victorian and English colonialist mentality. It has the prejudice against countries/cultures considered inferior to the superior European - specially the English one - and the arrogance that goes with it.
Two men decide to go to a place in which now belongs to Afghanistan to become kings, thinking that by bringing their superior guns and intelligence they can easily trick the locals and become kings. Dravot is more ambitious than the companion Carnehan who follows along to the ride. They meet this journalist to whom they tell the story and then go to their adventure.
In the beginning they accomplish their goal but then, of course, things go very badly for them. One ends up dead and the other comes back to tell the story to the journalist and end up dying as well. .
The author's moral of the story seems to be blaming women (or lusting after them) and departure from the true religion - with Dravot wanting to become a God - for the bad things that happen and loss of their authority and everything they've conquered. There is no reflection about how wrong it is to assume your culture is superior to other, but rather that there is goodness in conquering other "inferior" cultures that end up benefiting from the good things the superior British bring.
There is also the racism of thinking that the people they've conquered are not as bad because they are not as dark as the other people the British have conquered. There is denial as well since at a certain point, Dravot talks about bathing someone in hot water several times so they would become as white as them. If the people around them were white, then no such method would be needed.
In all it's a very interesting tale and funny to see how these two idiots end up getting what they deserve in the end,.
Two men decide to go to a place in which now belongs to Afghanistan to become kings, thinking that by bringing their superior guns and intelligence they can easily trick the locals and become kings. Dravot is more ambitious than the companion Carnehan who follows along to the ride. They meet this journalist to whom they tell the story and then go to their adventure.
The author's moral of the story seems to be blaming women (or lusting after them) and departure from the true religion - with Dravot wanting to become a God - for the bad things that happen and loss of their authority and everything they've conquered. There is no reflection about how wrong it is to assume your culture is superior to other, but rather that there is goodness in conquering other "inferior" cultures that end up benefiting from the good things the superior British bring.
There is also the racism of thinking that the people they've conquered are not as bad because they are not as dark as the other people the British have conquered. There is denial as well since at a certain point, Dravot talks about bathing someone in hot water several times so they would become as white as them. If the people around them were white, then no such method would be needed.
In all it's a very interesting tale and funny to see how these two idiots end up getting what they deserve in the end,