“White Man’s Burden” Essay - 905 Words

Rudyard Kipling’s 1899 poem â€Å"The White Man’s Burden† epitomizes the European man’s view on imperialism, Euro-centrism and social Darwinism. Four centuries before 1899, such ideas were briefly hinted in the letter from Christopher Columbus to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, however by 1899 these attitudes strengthened and developed fully into their complete meaning. The U.S and Europe’s imperialism in the nineteenth century were the most influential ever in the history of human civilization. The immense motive for imperialism came from social factors including religion and Social Darwinism. Missionaries frequently rushed to Africa and Asia to convert its people to Christianity. On the other hand, social Darwinism argued the survival of†¦show more content†¦Taking care indicates improvement of their culture until they reach that of the Euro-American standards which makes it clear that â€Å"The White man’s Burden† proposes that the phase after exploration is the self-centered education of the colonial population. The same month Kiplings poem was published, the Treaty of Paris was ratified and the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam were acquired by the United States while Cuba remained occupied by the military. Advocates of this acquisition gravitated to the poem and popularized it as the literary voice of benevolent assimilation. The poem makes clear Kiplings view of attitudes that allowed colonialism to proceed. Although a belief in the virtues of empire was widespread at the time, there were also many dissenters; the publication of the poem caus ed a flurry of arguments from both sides, most notably from Mark Twain and Henry James. Mark Twain asserted that Kipling wrote the poem to help persuade many doubting Americans to seize the Philippines, which seemed to be a fair point of view for that time period. In the New York Herald, October 15, 1900, Twain describes his transformation and political awakening, in the context of the Philippine-American War. He recognizes his transformation from being Pro- imperialist to Anti- imperialist. Many Anti-imperialists like Mark Twain acted on the popularity of the poem to attack the McKinley’s policies as too great a burden orShow MoreRelatedEssay of the White Mans Burden976 Words   |  4 PagesEssay of â€Å"The White Man’s Burden† (1980), Jan Needle. This is a short story by Jan Needle. We follow the teenager Tony Robertson, who really wants to be friends with immigrants and thinks very positive of the multi-cultural society. It is pretty ironic that although his amiable behavior, two Paki-stanis eventually end up beating him up. Tony is liberal, he thinks that everyone should have the same chances, and he doesn’t prejudice anyone. â€Å"He’d brought Tony up to be liberal, to reckon onRead MoreEssay The White Mans Burden and The Recessional529 Words   |  3 PagesThe White Mans Burden and The Recessional In â€Å"The White Man’s Burden† and in â€Å"The Recessional†, Kipling outlines his idealistic concept of empire which is based on service and sacrifice. England sends some of their best man to defend and help India. The white man has the mission to civilize the Indians. It is their responsibility to culture them, to put them on the right path. They are there to make India a better place to live and bring the population up to date on the style of living. ThisRead MoreThe White Mans Burden1574 Words   |  7 PagesWhat was once perceived to be ‘the white man’s burden’ has engulfed all developed nations – we’re all quixotic fools of imperialism. If you think that you’ve heard of ‘the white man’s burden’ before you’re correct, it is a poetic piece by Kipling; written in 1898 for the purpose of the US (United States). The finale verse is poignant to all: Take up the white man’s burden, have done with childish days, the lighter proffered laurel, the easy, ungrudged praise. Comes now, to search your manhood throughRead MoreImperialism: the White Mans Burden890 Words   |  4 PagesImperialism: The White Mans Burden and the The Real White Mans Burden Well in order to show how imperialism was used in the nature of those two poems, I have to define it. Imperialism is the extension of sovereignty or control by one people or state over another. The objective is the exploitation of the controlled people or state. Imperialism has four major components: economic, military (strategic), political, and humanitarian. Imperialist powers are not bound to follow the laws, internationalRead MoreWhite Mans Burden1523 Words   |  7 PagesWhite Man s Burden The movie we watched in class was called White Man s Burden. According to some sociologists the white man s burden is an unwanted burden that white men, who are in the upper part of society, must bring the minority classes up to their status. For example, if it were applied today white folks would have to help bring black folks up into a higher class. While this theory was used many years ago, it is still in consideration today. This movie took a very unique approachRead MoreEssay on Colonialism and Imperialism - The White Mans Burden1602 Words   |  7 PagesImperialism: The White Mans Burden      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In one of his most famous poems, Rudyard Kipling said, Take up the white mans burden! (146). He was only one of many who believed in the virtues of imperialism in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. During that period, imperialism was on the rise, and Africa was being swallowed up by competing European nations. The imperialists had many arguments supporting imperialism. They said it was beneficial and, in some cases, essentialRead MoreAnalysis Of Conrad s The Heart Of Darkness794 Words   |  4 Pagesan ox to till his field. When the people â€Å"sickened, became inefficient†, they went to a grove to die (Conrad). Another stereotype shown was that imperialism hurts the conquerors and those being conquered. â€Å"White Man’s Burden† by Rudyard Kipling was originally titled â€Å"The White Man s Burden: The United States and The Philippine Islands† (GMU). America took control of the Philippine government. This led to political turmoil which escalated into the Philippine-American war. In the the war, thousandsRead MoreThe Height Of Colonialism Between The 18th And 20th Century2818 Words   |  12 Pagespaintings and writings, helped construct this image of native populations as lesser beings. One such piece, a poem â€Å"The White Man’s Burden† written by English poet Rudyard Kipling in 1899 was originally written to address the dangers of empire building, but has also been taken at face value and used by imperialists as a way to promote colonialism as a noble cause: Take up the White Man s burden Send forth the best ye breed Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives need; To wait in heavy harnessRead More Comparing Colonialism and Imperialism in Heart of Darkness and Kiplings Poetry1515 Words   |  7 PagesImperialism in Heart of Darkness and Kiplings Poetry   Ã‚  Ã‚   Imperialism sprung from an altruistic and unselfish aim to take up the white mans burden1 and â€Å"wean [the] ignorant millions from their horrid ways.†2 These two citations are, of course, from Kipling’s â€Å"White Man’s Burden† and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, respectively, and they splendidly encompass what British and European imperialism was about – at least seen from the late-nineteenth century point of view. This essay seeks to exploreRead MoreHeart of Darkness Imperialism, Hegemony, and Othering1570 Words   |  7 Pagesangry, he could have been killed. He simply did not have a win- win situation. So he chose what he thought was best for him. One of the more famous lines in â€Å"Shooting an Elephant† is, â€Å"When the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys.† What I perceived from this quote was when a white man becomes tyrant he destroys his own free will. Orwell will constantly be doing what he thinks the Burmans want. He will live as a fake. When he put himself in a hierarchy over the Burmans and

Comparison of Animism and Hinduism Essay - 1040 Words

Edward Burnett Tylor was born in 1832 and passed away in the year 1917. He was the founder of modern academic discipline of anthropology. Tylor belonged to a generation of academics and was raised in a religious family. He was a well-educated individual who began his own career in fieldwork in Mexico and ended up receiving and honorary doctorate from Oxford University where he was the keeper of the Museum. He eventually became the first Professor of Anthropology in Britain and later retired in 1909. Tylor had made different opinions on religion. He defined culture as a complex whole that consists of many attributes. Tylor also came up with an evolutionary view. This view was concerning culture and development and the fact that animism was†¦show more content†¦These two concepts are very similar to the beliefs of Hinduism. In Hinduism, they believe to continue life after death. To understand this concept you have to first grasp the idea of the soul. In Hinduism people believe in the existence of the soul. They believe the soul to be external, invisible and unchanging. Atman in Hinduism means soul in English. The believed the concept of soul (atman) to be very important in human life. Just like Animism the atman or soul is a crucial part of the human body and controls the power within. Animism is closely related to the concepts of Hinduism. In Hinduism most individuals believe that there is life after death, and that the soul(atman) doesn’t rest in peace if the spirit is displeased. As for Animism it has a similar concept. The second dogma about Animism which is the upward to the rank of powerful deities is also a similar theory comparing to Hinduism. Both theories believe in deities, which are is a supernatural, immortal being. According to Tylor he also believed that their sprits and souls not only existed in people but also existed in animals, plants and inanimate objects. He pictured these souls as vapors or shadows going from one body to another. ThisShow MoreRelated An Analytical Approach to Truth and Religion Essays6441 Words   |  26 Pagesscholars working in religious studies were presented in such a way as if they referred to truth in religion in general. However, their interest is in fact mostly (if not exclusively) restricted to the great religions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism which all have well developed doctrines. The approach to the problem was additionally determined by the western concept of truth and the Christian view of religion. Earlier Occidental scholars retained the doctrinal model of religionRead MoreEssay on Change Analysis Chart Postclassical (600-1450 C.E.)8730 Words   |  35 PagesHeaven (Natalie) Direct Comparison: †¢ As seen by the examples of Emperor Yang Jian and Hongwu, who reigned almost eight centuries apart, the Mandate of Heaven was used as a means to create a centralized bureaucracy, and construct a more controlled, yet efficient rule. Analysis: †¢ The continued use of the the Mandate of Heaven as a means of justification of rule and primacy of leadership throughout multiple centuries of Chinese dynastic rule demonstrates the Direct Comparison: Between the years

On Civil Liberties and the Redefinition of Freedom Free Essays

An appreciation of the civil liberties and basic freedoms enjoyed by the American individual, according to Eric Foner, would be impossible without a knowledge of how the American people—generation after generation—struggled to define and demarcate the boundaries of freedom and liberty. In â€Å"The Story of American Freedom,† Foner (2002) successfully applies a mà ©lange of analytical framework ranging from structural analysis, marxist dialectical and historical materialism; to feminist and postmodern criticism to prove that â€Å"freedom has always been a terrain of conflict, subject to multiple and competing interpretations.† By analyzing freedom from a historical narrative, he aims to show â€Å"how at different periods of American history different ideas of freedom have been conceived and implemented, and how the clash between dominant and dissenting views has constantly reshaped the idea’s meaning. We will write a custom essay sample on On Civil Liberties and the Redefinition of Freedom or any similar topic only for you Order Now ’’ And because of this, the discourse of American civil liberties—borne from the American people’s love affair with the idea of freedom—will only gain relevance by identifying the â€Å"the meanings of freedom; the social conditions that make it possible; and the boundaries of freedom — the definition, that is, of who is entitled to enjoy it (Foner, 2002).† â€Å"The Birth of Civil Liberties† Indeed, the notions of civil liberties in a given society are necessarily intertwined with its cherished concept of freedom. In the book’s eight chapter, entitled â€Å"The Birth of Civil Liberties,† Foner shows that the inception of the idea of civil liberties was the outcome of the tumultuous events and crisis prior and after the World War I: the United States’ participation in the war, the   paranoia produced by the emergence of Socialist Russia, and the Great Depression following shortly after the war ended. It was at this period, with the widespread poverty amidst the growth of the United States as a major Capitalist economy; and Progressivists’ disenchantment with the illusions of state benevolence after the whole scale arrest of left-wing intellectuals, that the paradigm shift from the dominant â€Å"freedom from† into â€Å"freedom to† occurred. The ideas of social scientists as Herbert Croly, John Dewey, and William Willoughby, for med the basis of the new definition of freedom as one that does not only protect the individual from aggression, but one that actually permitted him to do things. Foner (2002) narrates the ensuing contradiction between the dominant progressivism and the emerging modern liberalism: â€Å"Effective freedom,’ wrote John Dewey, who pondered the question from the 1890s until his death in 1952, was far different from the ‘highly formal and limited concept of liberty’ as a preexisting possession of autonomous individuals that needed to be protected from outside restraint.† For effective freedom to crystallize, it was realized,   certain conditions first had to be met. Human beings (at this stage meaning White Men), for instance, though â€Å"by nature† imbued with the freedom to live comfortably, could not do so if they were impoverished. Freedom therefore required that a human being be economically secure, which meant that unemployment and starvation were seen as infringements to freedom. â€Å"The New Deal and the Redefinition of Freedom† By the 1930’s, the belief that economic security was a critical condition for exercising individual freedoms had gained significant acceptance. This is reflected in the way that the state, led by then Pres. Roosevelt,   implemented the New Deal from 1933-37, the pre-cursor of the establishment of welfare in the United States which implemented â€Å"relief,† â€Å"reform,† and â€Å"recovery† by intervening in the market and granting the demands of groups from a variety of the political spectrum. Seeking to cushion the impact of the Great Depression on the starving and unemployed majority of the American people, as well as pacify the restless from succumbing to socialist ideology, the New Deal showed the transformation of progressivism into modern liberalism, which espoused Keynesian economic models and personal freedom based on the four Rs: freedom of speech, freedom to worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Fighting for Freedom And so it is with the rhetoric of freedom that the United States would camouflage its interests in going to the Second World War and in declaring the cold war against the socialist bloc of the USSR. Noting the irony when Pres. Roosevelt promises the world a Global New Deal based on the four freedoms while declaring its participation in the war,   Foner echoes   Dewey’s lament when he wrote in â€Å"The Meaning of Freedom in the Age of Emancipation† that:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"in our own time, we have witnessed the putative division of the planet into free and non-free worlds (with the former including many nations that might be seen as lacking in freedom) invoked to justify violations of individual liberties at home and interference with the right to self determination (Foner, 1994)† This startling realization, that â€Å"American freedom has been both a reality and a mythical ideal — a living truth for millions of Americans; a cruel mockery for others,†Ã‚  influenced the formation of racial, gender, ethnicity, and class-based reform and radical abolitionist movements whose basic slogan was that of equality and the recognition of marginalized groups, such as those for the citizenship of the Blacks, women’s suffrage in the 1960s, and the people’s right to state-sponsored provision of social services in the 1930s. Foner describes the development of emergent concepts of freedom in   the 20th century which tested and challenged the status quo:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"feminists sought to recast gender relations in order to afford women the same freedom as men, and Americans divided over whether poverty and lack of economic security should be seen as deprivations of freedom that the government had an obligation to alleviate.† The women’s vocal demands for their right to vote   and the Black and immigrant movement for civil recognition, were therefore significant efforts to redefine the inclusive and exclusive meanings of freedom since â€Å"categories of freedom defines the categories of unfreedom.†Ã‚   Foner affirms the relevance of such movements by stating that,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"those who adopt a purely ‘negative’ view of freedom as the absence of external coercion, rather than, for example, economic autonomy or political empowerment, must identify what constitutes illegitimate coercion.† It is with this contention, that â€Å"freedom has not simply been a linear progress toward a pre-ordained goal,† but rather a complex and conflicted—and sometimes even violent— struggle between the contradicting interests of groups; tainted by class, race, ethnicity, gender, and even religion, that Foner   challenges and dares his reader to attempt to redefine the confined, claustrophobic spaces of America’s state-sponsored concepts of freedom. References: Foner, Eric. The Story of American Freedom. New York: Norton, 1998. pp. 163-236 Foner, Eric, â€Å"The Meaning of Freedom in the Age of Emancipation.† The Journal of American History 81, no. 2 (Sept. 1994) p. 4. How to cite On Civil Liberties and the Redefinition of Freedom, Essay examples