The White Man's True Burden, Apocalypse Now, And The Man
The White Man’s True Burden
One common theme between “The White Man’s Burden”, Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now, and The Man who would be King is conquering a “lesser” people. Now each story presents this theme a different way, but it all circles back to this common element. In post colonial theory we learned about England deciding that it had the “God given right” to conquer/improve other civilization and cultures and in each of these stories this idea is shown. Each native community is decidedly uncivilized and in need of fixing via English influences and conversion. With this idea made conquering begins and so does the “White man’s burden”.
Whenever England or any country decided to take over another culture it was because …show more content…
What Kipling is subtly saying is that the White Man literally created his own burden.
This idea is continued in Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now because in both of these stories it begins to question what happens when a native country is conquered and what the consequences are. Both the film and the book bring forth the question of who is responsible for what actually happens when a native community is conquered. Both stories focuses on only two characters, Marlow and Kurtz, who would be any average man who was sent out for war. By focusing on these two characters and leaving the others as their title, such as a lawyer or director, it shows how out of touch people are. By keeping the two regular men in the foreground of the story it forces people to re-evaluate how conscious they are of what's going on outside of their domain. Some of the main people to organize and send men out to conquer the native peoples never actually know what's going …show more content…
Was it Kurtz who did the killing/slaughtering? Or was it actually the men who sent him out there with no direct contact to make sure he was doing what they wanted him to do? In a sense the book asks who actually stripped Kurtz of his humanity. Was it the men who sent him out to conquer the people or was it himself for doing what he thought was right? The film decidedly points to Kurtz being his own demise, but still lightly questions the men at home making the
One common theme between “The White Man’s Burden”, Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now, and The Man who would be King is conquering a “lesser” people. Now each story presents this theme a different way, but it all circles back to this common element. In post colonial theory we learned about England deciding that it had the “God given right” to conquer/improve other civilization and cultures and in each of these stories this idea is shown. Each native community is decidedly uncivilized and in need of fixing via English influences and conversion. With this idea made conquering begins and so does the “White man’s burden”.
Whenever England or any country decided to take over another culture it was because …show more content…
What Kipling is subtly saying is that the White Man literally created his own burden.
This idea is continued in Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now because in both of these stories it begins to question what happens when a native country is conquered and what the consequences are. Both the film and the book bring forth the question of who is responsible for what actually happens when a native community is conquered. Both stories focuses on only two characters, Marlow and Kurtz, who would be any average man who was sent out for war. By focusing on these two characters and leaving the others as their title, such as a lawyer or director, it shows how out of touch people are. By keeping the two regular men in the foreground of the story it forces people to re-evaluate how conscious they are of what's going on outside of their domain. Some of the main people to organize and send men out to conquer the native peoples never actually know what's going …show more content…
Was it Kurtz who did the killing/slaughtering? Or was it actually the men who sent him out there with no direct contact to make sure he was doing what they wanted him to do? In a sense the book asks who actually stripped Kurtz of his humanity. Was it the men who sent him out to conquer the people or was it himself for doing what he thought was right? The film decidedly points to Kurtz being his own demise, but still lightly questions the men at home making the