A White Man's Burden Essay

A computer is programmed to think a certain way. It is created for a single purpose, and it always fulfills that purpose, without the ability to go against its function. Humans can act similarly, where they can be trained to think or do something a specific way, and never question it. We have seen this in our world’s history, too, a prime example being during WWII and the Holocaust. The children of Nazi Germany did not come into this world hating all Jews, but were rather brainwashed by society into believing it. This concept of having a preconceived notion of what something is or is not can be seen in the life of famous British poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling. Growing up in India built the ideas of a social hierarchy into Kipling’s everyday
In this poem, Kipling addresses the Europeans going in and taking over these colonies, and ultimately defends their doing. In the title, a White Man’s Burden refers the the duty that Kipling believes the Europeans have to go into various non-european nations and take control and civilize them to make them more like westerners. It implies that they themselves are not sophisticated or smart enough to function on their own, and the white people must teach them how to be more civilized. In the first paragraph, Kipling urges European families to send their sons to these nations in order to help the “captives’ need” (Line 4). By calling them captives, Kipling shows how strong he feels that they are incapable of being humans. Throughout the entire poem, Kipling refers to the non-europeans by racist names and remarks, showing his intensity. Kipling did not develop these thoughts on his own, but rather from when he was a child and witnessed the exploitation and though it was a normal thing. This is reflected in the poem in his tone, as it does not sound sarcastic in his tone that they must help the inferior, but rather he sounds very hopeful and serious that they must fix their savage