The White Man's Burden is the "responsibility" to rise up over the other races. It is written by a british man who is encouraging post-Philippines takeover America to rise over the Philippines because of some kind of empirical right, as the british have done many times before in other places. The Black Man's Burden is dealing with these behaviors, and is pretty much saying that treating a different race of people in the same way the blacks had been treated in the past is no different than treating the blacks in that way again. It is very applicable to Heart of Darkness, because at that time those were the exact feelings that the Europeans had for the Africans. They felt that they had a right to civilize them and lead by example, which is in essence (albeit very saturated and much less intense) what the White Man's Burden Poem is saying. A passage in Heart of Darkness that shows off the Europeans' feeling of necessity to triumph is "They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity-like yours- the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly (49-50)."
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Black Man and White Man's Burdens Journal
Explore how these two poems are in conversation with each other. How is "The Black Man's Burden" responding to "The White Man's Burden?" Also, do you think that Heart of Darkness reveals a similar attitude of Europeans toward Africans as Kipling expresses in "The White Man's Burden?" Please find a passage from Heart of Darkness that is evidence for your answer.
The White Man's Burden is the "responsibility" to rise up over the other races. It is written by a british man who is encouraging post-Philippines takeover America to rise over the Philippines because of some kind of empirical right, as the british have done many times before in other places. The Black Man's Burden is dealing with these behaviors, and is pretty much saying that treating a different race of people in the same way the blacks had been treated in the past is no different than treating the blacks in that way again. It is very applicable to Heart of Darkness, because at that time those were the exact feelings that the Europeans had for the Africans. They felt that they had a right to civilize them and lead by example, which is in essence (albeit very saturated and much less intense) what the White Man's Burden Poem is saying. A passage in Heart of Darkness that shows off the Europeans' feeling of necessity to triumph is "They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity-like yours- the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly (49-50)."
The White Man's Burden is the "responsibility" to rise up over the other races. It is written by a british man who is encouraging post-Philippines takeover America to rise over the Philippines because of some kind of empirical right, as the british have done many times before in other places. The Black Man's Burden is dealing with these behaviors, and is pretty much saying that treating a different race of people in the same way the blacks had been treated in the past is no different than treating the blacks in that way again. It is very applicable to Heart of Darkness, because at that time those were the exact feelings that the Europeans had for the Africans. They felt that they had a right to civilize them and lead by example, which is in essence (albeit very saturated and much less intense) what the White Man's Burden Poem is saying. A passage in Heart of Darkness that shows off the Europeans' feeling of necessity to triumph is "They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity-like yours- the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly (49-50)."
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Yes, this is correct. Europeans justified colonialism through the idea of the "civilizing mission" - I think that this is even mentioned in HoD. This is a moral justification for what was, in essence, an economic mission. Can you think of any moral justifications that we use now in order to pursue economic agendas?
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