Kipling riassunto inglese liceo PDF

Preview

Summary

appunti di inglese livello liceo linguistico, per preparazione alla maturità...

Description

Kipling, Rudyard Take up the White Man’s burden– Send forth the best ye breed– Go, bind your sons to exile To serve your captives’ need; On fluttered folk and wild– Your new-caught sullen peoples, Half devil and half child. – Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden”

Biography This famous writer was born Joseph Rudyard Kipling in Bombay on December 30th, 1865, after his mother Alice Macdonald, a methodist minister’s daughter, and his father John Lockwood Kipling, an artist, moved there so John could work as the director of an art school. Kipling lived happily in India until he was six, when his father sent him back to England to study. At sixteen Kipling returned to his parents in India and worked on the Civil and Military Gazette, also writing and publishing a number of poems and stories. Kipling returned again to England in 1889 where he gained fame and credibility with his publication of Barrack-Room Ballads. In 1892, he married an American, Carrie Balestier, sister of his dear friend and sometimes partner, Wolcott Balestier, and settled with her in Vermont. There he wrote Captains Courageous and The Jungle Books, and Carrie gave birth to their first two children, Josephine and Elsie. The family moved to England in 1896 and settling in Rottingdean, Sussex the next year. Here their third child John was born. Unfortunately their daughter, Josephine, died during a family visit to the U.S. in 1899. Around this time Kipling was deemed the “Poet of Empire” and produced some his most memorable works, including Kim, Stalky & Co., and Just So Stories. In 1907, Kipling accepted the Nobel Prize for literature. In 1915, his son John died in the battle of Loos, during World War I. Kipling continued to write and became involved in the Imperial War Graves Commission. In January 1936, Kipling died, but not before the completion of his autobiography Something of Myself. British Imperialisms in Kipling’s Life As Britain entered a high expansionist phase at the end of the nineteenth century, Kipling became the great imperial poet and propagandist. The empire covered over a quarter of the world’s land surface, and included more than a quarter of the world’s population. Kipling would see the beginning of the imperial downfall after the World Wars, as nations would eventually acquire some degree of political autonomy and, eventually, independence, although Kipling would never see the complete end of the empire after the end of the Second World War. Kipling on Imperialism Kipling saw the Empire as a way to maintain stability, order, and peace amongst the people he considered to be “heathens” (see Myths of the Native). In his view, the British presence in underdeveloped countries helped to relieve famine, provide medical assistance, abolish slavery, and

construct the physical and the psychological groundwork for “civilization” (See Anglophilia, Cricket). Kipling’s ideas were backed by political, racial, moral, and religious beliefs which held the British as a culture of superiority with a moral responsibility to the “uncivilized” world. In a speech to the Royal Society of St. George in April 1920, Kipling spoke of the men who created the Empire: “… they did establish and maintain reasonable security and peace among simple folk in very many parts of the world, and that, too, without overmuch murder, robbery, oppression or torture.” Kipling’s view of the British rule is now seen as naïve and idealistic. Kipling believed that ideally the colonized should recognize their inferiority and accept their governed position (see Orientalism). Although Kipling lived in India and was exposed to its cultures, he made himself the interpreter, propagandist, and chief apologist of the imperialist elite. Kipling was suspicious of democracy and of the members of the British Liberal Intelligentsia who opposed imperialism as a philosophy. He saw World War I as a threat not only to Britain itself but to her civilizing mission. Kipling believed that in Imperialism there were five “points of fellowship” necessary to develop and settle colonized areas. These five points were education, immigration, transportation, irrigation, and administration. By conquering these elements of civilization, the mother country had created a better and more civilized nation from the colony. Imperialism was not so much a narrow political subject as it was a way of moral and social life. Kipling’s ideal of imperialism in India was that of a paternalistic, quasi-feudal imperial one. As “legitimate” and benevolent rulers, the British took a privileged position at the top of the social chain with a systematic mode of government . Kiplings could have easily been influenced by the spreading ideal of social Darwinism, a societal spin on Darwin’s order of the natural world. For Kipling, hierarchy was natural and was determined by survival of the fittest. Imperialism could not be corrupt to Kipling, because social order is fated, therefore moral. Imperialism in Kim Kipling’s Kim is a novel about a young European boy in India, Kim, who travels with a Tibetan lama on his search for a river of purifying water. Kim also works as a spy for the British Secret Service, using his tanned skin and manipulation of language to move in and out of the role of a native. In his introduction to the novel, Edward Said points out Kipling’s use of “the dominating viewpoint,” regarding English rule as natural, beneficial, even ordained. From this perspective, Kipling could not see the enormous changes in India produced by Imperialism. In Kim, Kipling depicts India still full of ancient customs and tradition. However by the time Kim was written in 1901, India had already been radically altered by the English “reformations” and the Indian Mutiny of 1857 had occurred. These “reformations” dispossessed or altered nearly every class: the new system of higher education based on the English model crushed the old religious elite; the democracy of the judicial system offended the honor of the highest castes; free trade transformed urban artisans into beggars; and the unrestricted sale of estates ended traditions of rural life. In Kim, it is obvious that Kipling did not see imperialism as any type of disruption, exploitation, or subjugation, but as economic development and moral enlightenment for India. In the novel, working as a spy for the British Empire and looking for spiritual harmony work side-by-side. British rule is never challenged; instead Kipling uses several minor characters strictly for the purpose of advocating British rule. Although Kipling shows a knowledge of a number of Indian languages and the capability of using many voices, there is no variety of viewpoint. All voices hold one style and one dominant point of view in favor of British imperialism. Kipling’s use of Indian words and phrases lacks any attempt to represent the their cultural specificity.

The White Man’s Burden Kipling’s poem, “The White Man’s Burden,” was published in McClure’s Magazine in 1899. The poem considered white imperialism necessary to civilize the “backward savages” of the colonies. This poem disregarded the economic motivations of imperialism in favor of moral obligations, a comfortable guilt-free explanation. The phrase “the white man’s burden,” was widely used by imperialists all over, especially by the once-colonized United States in their 1899 takeover of Cuba during its war with the Philippines. In 1901, at the end of the war, Mark Twain remarked: “The White Man’s Burden has been sung. Who will sing the Brown Man’s?” ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling — Poetry Analysis This is one of the most popular poems of the last century, and its inspirational messages hold true today as much as they did when it was written in 1910. Yet, it also feels outdated in some ways — should we really never embrace our extreme emotions and always try to be ‘fine’ even when we’re not? Overall though, I do agree with its motivational and stoic attitudes — we should all certainly learn to make the best out of difficult situations and avoid arrogance or overconfidence in times of success. Read the poem and make up your own mind about its advice! THE POEM IF you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: . If you can dream — and not make dreams your master; If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools: . If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’ . If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, ‘ Or walk with Kings — nor lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son! STORY/SUMMARY This is a lyric poem, so there’s not exactly a story to it — instead, it’s an exploration of an idea. In this case the speaker is addressing the reader, giving us some wise advice. This advice takes the form of how to be, but also what to avoid in life — and to not copy the bad behaviour of others. In Stanza 1 Kipling says to stay strong and clear-headed even if others are hostile towards us, to trust ourselves even when others don’t (but also to accept that they might doubt us), to encourage patience, to not lie even if people lie about us, to not hate others even if we are hated ourselves, and finally to not boast or seem too perfect and clever about all of our strengths — we shouldn’t ‘look too good, nor talk too wise’. Stanza 2 gives advice on our thoughts and actions: we should think and dream, but not allow these to control us, and we should not be too influenced by moments of extreme success (Triumph) or failure (Disaster). We should also be able to withstand seeing our truths manipulated by others, and our hard work coming undone or being broken. When something we’ve put effort into has broken, we should work to fix it again. Stanza 3 explores the idea of perseverance — never giving up. Kipting extends the concepts of success and failure, saying that we should be able to lose everything we’ve earned and still have the motivation to build it back up, as well as never complaining to others about the loss. We should push our nerves and emotions as far as they’ll go, and then some more — by making our willpower stronger than anything else.

Finally, in Stanza 4 is about achieving greatness, but staying humble — Kipling says we should keep our individuality and goodness when talking to crowds, as well as staying in touch with everyday people even when achieving high status. We should make ourselves liked by everyone, although not the point of obsession. If we can fill even the smallest amount of time with achieving our long term projects and goals, then ‘the Earth’ is ours — and we will be fully adult. SPEAKER/VOICE The poem has a personal, emotional and motivational tone which is intended to inspire its readers — for this reason, it is likely that the speaker is the poet himself (Kipling). His personality comes across as passionate and positive, but also very balanced — he understands the difficulties we must face in life and that there will be ups and downs, so his message is to not get carried away with the good, but also remain positive during the bad — in other words, we should always be moderate rather than extreme in our reactions. LANGUAGE Personification — Triumph and Disaster are capitalised, and called ‘two impostors’, this means Kipling is personifying them and turning them into characters — negative characters, that are exposed as not real (as the word ‘impostor’ means ‘a fake person’). Metaphorically, Kipling is saying that Truimph — when you feel like you’ve won a great victory — and Disaster — when everything is ruined or terrible — are not what they seem. These represent antithetical extremes — they are almost the opposite, but in Kipling’s mind they are equally damaging if you fully embrace them. He says instead that we should remain moderate and gain control over our extreme emotions, because that is the best way for a mature person to be fully in control of themselves. Antithesis — almost every idea presented in the poem has an opposite (an antithesis). We should ‘wait and not be tired by waiting’, ‘being lied about, [not] deal in lies’ and meet with ‘Triumph and Disaster’. These extreme opposites that are often balanced equally, create a sense of both excessive positivity and excessive negativity being a bad thing — Kipling always tries to keep his opinion in the middle ground between the extremes, instead of embracing one or the other. ATTITUDES Success is not constant — Kipling talks of ‘Triumph’ as an impostor — something that is fake and temporary, and he also says that we should ‘risk it all… And lose’, meaning that it’s good to risk and lose your winnings in life — either financially or otherwise. This may seem scary or stupid at first. However, reason for saying this is that if we lose everything and then still manage to build it back up, we will have gained a lot of self knowledge and self respect, and in the long term we will feel much more stable because even if the worst happens, we can work hard to get ourselves back into a favourable position. The confidence in ourselves and our abilities is far more valuable than any success or money that we may have achieved. Happiness comes from self-control — all of Kipling’s statements are about moderation and being in control of one’s own character at the very best and very worst of times. We should assert our individuality in a crowd, but also empathise with the masses instead of only thinking about ourselves. We should withstand being hated or people lying about us, but also never boast or be overconfident and arrogant. Understanding and avoiding the extremes and creating a controlled, balanced and adaptable character seems to be the most important message that Kipling is trying to impart.

Individuality is important for happiness — several times throughout the poem, Kipling reminds us not to pay attention to what others think or say, especially in their judgements and negative criticisms or misinterpretations of our actions. This seems obvious, but it’s very easy to feel selfconscious and worry about offending others, to the point of it damaging our own characters. Kipling feels that we should embrace our individuality and not bend too much to others’ beliefs about how we should act or feel — in his opinion, this is the way to true, lasting happiness. We should all aim for virtue, not perfection — Kipling tries to take a realistic approach in his poem, he knows that life is full of ups and downs, and that success in some ways can cause problems in others, or that failure can have the potential for an even greater beginning. If we remain true to ourselves and good-natured in character (virtuous), then he is confident that we can make the best out of any situation and we will succeed in life. It’s not about being perfect — so for Kipling we could say that a perfectionist’s approach to live does not achieve success and happiness, instead it’s about developing inner strength and the ability to adapt to different situations. CONTEXT The poem was published in 1910 Some interpret the poem as being written for Kipling’s own son — as the poem ends in the phrase ‘my son’, which could be taken literally. Kipling was famously a short story writer and wrote a lot for children, so that supports this interpretation. Stoicism — Kipling’s poem reveals a stoic attitude to life — stoicism is a philosophy that promotes balance, harmony and moderation. Stoics also use logic and rationality to navigate difficult situations (they keep a level head and don’t allow their actions to be ruled by their emotions); they believe that we should find positives in pain and suffering, in order to learn and adapt from these experiences. The poem also expresses a ‘stiff upper lip mentality’ — the idea that you don’t show your emotions or allow them to defeat you, as when a person cries their lips often tremble. This is a typical British attitude to life — where traditionally the British are known for not showing extremes of emotion in public. This was a particularly popular attitude during the Victorian Era, in which Kipling became a famous poet (although the poem is written 9 years after Victoria’s death, it does feel more Victorian than Modern in its tone) THEMES Maturity Self-Actualisation Individualism Success The Purpose of Life Happiness Youth Moderation Psychology Willpower...