My first
thoughts as I started reading Kim by
Rudyard Kipling were what a strange and fantastical land of India that Kipling
paints for his readers. As you may have figured out by now I like to try to put
myself in the shoes of the reader at the time of publishing. Published in 1900
knowledge of India and the eastern world would not be completely strange to
some readers. So if I put my turn of the century schoolboy shoes on my
imagination would take me to this strange yet familiar place that I most likely
have never been too. India has been glossed over in my texts but I am
fascinated by the details of the world that Kipling is describing. I have a
hard time adding all of these new and strange words to my vocabulary. This new
language makes the story all the more strange and exotic. I am also learning
much more about the relations between the different religions and social
cultures of India that my schoolbooks have never mentioned. It makes me dream
of being on my own in a strange land and outwitting adults and making my way in
life.
When I
first started reading this novel I couldn’t help but to start making
comparisons to Huck Finn. They are both two boys on their own. Both of them use
their wit to continue their respective journeys. Their journeys are both so
much more than just an adolescent boy on his own. Huck and Kim are both on
spiritual journeys of sorts dealing with real world moral dilemmas. These aren’t
the only two books that I have read that have this theme of a boy on his own
trying to survive. When I was young I remember reading other coming of age
books such as My Side of the Mountain
by Jean Craighead and Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.
Even though I had to look up a lot of the terms and places that Kipling wrote about I appreciated the detail he put into his writing. I feel like it made for a better read, especially since I have a horrible attention span.
ReplyDeleteYou got me thinking with your comparison of Huck Finn. The symbolism of the river, class distinctions and the caste system, and the coming-of-age motif are three things that come to mind.
ReplyDeleteHuck Finn is a story which is distinctly American, and is taught in a spirit which exemplifies freedom, apple pie and red-white-and-blue. Kim, on the other hand, seems to be Kipling's own love letter to the country he adopted. Both stories allude to notions of what civilization and freedom is/isn't.
Both books were published within 20 years of each other, through very different styles of writing, but seem to have a similar value system nonetheless.
I like that you discussed the perspective a reader from Kipling's time would have had. Although I'm a little uncomfortable with Orientalism, I guess it's not surprising that people would be drawn to descriptions of places that were very different from those to which they were accustomed. It's no use applying my modern political correctness to 1901. I also think the comparison to Huck Finn is good, and My Side of the Mountain -- in the latter, even though the kid wasn't an orphan, he's still on his own and that is a very attractive scenario for kid's books. I mean, who wants to read about someone living a quiet, peaceful life with their parents?
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