Burmese Days
In the novel "Burmese Days" by George Orwell, imperialism shaped the daily lives of both British and Burmese characters through three main things racism, sexism and inequality. In the mid 1920's, deep into the days of the empire when The British ruled Burma, racial and sexist boundaries were part of everyday life. In some instances in the novel, Non-European characters tried to gain self respect and freedom by trying to bend the rules an cross over boundries if they possibly could. However, this deed was very hard to complete because of the racial bounderies. In one very rare case it was successful, U Po Kyin, the Subdivisional Magistrate of Kyauktada (where the novel was based on), wishes to be in the European social club which wasn't much but it meant so much to the burmese people an the rest of Kyauktada because it was where the most respected people came to socialize. In any town in India, the European club is the placewhere everyone wishes to be a part of. However the exclusive club has never admitted a man of a different race into it's social club because they feel that that the other races non other than theirs is not as civilized . One man who realized that white men are not as
never known till this moment how dishonouring, how unforgivable a thing it was" pg 275. The charchters in the novel were not succesful at all except for U Po Kyin, they would offer anything they had to give to british and they would just turn there nose up in disgust. Except for the one the rest of the characters were unsuccesful at breaking the racial boundary that seperated the "white" from the rest. period for a burmese man or a "nigger" to be accepted by the "white man." they had started riots, cheated, and lied jus to try and get passed the racial barrier. But this would have never happened if the barriers weren't so thick for the daily lives of the people of Kyauktada. poor lives. The other part of the burmese were servants of the british so that was obviuosly a bad life because they had to obey their master who where the british. They had to tend to his or hers every need an never be disrespectfull unless they wanted to get Veraswami's freindship with the "white man" is set on ruining both Flory and Veraswami for he should be the one considered for the prestigus club. Hence, he will stop at nothing to cross the thick racial barrier that consist over the entire town. At the end of hunting or what not. Basically the british ruled the premises of Kyauktada because the had all the power. Some of the non-european characters in the novel tried to break through the racial boundaries and save their self respect and their freedom. U Po Kyin created a whole complicated plan to get into the social club which would be a very great accomplishment for a man like himself. He knew that Dr. verswami would be the first to get accepted because he was friends with Mr. Flory. He planned a riot against the "white man" that he would not take part in but start, and then blame it on Dr.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Po Kyin, Serves Pg, Ma Hla, British Burmese, Flory Veraswami, India European, Magistrate Kyauktada, Dr Veraswami, po kyin, George Orwell, social club, James Flory, dr verswami, daily lives, daily lives british, racial barrier, people kyauktada, poor lives, racial boundary, non-european characters, respect freedom, self respect freedom,
Approximate Word count = 1215
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
