양 극단의 정치적 스펙트럼

Extreme Political Spectrums: the White Man's Burden and Hypocrisy of Imperialism in Kipling and Orwell

The purpose of this study is to compare Rudyard Kipling and George Orwell, and to analyse their works as regards British imperialism. The study is based on the opinion that the history of English novels is the history of indoctrination with imperialistic ideology. In the light of the opinion, Kipling and Orwell reflect the history of British imperialism and their works are mirrors of British imperialism. So, the study reveals two writers' extreme political views. Kipling puts emphasis on the white man's burden propagating and defending ideology of British imperialism. On the other hand, Orwell regards Kipling's 'the white man's burden' as falsity and hypocrisy, criticizing British imperialism. At first Orwell had emotional ambivalence about British imperialism, and it led to the ambivalence about Kipling. As time passes, Orwell points out severely that Kipling is a jingo imperialist. This study will explain why Kipling has imperialistic attitude and Orwell anti-imperialist sentiment on the British rule in India and Burma.