Question

Explain “the white man’s burden” and “the black man’s burden” have different perspectives on european imperialism.

Answer 1

Answer:

Sample Response: Both Kipling and Johnson describe imperialism, but from different perspectives. Kipling writes as an imperialist and uses his belief in European superiority to defend imperialist practices. Johnson, however, takes the position of native peoples and shows imperialism as an abuse of power.

Answer 2

The novella's title as well its epigraph ("Take up the white man's burden/Send forth the best ye breed...") indicate that the story is a play on Rudyard Kipling's 1899 poem on the civilizing mission of the colonizer, "The White Man's Burden." [2] Written for Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1897, and revised as a response "to resistance in the Philippines to the United States' assumption of colonial power" after the Spanish–American War of 1898.,[3] the poem's depiction of colonial government as a "burden" suggests that empires exist not for imperialist gain, but for the development of the unruly and uncivilized colonials.[4] In Black Man's Burden, this tradition of "white imperial benevolence" [5] is initially subverted by having black-only fieldworkers foment economic and technological progress in the underdeveloped regions of North Africa,[2] and later, by Homer Crawford's decision to become El Hassan and engage in nation-building rather than continue promoting the imperial interests of the West.The novella's title as well its epigraph ("Take up the white man's burden/Send forth the best ye breed...") indicate that the story is a play on Rudyard Kipling's 1899 poem on the civilizing mission of the colonizer, "The White Man's Burden." Written for Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1897, and revised as a response "to resistance in the Philippines to the United States' assumption of colonial power" after the Spanish–American War of 1898.,the poem's depiction of colonial government as a "burden" suggests that empires exist not for imperialist gain, but for the development of the unruly and uncivilized colonials. In Black Man's Burden, this tradition of "white imperial benevolence"  is initially subverted by having black-only fieldworkers foment economic and technological progress in the underdeveloped regions of North Africa, and later, by Homer Crawford's decision to become El Hassan and engage in nation-building rather than continue promoting the imperial interests of the West.