The Man Who Would Be King:
1. How do Carnehan and Dravot’s first encounters with Kipling (the character) compare to their visit to Kipling’s newspaper office together? What do you learn about Carnehan and Dravot through their actions?
The narrator of the story is an Indian journalist in 19th century India—Kipling himself, in all but name. Whilst on a tour of some Indian native states he meets two scruffy adventurers, Daniel Dravot and Peachey Carnehan.
2. What is revealed about the character of the narrator through his detailed description of his job as a journalist? What type of man does he seem to be?
The narrator seems to be a good journalist and and also a good person that softened by their stories, agrees to help Dravot and Carnehan in a minor errand, but later he regrets this and informs the authorities about them—preventing them from blackmailing a minor rajah.
3. What details from your reading help explain why Carnehan and Dravot would want to travel to the wilderness of Kafiristan? Do you think their reasons are valid?
A few months later the pair (Dravot and Carnehan) appear at his newspaper office in Lahore. They tell him of a plan they have hatched. They declare that after years of trying their hands at all manner of things, they have decided that "India is not big enough for them". They plan to go to Kafiristan and set themselves up as kings. Dravot will pass as a native and, armed with twenty Martini-Henry rifles, they plan to find a king or chief to help him defeat enemies. Once that is done, they will take over for themselves. I think their reasons are not so valid because if you are too much ambitious you can even lose everythin in the game and at the end they suffered the consequences.
4. How do the physical descriptions of Carnehan and Dravot compare to their personalities? What significance do you think their physical appearance has in comparison to their plan?
They look scruffy but the fact of being white, hairy and blond took an important part in achieving their targets. The fact of not showing any respect to the Kafir's idols made them be successful in pretending to be descendants of Alexander the great. Their appearance was ideal for their plan. The big mistake is when Dravot decided to marry a Kafir girl and she bit him when he wanted to kiss her. When the priest noticed that he was bleeding, Kafir people realised that they were simple human beings.
5. What level of importance do Carnehan and Dravot place on their “contrack” with one another? How does this compare with the impression Kipling (the character) has of them?
They were very comitted and the even had a contract not to marry to do what they wanted. Kipling was impressed of their comittment.
