English 12 Blog

Characters: Kim

Kim is a young Irish descendant, a son of a soldier, a beggar, a spy, and a disciple of Lama, who went through a journey of faith and life. Being a young boy, who holds different profiles, seems to be very challenging, but amazingly, his brightness and his cleverness has been his main attributes in keeping a low profile from the society. In this novel, one of the major challenges that Kim faces is making important decisions that could then turn the tide of the story. One example can be seen in a part where Kim has to decide whether to fulfill his prophecy as a peacemaker – a war is about to break loose and Kim seems to be the one who played a role in it – or to accompany the Lama’s journey towards the river of Knowledge in Benares. Despite his desires, he chooses the path towards fulfilling his destiny, but this had an impact with his relationship with the Lama as it had changes the Lama’s good perception of this child. However, some way at some point, fate seems to be on Kim’s side as his relationship with the Lama is not the end and there’s more to come in his journey with the Lama.

Conflict: Man Vs Man

Conflict between men is persistent throughout this novel. As the story revolves around societies that consist of classes and castes, there is a struggle between the worst and the better off. Beggars struggle through the condemnation of the able and the rich, they were treated harshly. Kim, for example, had to beg on his knees just for a handful of rice during his journey towards Benares. People with authority lack the sense of consciousness as they lack consideration. This can be seen in Kim’s and Lama’s journey where they had to be dropped off for some racial reason. However, there were still good in the society as peasants and poor family helped them to pay the ticket for their journey.

Novel Entry #1: Kim by Rudyard Kipling

Story

Kim written by Rudyard Kipling tells a tale of a boy’s adventure throughout India and in search, along with the Lama, of the River of Arrow. The story revolves around the year of 1900s in India; where this country had once colonized under the British Empire. Throughout the boy’s journey, readers could explore the diversity of culture that existed throughout this novel, and it gives readers a powerful sense of meeting other undiscovered ethnic cultures around India. This story also centers on the story of Kim, where is confronted with decisions that could alter his profile as a spy or a beggar among the lower caste in India – society at that time was divided into certain groups where each possesses its own specialties and disadvantages? Kim, not originally derived from the Indian culture, apparently classified as the lowest caste in the Indian society, beggars. However, his identity as a spy of his father’s army regiment, was not known and throughout the novel, as he gets deeper into his ‘spy’ side, the story gets even more thrilling with its exciting adventurous moments.

Specialties:

Kim’s contains distinctive feature in terms of the way the story is written. Since it’s an English literature, and published since 1901, Rudyard Kipling uses some old English, which can be seen in many dialogues such as Lama’s conversation – which in fact a challenge for some readers. Another interesting thing is that each chapter begins with an excerpt of a poem that sometimes contains a certain allegory, such as making reference to Bible and, etc. Young readers might not catch or fully grasp what the poem is trying to convey but researching might be helpful. On top of that, Kim is like an open door that leads readers to another world, or place that one might never have heard of such culture or customs.

Theme

One of the main notions of the novel is freedom. The narrator in this story seems to find himself in an impossible situation where his intention of killing some time before heading towards his next travel destination by doing some tedious task requested by the folks. The narrator feels the need to be free from all these practical works (making circular saw, boats, painting, etc.) but his personality, as a nice bloke, forces him to do works requested by the villagers which also, seem to relate to the idea of trying to fit in a society. Long Sentence the narrator who was seen as a newcomer, was treated with awkward generosity by the folks, but in reality, it was the way for the villagers to take advantage on him, to use him as labor – often times, one needs to give something in return when one receives kindness and this. However, forces the narrator to accept the task, perhaps unwillingly, calmly finishing them one at a time. In reality, when one is reluctant to give in return, often times they will be despised, or badmouthed, because one is being selfish. Similarly, the narrator would feel the same way if he refused to accept a certain task, or doing a job poorly. The only way he could fit in, was to follow the ‘flow’ of the villagers.

Connection

One could obviously tell that the title of this book is quite similar to one of the books we have read in class – All Quiet on the Orient Express. If one had a chance to read this book, one would wonder where is the Orient Express? Well, the Orient Express is the longest distance passenger train initially operated by a travel and logistics company. The railway begins in Paris and ends in Istanbul. So how does the place relates to the title? It is all related to the plot. Since people can be easily bored during a long journey, they tend to feel the urge to kill some time, hoping that time would pass by fast. In relation to the plot of the novel, the narrator too feels the need to do something while he was traveling to Eastern Europe. However, when one gets too absorbed while doing something, one could possibly forget about his destination and eventually miss the next stop or probably won’t be able to get where he was supposed to. So eventually, the passenger, like the narrator, is trapped in this quiet train (the village)

1)Story: All Quiet on the Orient Express tells a story about a traveler in his late thirties, who, blessed or cursed, seem to be trapped in a mysterious village where the people too , act quite strangely. The narrator’s dream for a holiday trip to eastern Europe seems to be forgotten as people in the village request his help to complete a certain task and, strangely enough, the errands that he receives don’t seem to have an end. Task after task, the narrator felt that there is something odd. Something that is always holding him back even though when he is trying to escape due to the pressure, and the lack of appreciation from the villagers after all the work he has done. However, his effort of escaping the grasp of the village seem to be a failure as he is yet again, faced with another task requested by the villagers. There is a lot of mystery revolves around the novel such as, Bryan’s cardboard crown, and the landlords mysterious generosity and the behavior of the villagers when they are confronted with the narrator.

2) Reaction:This book has a very detail description about many aspects of the novel such as the atmosphere, the narrator’s surrounding, etc. that everything seems to become a reality and in fact, this novel does hold on towards its reader and there is no letting go of it. This novel deserves thumbs up because of the narration that somehow, at some point, readers can apply themselves and feel the sense of being trapped in the mysterious village. The downside of this novel is that there is nothing much happening in the book. Readers would obviously notice a pattern throughout the plot which the narrator revolves around these 3 things: Work, sleep, and doing someone’s homework, or probably finding ways to get out of this misery. Obviously, one would think this will be awfully boring, which in fact it is, but that is the specialty of the novel – it is irresistible and one could feel the urge to know what is happening next. Above all, this novel, looking at a different perspective, seem to provide an important lesson of life – a friend in need is a friend indeed.

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