Kim's Ambivalence: Between Indian And British Cultures

Rudyard Kipling, born and brought up in India, is the first Englishman who wins Nobel Prize in Literature. Kipling has been entitled"Imperialist writer"in western critical world. The title"imperialist Writer"is increasingly enhanced by Said in his Culture and Imperialism. However, the present thesis considers Said's comment is excessively arbitrary. The thesis attempts to illustrate in this point of view by analyzing Kipling's novel Kim, the hero's ambivalent cultural identity in particular.The thesis consists of five parts. Introduction expounds Kipling's life and works and summarizes literature review about Kim; the argument and methodology of the thesis and its structure are also presented in this part.Chapter one analyzes Kim's ambivalence to England. As an Englishman, he has a complicated complex to return to his motherland --- England. Meanwhile, he was born and brought up in India, he is very conscious of what the English have done in India. Thus, his inner heart is full of puzzlement of the white society.Chapter two briefly expounds Kim's embarrassing situation in India. Strolling about the streets in India and getting well along with people from different kinds of classes, he is called"A Friend of the World". At the same time, in Kim's inner heart, he always thinks he belongs to the white society, so he misses his motherland very much. When somebody asks him to do something in the"Great Game", he is willing to do because he thought in this way he can return to the noble white society.Chapter three demonstrates that Kim's ambivalence is actually the ambivalence of Kipling's. Their living experiences are very similar to each other. Both of them are wandering between Indian and British cultures. They have similar feeling not only for India but also for England, which they can not abandon. Therefore, it leads to the result that they have to live with double identities and contradictory personality.The conclusion part summarizes the former parts and points out that the reconciliation of the two cultures results in that the identity problem of the author and the protagonist in the works is always in the state of contradiction and split. Both Kipling & Kim can never free themselves from that state. Their identity problem is determined by the postcolonial situation.