Betty, by Rudyard Kipling

Number of modern English readers could enjoy Rudyard Kipling's 'Kim' in the way Kipling intended it to be enjoyed. Kipling was an Imperialist, and 'Kim' embodies attitudes towards British rule in India which nowadays are unacceptable. But as a work of fiction it does have fine literary qualities, and it also and should get its unique put in place the history of English materials.

The novel embodies a panoramic celebration of Indian, presenting as it really does, a magnificent picture of its landscapes, both urban and rural, and a fascinating array of native figures who, for the most part, are warm, generous and tolerant.

Beyond that, 'Kim' is an journey story of the Empire, giving it something in common with the novels of Joseph Conrad, such as Heart of Night (which has become also attacked for its colonial attitudes). The readership in 1901 would have been fascinated by 'Kim' as an amazing tale of chance overseas.

Simply by birth Kim is an Irish boy, Kimball O'Hara, whose father was a jewellry. But he has developed as an orphan on the streets of Lahore, 'a poor white of the very poorest', british essay service appeared after by a half-cast woman, probably a prostitute.

The story begins when Kim teams up with a Tibetan lama, Teshoo lama, who wanders into Lahore to look at the Buddhist relics in Lahore museum. The lama is on a Buddhist mission, following 'The Way' to free himself from the 'Wheel of Things'.

Ellie is fascinated by the wandering stranger, and when the lama assumes that Kim has been sent to him as his 'chela' (disciple) Kim easily accepts the role and joins him on his journey, with the intention of also following his own quest, to find the meaning of a prophecy that was made by his father. This prophecy eventually gives rise to the second strand of the plot - Kim's recruiting as a spy in the British Secret Service.

The friendship between this unlikely pair is one of the key attractions of 'Kim', which is a novel about male friendships, primarily between Kim and Teshoo lama, but also between Kim and Colonel Creighton and his colleagues.

Women do play a role in the novel, but not as objects of romantic or sexual add-on. Women feature as prostitutes, or providers, though some respect is shown for the two principle women characters, the woman of Shamlegh, and the widow of Kulu, the second option taking on a motherly role towards the finish, healing Kim when he or she is ill.

The two companions become interdependent, Kim's association with the suram providing him with an excuse to travel around India, and an excellent cover (later in the story) for his role as a spy, while the lama often relies on Kim to do their begging and find them protection, often physically leaning on Kim's shoulder as they travel.

Kim defines his identity during his journeys by being ready to accept impacts; responding positively to the people he or she can look up to, while warding off influences which he finds abrasive. When the story opens the influences on him have been almost exclusively Indian native. His white skin, his identity papers, and his in-built tendency to own and rule will prove to be central to the identity he is seeking to build, but neither at the beginning nor the conclusion does he think of himself as a 'sahib', and his encounter with the white man's world reaches first a traumatic experience.

In section 5, if he finally finds the prophesied 'Nine hundred or so first-class devils, whose Our god was a Red Half truths on a green field', (his father's old regiment), he is captured by the soldiers and his instinct is to escape back to the suram. This is the first close come across with a group of white men Kim has had in his life, and Kipling uses it to show a clash of native and British mentality, with Kim and the suram showing the native side, and the members of the regiment showing aspects of British mentality which Kipling holds up for criticism.

Kim is effectively imprisoned by the soldiers, forced to wear for the first time 'a horrible stiff suit that rasped his arms and legs', and told that the bazaar is 'out o' bounds'. And his torments grow worse as Kipling continually subject him to the worst that the British have to offer. The schoolmaster is a brutal insensitive man from whom Kim scents 'evil', and the drummer young man who guards Kim, symbolizing the average young British soldier, is shown as an ignorant fool who calls the natives 'niggers'.

Inside Colonel Creighton Kim locates a white man he can respect; a father-figure, a ecu counterpart of the suram. Creighton is wise, informed, experienced, and compassionate; the opposite ending of the spectrum to Reverend Bennett, the drummer boy, and the schoolmaster. He acknowledges Kim's intelligence and special skills, and although he plays a small part in the story he is, as the highest-ranking representative of the British Government, and the individual to whom Kim is responsible, a pillar of the complete novel and one of the most crucial influences on Kim in the quest to define himself.

When his schooling is complete Kim's training as a spy under Creighton's affiliates continues, one of his teachers being the 'shaib' Lurgan. Lurgan, in his house adorned with ritual devil-dance masks, and his ability to heal unwell jewels, is apparently a practitioner of the occult, and perhaps in creating this character Kipling was pulling on his interest in the mysticism of Madame Blavatsky and Theosophists which was popular during his youth.