The Man Who Would Be King: What does it take to be King?

The Man Who Would Be King: What does it take to be King?

In “The Man Who Would Be King” we have two men, Daniel and Peachy, who aspire to become kings. Having become bored with their adventure in India, they decided to travel to the province of Kafiristan to become kings and rule the land. They successfully get the natives to belief that Daniel Dravot is a direct descendant of Alexander the Great and make him king. Now at this point everyone believes that Dravot deserves to be king and has a fake legitimacy. But what actually constitutes kingship?  If we look back to the 15^th Century we see that it’s almost always by birthright. Well Daniel is not of noble blood so we can forget about that. Later we have those who took power and legitimacy by force. Does military power legitimize a ruler? When we look at more modern examples like Joseph Stalin and Otto Van Bismarck they had the power of hundreds of thousands of soldiers. This made the people follow what they said. Now while Daniel never had that type of military power he did have his twenty or so Henry Rifles which helped impress the locals. This further solidified the locals believe that he was fit to rule.

To be a king your followers have to believe that you are fit to rule. Whether it’s because they believe God put you in charge, they were conquered and/or their last ruler was defeated. All this ended for them once Dravot got bit and bled. This completely ruined his legitimacy. The Kafirs believed him to be almost a deity and when they saw blood they knew that it was an act. After he was captured and killed. However he died with his crown on.  From the moment Dravot became king and to the day he died, he himself believed that he was a king. Therefore was he actually a King? He sure went out like a king, but the fact that his people didn’t follow him after finding about his true is identity I what doesn’t make him a king. A king is someone who can rule his people through his proven legitimacy and fear. That’s something Daniel lost when they saw him bleed. The fear that he had was no longer there so they fought back and won. What do you guys think? Was Daniel a king? Yes or no explain your reasoning.

Thanks!

-          Frankenstein’s Monsters  

Chinese Immigration in 19th- early 20th century

The first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived to California in about early/mid 1800s. It wasn’t a very popular movement and the Chinese were seen as people that couldn’t assimilate to American society. This made many republicans angry wanted to rid of them by mass deportation. Here we see one of the beginning trends that wave after wave of immigrants face. A new people arrive to this country and are seen with mistrust. Humans don’t like what they don’t know. This wasn’t any different in America. Wave after wave of immigrants saw this mistreatment from America. One the biggest reasons why the Americans believed the Chinese couldn’t assimilate was due to their attire. Most of them still wore traditional clothing and traditional haircuts. Since they looked and dressed differently they were seen as outcasts. Also when the economy began to drop in the late 1800s the Chinese immigrants were used as a scapegoat

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Which brought upon the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882; which prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers. The Chinese immigrants had it rough especially since a lot of them didn’t speak English and had a hard time navigating through the cities. Also they were treated as second class citizens. After seeing a couple cartoons from the Harpers Weekly website it can be inferred that the media supported those who wanted the immigrants gone. With many of the cartoons being racist and depicts Chinese immigrants in a very demeaning manner.

Also articles such as “Mining Life in California” makes Chinese culture sound unlikeable. Also it talks about how their way of working is old and inefficient for using traditional methods. It makes them sound their just a nuisance for American society. I found this really interesting because we’ve seen this happen with the Irish, Italian and Latino immigrants too. Once a different wave of immigrants shows up, the blame, prejudice and negative social stigma goes on them. Even now we can still see some of this today. Not only in America but also many European countries there is now a negative view on Muslim immigrants. The reasons are also the way they dress and different cultural norms. Most of these is because most societies don’t like what they don’t understand. If they can’t understand someone else’s culture it’s easier to just say that its wrong they should just assimilate and forget their heritage.

All my information came from this website

http://immigrants.harpweek.com/   (Click on “Anti-Chinese Movement)

Human Nature

Human Nature

In The Luck of Roaring camp we see the ideas of humanity and human nature discussed. The idea of how people change and change for the better is a major theme in this piece. We see the rough and tumble camp life of the old west juxtaposed with motherhood and nurturing.

 When a baby comes into the Roaring camp things change. This is a camp made up of rough men, hard men, and men who are not refined. This is a camp chalked full of criminals and gamblers. These men are not exactly the people you would picture raising a child. The camp is  also full of the stereotypes we hear about the Wild West. When a baby is born to a woman named Cherokee Sal, things change. Cherokee Sal soon dies and the men of this camp must now be in charge of this baby. At first the men don’t know what to do. Kentuck calls the baby a “damned little cuss” at first. When it wrestles with his finger, he is amazed and starts to care about the baby like all the other men. The men take the christening very seriously and bring gifts to this child.

When this baby comes into the Roaring Camp the men are originally very rough and tough. The baby and the way they care for it softens the men. The men turn into mothering figures to this motherless child. These men are the godfathers to this child for all intents and purposes. This short story does a really cool thing with the rough and hard men of Roaring camp. This child comes in and changes things around roaring camp. The men start changing their lives. They clean up the camp, change their habits and really just change their lives. Men who are disgusting start bathing on a regular basis. Men act better, it is all for this baby. This baby came in and, like a Christ figure, changed these men’s lives. The men prove that one can change their human nature if they really want to. It shows that human nature can make someone change themselves for the better for another person. These men changed themselves for the child.

The author does a nice job of juxtaposing these rough and tumble men who live a hard life with motherhood. He wanted to take two things that are very different and make them comparable. These men changed is as major of a way as one could, and the author did this on purpose. He wanted to show how powerful human nature is.