OPTION 1/Literary Analysis of WWI

1. Imperialism - Imperialism, as defined by The Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The Imperialism of the last 500 years is described in the above work as a primarily western undertaking that employs "expansionist – mercantilism and latterly communist – systems." Imperialism is usually autocratic, and also sometimes monolithic (i.e. having a massive, unchanging structure that does not permit individual variation) in character. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism

2. Take up the White Man's burden--

Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

Take up the White Man's burden--
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper--
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.

Take up the White Man's burden--
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"

Take up the White Man's burden--
Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.

Take up the White Man's burden--
Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/kipling.html

3. "Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child." These are two lines from the poem above. What I think that Rudyard Kipling (author) means by this is that imperialism might not be such a good thing after all. He is saying that the people they caught will be sad. They will want to retaliate at their capturers, but they will want to obey their new masters. "The lightly proferred laurel, The easy, ungrudged praise." These are two more lines. What Rudyard means by this is that imperialism might be a good thing as well because of the praise from your peers. So, he is basically contradicting himself. Which is better? It all comes down to your opinion. "The judgment of your peers!" This is the last line of the poem. He is saying that what you do all comes down to peer pressure and what influence they have on your decisions that you make.