Ann Jacob
Ms. Nichole Wilson
AP Multicultural Literature B
Do
Not Despair
“If” by Rudyard
Kipling is about staying true to yourself and living in a way that you can be
proud of. I saw parallel between “If” and “Interpreter of Maladies”,
specifically the story, “A Real Durwan” by Jhumpa Lahiri. Both “If” and “A Real
Durwan” convey similar themes of staying true to your identity. In the first
stanza, the speaker tells the audience to be true to his or herself and to do
what is morally right by not “[talking] too wise” (Kipling l.8) in a way the he
would regret in the future. The second stanza held my favorite line of the
entire poem. The speaker says, “If you can meet Triumph with Disaster / And treat
those two imposters the same” (Kipling l. 11-12). Kipling capitalizes Triumph
and Disaster to indicate the importance of these opposing angles of life.
Kipling means that with victory or failure, you should treat them the same and learn
from both. Interestingly, when some other writers write about triumph or
disaster, they allocate separate emotions to each outcome, yet Kipling turns
that notion on its head.
The second half of
the poem magnifies the pits that the reader could fall into. The third and fourth
stanzas speak about never giving up even in the biggest of failures. The
dialogue is used to illustrate the point that no matter what, one must “Hold
on!” and rough out the storm (Kipling l.24). At the end of the stanza, he warns
the reader to “never breathe a word about your loss” (Kipling l.20). Looking at
this, it may seem as though Kipling doesn’t want to pity one’s stories of
despair, by really, in the context of the third stanza, he is explaining to his
audience not to overuse despair for the concern that it could bring one down
into a dark place. Throughout the poem, Kipling makes the use of simple
language and advice to indicate that in life, there are many obstacles but the
only thing that matters is how you process it and continue to live without
dragging your past behind you.
When comparing “If”
and “The Real Durwan”, a parallel was struck between the poem and the old
woman, Boori Ma. Even though the neighbors say that “Boori Ma’s mouth is full
of ashes” they still love her dearly (Lahiri 72). When all the young neighbors
begin renovating the neighborhood, being greedy with material goods, Boori Ma
stays away, watching from afar, but managing her duties. Boori Ma is moral and
caring, features that are changing within the neighborhood. At the end of the
story, when Boori Ma is stripped of her life savings and thrown onto the
streets by her entire neighborhood, she is indifferent. She is the epitome of a
strong woman. She picks and dusts herself off, and continues along the way,
hardly pausing to look back. Boori Ma never complains and refuses to let events
or people drag her down. She is the type of person to strive be to be as
Kipling says.
To me “If” by Rudyard Kipling, is about true happiness. My book, The Battle of the Sun by Jeanette Winterson, was about self-discovery as well. I suppose that I took self-discovery not only as finding your true personality, but also as finding true happiness. I believe that life is a journey and it comes with its ups and downs. Which is why I too really like the quote, “If you can meet Triumph with Disaster / And treat those two imposters the same” (Kipling l. 11-12). This statement really proves the point that you can’t get hung up on life’s difficulties and still be happy, but you also can’t live off of one achievement forever. Life moves on, and as people we must too.
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ReplyDeleteYour presentation and thesis created a large emphasis on ambiguous endings and their link to character development. I find ambiguous endings on of the more difficult sections to analyze because there are so many possible interpretations that could be viable and/or supported by the text. Connecting ambiguous endings to character development will give a new way to analyze these endings and focus on strong interpretations.
DeleteI love this poem by Kipling. It really lays out the steps to be an adult in simple language and diction, so that those still growing up, the poem's main audience, can easily understand the steps to adulthood. However, he doesn’t make this steps easy. You have to “dream---[but] not make dreams your master” and think, but “not make thoughts your aim” (Kipling 9-10). Qualifying his advice allows the youthful audience to fully comprehend what he means, and warns them that it will not be as easy as it may appear. I also appreciate how Kipling structures the rhyme scheme. The ABABCDCD structure makes the poem more sing-songy and child-like, juxtaposing the poem's message of maturity. This juxtaposition really underscores the paradox of how easy and yet difficult it is to "be a Man" (Kipling 32).
I like the that one of the main points of the poem is brought up as that life should be lived so that a feeling of achievement unlocked is fulfilled. The connection between this and nature, as mentioned by the existence of the storm and concomitant waves, paints a good picture of what this feeling and sentiment might be. At the very least, this mechanism is an effective method ( at least for me) to understand the message that the speaker attempts to convey.
ReplyDeleteHaving read "The White Man's Burden" by Rudyard Kipling in response to the criticism surrounding the true intentions of imperialism, I was exuberant to find that you had selected "If" as a poem. Yes, the poem explores the complexity of though in response to desire juxtaposed with necessity. And yes, "you can dream," but the key to survival is to "not make dreams your master" (9). Nothing exists to protect us, nothing "Except the will" (24). This provides the individual with the choice. To live or to die. To remain grounded on moral convictions or to sacrifice integrity. To be balanced or on the edge of internal destruction. Once the son has experience, enduring innumerable hardships, he will be considered to have matured into a man.
ReplyDeleteTo me “If” by Rudyard Kipling, is about finding true happiness. My book, The Battle of the Sun by Jeanette Winterson, was about self-discovery as well. I suppose that I took self-discovery not only as finding your true personality, but also as finding true happiness (the two run almost hand-in-hand). I believe that life is a journey and it comes with its ups and downs. Which is why I too really like the quote, “If you can meet Triumph with Disaster / And treat those two imposters the same” (Kipling l. 11-12). This statement really proves the point that you can’t get hung up on life’s difficulties and still be happy. Society tends to make even small things seem large and dramatic. Some of the press especially at fault for making everything that happens to a celebrity seem like the end of the world. If we really stop to think about the stories though, we come to realize that we have almost the same exact occurrences in our own lives. We hear that someone famous has done some life changing event and we decide to make them out role model and do it too, but we can’t live off of one achievement forever. "It" summarizes this into the simple idea of finding one's self and one's true happiness. Life moves on, and as people we must too.
ReplyDeleteHaving read “The White Man’s Burden” by Rudyard Kipling in response to the criticism surrounding the true intentions of imperialism, I was exuberant to find that you had selected “If” as a poem. Yes, the poem explores the complexity of thought in response to desire juxtaposed with essential needs. And yes, “you can dream,” but the key to survival is to “not make dreams your master” (Kipling 9). Nothing exists us to protect us, nothing “Except the Will” (Kipling 24). Of course, through employing an apostrophe, Kipling places emphasis on individual will, the ability to make decisions for yourself based on an objective truth. This gives the individual the choice. To live or to die. To remain grounded on moral convictions or to sacrifice integrity. To be balanced or to be on the edge of internal destruction. The father has instructed his son to “never breathe a word about [his] loss[es]” (Kipling 20). Throughout the poem, however, the son is contemplating what it takes to become a man, revealing his image as a prepubescent child. Once the son has the experiences described by the father he will be considered to be a man, achieving equality with his own father while gaining respect.
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