Previous
Chapter 11
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Burmese Days, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Imperialism and Hypocrisy
Status and Racism
Class, Gender, and Sex
Freedom of Speech, Self-Expression, and Loneliness
Friendship and Loyalty
Summary
Analysis
Pacing his living room, U Po Kyin brags to his wife Ma Kin about his anonymous letters smearing Dr. Veraswami. Indeed, the letters are working: Macgregor is already wondering whether Veraswami is loyal or not—irrespective of anything Veraswami has done: “The point was, was the doctor the kind of man who would hold seditious opinions?” U Po Kyin has arranged for a prisoner named Nga Shwe O to escape from the jail Veraswami superintends—and then sent an anonymous letter to Macgregor claiming Veraswami was bribed to allow the escape. For some reason, suspecting Veraswami of bribery makes Macgregor suspect him of sedition also.
Macgregor’s political suspicions of Dr. Veraswami are obviously unfair. This unfairness intensifies the negativity of the novel’s portrayal of British colonial government in Burma. Moreover, the vague and totalizing nature of Macgregor’s suspicions—which aren’t even about what Veraswami has done but about “the kind of man” he is—suggest the censorious and precariousness of British Burmese society, where perceived disloyalty can destroy one’s life and career. This censoriousness and precariousness help explain why Flory is so afraid to speak his opinions freely to the people around him.
Themes
U Po Kyin’s anonymous letters to the other Europeans have also been successful: he has scared off Flory. He has also convinced Westfield (who dislikes U Po Kyin) that Veraswami is conspiring with U Po Kyin, and he’s insinuated to Mrs. Lackersteen that Veraswami is persuading native men to rape white women—an event of which Mrs. Lackersteen has a hysterical fear.
Mrs. Lackersteen’s hysterical fear that non-white men might rape white women—when, conversely, most of the novel’s white men are sexually exploiting non-white women—points to both the silliness and the corrosive hypocrisy of British racism in Burma.
Themes
U Po Kyin then brags to his wife Ma Kin of his plan’s climax: he has fomented a peasant rebellion in Thongwa, for which he plans to blame Veraswami—and which he himself plans to put down to make himself a hero. Ma Kin asks U Po Kyin to think of the rebelling villagers who will be killed or incarcerated, questioning why he even wants more money or fame and predicting terrible reincarnations for him. U Po reveals that his real motive isn’t money or fame: he knows that the Europeans are likely to elect a single native member to their Club, and he wants it to be him, not Veraswami. Ma Kin, overwhelmed by the idea of socializing with Europeans as equals, falls silent, no longer criticizing her husband.
Here readers learn that U Po Kyin’s deepest ambition is not money or fame but status—specifically, status gained through proximity to whiteness. This revelation emphasizes the novel’s implicit viewpoint that human beings are fundamentally motivated by social status. It also suggests that racial hierarchies like the one the British Empire instituted in Burma are fundamentally corrupting because they cause people to act in immoral ways in pursuit of racialized status gains.
Themes
