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Chapter 1
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
Flory, a black-haired, haggard man of 35 with a large birthmark on his left cheek, walks from his house to the European Club with Flo, his cocker spaniel. The European Club, the town’s true power center, refuses to admit non-white men. A river flows behind it. As Flory—hung over—walks toward the Club, he curses the town, Kyauktada, as a “bloody hole.” On the steps outside the club, he encounters Mr. Westfield, the District Superintendent of Police. After complaining of the heat, the two men go inside.
The novel is careful to describe Flory’s large birthmark, hinting that it has an important symbolic meaning without yet revealing that meaning. Meanwhile, the revelation that the heart of power in Kyauktada is a European Club that excludes non-white people illustrates the racist hierarchies on which British colonial rule in Burma are based.
Themes
In the shabby club lounge, Flory and Westfield encounter Mr. Lackersteen, who manages a timber firm’s affairs in the area; Ellis, manager of another company; and Maxwell, “acting Divisional Forest Officer.” Mr. Lackersteen has a niece arriving that day and is hung over; he calls for brandy. He's a “simple-minded man” who chases pleasure, primarily alcohol and Burmese girls. His wife Mrs. Lackersteen watches him like a hawk to keep him from debauchery.
Mr. Lackersteen’s implied sexual exploitation of Burmese girls, like U Po Kyin’s implied sexual exploitation of the young village girl in the previous chapter, hints that British Burma’s culture is misogynistic, hierarchical, and thus a breeding ground for sexual exploitation.
Themes
Ellis, a sarcastic little man with a Cockney accent, reads aloud from a notice Mr. Macgregor has posted suggesting that the Club should discuss inducting a non-white member. Using racial slurs, Ellis claims that they should resist allowing non-white men into the club. Then he asks what Flory thinks. Before Flory can respond, Ellis curses him for being friends with Dr. Veraswami and for possibly wanting Veraswami in the club. Ellis, though intelligent, loathes non-white people; he’s “one of those Englishmen—common, unfortunately—who should never be allowed to set foot in the East.”
Though the British colonial project is supposedly one of racial uplift, British companies send men like Ellis—outspoken racists “who should never be allowed to set foot in the East”—to manage companies that economically exploit colonial peoples. There is a disjunction between the supposed “uplift” project and the actual racism and exploitative nature of British presence in Burma that underscores the hypocrisy of British imperialism.
Themes
Flory shakily points out that he didn’t suggest inducting a native man into the club, but Ellis continues to criticize Flory for befriending Dr. Veraswami. When Maxwell tells Ellis to calm down and have a drink, Ellis criticizes all his fellows for treating non-whites “as equals” and socializing with them: Westfield likes his native police subordinates, Maxwell has affairs with “Eurasian tarts,” and Macgregor wants to open the club to a non-white man. Westfield calls the butler to bring beer.
In the first chapter, U Po Kyin predicted that white British Flory would not be loyal to his non-white friend Dr. Veraswami. This scene indicates that U Po Kyin was right, at least for now: rather than defending his friend Dr. Veraswami to Ellis, Flory in mealy-mouthed fashion defends himself by dodging responsibility for attempting to racially integrate the European Club. Ellis’s rant against white men treating non-white people as equals reemphasizes his racism, while the mention of Maxwell’s affairs with “Eurasian tarts”—that is, biracial sex workers—again hints that exploitative sexual relationships across racial lines are a common feature of British Burmese colonial life.
Themes
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Westfield asks Flory whether he’s returning to the jungle. Flory says yes: he only came to town for mail from England. The men talk about when the priest, who comes every six weeks, will next give a service, and Ellis, who calls church “knee-drill,” complains about non-white Christians in the church and criticizes missionaries for teaching native people they were equal in religious matters to the British. Mr. Lackersteen praises the legs of a woman in the magazine he’s reading, and all the men share dirty rhymes they know, which improves the mood.
Here the novel again highlights the disjunction between the benevolent racism of British claims to “uplift” non-white colonized peoples through exposure to British culture (e.g., European Christianity) and the actual, malevolent racist attitudes of men like Ellis, who wish missionaries wouldn’t convert non-white people because Christianity teaches that all human beings are equal under God and so undermines racial status hierarchies.
Themes
Macgregor and Mrs. Lackersteen enter the club. Mrs. Lackersteen—who regularly endures many discomforts to accompany her untrustworthy husband into the jungle—nevertheless complains about the heat and the native servants’ increasing insolence. The whole club agrees that “India is going to the dogs.” Ellis, bringing up Macgregor’s notice, says he wants no “niggers” in the club. Macgregor, fond of native people so long as they’re subjugated, criticizes Ellis’s use of an inaccurate racial slur. Ellis says his language doesn’t matter: no one wants non-white people in the club, unless Flory wants Dr. Veraswami. Macgregor—who was told by a superior to propose inducting a non-white man—changes the subject and calls for drinks.
The United Kingdom administered British Burma as part of British India until 1937, so when the British characters claim that “India is going to the dogs,” they are complaining about a set of colonial holdings that includes Burma where they are located. Their complaints about native servants’ supposed insolence makes clear that they desire a clear racial status hierarchy in which non-white people act subordinate to them as white Britons. Ellis’s use of a racial slur underscores the virulence of his racism, while Macgregor’s more polite racism—he likes non-white people so long as they lack power—shows that one need not use racial slurs to support white supremacy.
Themes
Ellis, Westfield, and Mrs. Lackersteen complain that the Empire has gone soft and that the native people no longer show respect. They sigh over Dyer, as if Dyer were a martyr. Flory, disgusted by their “evil-minded drivel,” excuses himself. After he’s gone, Ellis calls him “Booker Washington.” Westfield claims Flory’s all right, just a little “Bolshie,” and Macgregor calls him a “good fellow”—something people say about every single European in India unless they do something terrible. Then the club members continue to complain about the native people. Europeans working in Burma are often “disagreeable” because they are “baited and insulted” by native high-schoolers and because they work in very uncomfortable conditions. Eventually, they leave the club.
“Dyer” likely refers to Colonel Reginald Dyer (1864–1927), an officer in the British Indian Army who in 1919 ordered British soldiers to fire on Indian protestors in Amritsar, killing almost 400 people. He was subsequently removed from his position. Ellis, Westfield, and Mrs. Lackersteen’s claim that Dyer was essentially a martyr to political correctness shows that they place little value on Indian life. Though Flory believes their conversation is “evil-minded drivel,” he doesn’t speak up against them, showing that he feels constrained in revealing his true thoughts to the other British people in Kyauktada. When Ellis calls Flory “Booker Washington,” he is alluding to Booker T. Washington (1856–1915), the famous African American educator; it’s a somewhat nonsensical racist taunt. When Westfield calls Flory “Bolshie,” meanwhile, he means “Bolshevik,” a reference to Russian Marxists meant to suggest that Flory sympathetic to radical left politics. Ellis and Westfield’s characterizations of Flory show that even if Flory tries to keep his opinions to himself, the other British people in Kyauktada can sense that he disagrees with their conservative and racist imperial politics.
Themes
