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Unreliable Narrator
Explanation and Analysis—Prejudiced Narrator:
The narrator of “The Man Who Would Be King,” while more worldly and level-headed than Carnehan and Dravot, is still an unreliable source of information. This is because the narrator is clearly prejudiced against people of other races, low-income white people, and women. The following passage, which comes at the beginning of the story, communicates the narrator’s racist and classist beliefs:
There had been a Deficit in the Budget, which necessitated travelling, not Second-class, which is only half as dear as First-class, but by Intermediate, which is very awful indeed. There are no cushions in the Intermediate class, and the population are either Intermediate, which is Eurasian, or native, which for a long night journey is nasty, or Loafer, which is amusing though intoxicated.
Here, the narrator complains that he has to travel by “Intermediate” class on a train in India because being around native Indians “for a long night journey is nasty.” That he doesn’t feel the need to explain himself makes it clear that Kipling's (primarily white British) readers will agree with the racist belief that Indians are inherently “nasty.” The narrator’s description of “Loafers” (or low-income white British people living in India) as “amusing though intoxicated” also indicates that he places himself far above such people. He clearly sees uneducated people like Carnehan and Dravot as people who serve to entertain him.
Later in the story, the narrator complains about the British women who come to the newspaper office asking him and the other journalists to write stories about the work they are doing offering medical care and education to Indian women, writing such a thing off as not part of “an Editor’s duty.” This moment makes it clear that he does not prioritize the needs of either British or Indian women. Because of the narrator’s various prejudices, then, he should not be read as a reliable source of information.
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