Kim

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Consider the diversity of the Indian subcontinent. What are the major religions, languages, and cultures in this region? Can this region be understood as monolithic or multifaceted? Explain.

Teaching Suggestion: This Short Answer question invites students to consider the cultural, historical, and religious contexts as they relate to the novel’s theme of Religious and Cultural Diversity. While students may not be aware of the intricacies of the diversity of India, this question is an opportunity for classes to understand that the subcontinent cannot be understood as a monolith. Historically, this region of the world is home to ancient cultures, languages, and religions that, due to its geographical location between the Far East and Europe, were exposed to a variety of influences around the world through trade and territorial expansion. Kipling explores this idea in his text, as the characters of Kipling’s novel oscillate between various languages (e.g., English, Punjabi, Urdu, etc.), belief systems, manners of dress, and customs in their multicultural relations. This Short Answer question connects with the Paired Text Extension of the main Activity.

• The Pew Research Center shares information regarding “Diversity and Pluralism” in India.
• This teacher-facing resource provides a plethora of information, along with discussion questions, on the subject of “British Attitudes Towards India.”

2. At the end of the 18th century, at the height of its colonial expansion, imperial officer George Macartney observed that the British Empire was “the empire on which the sun never sets.” What were the effects of British colonialism and imperialism on colonized regions? How did writers of the British Empire present the colonies of the empire to inhabitants of the metropole?

Teaching Suggestion: This question invites students to consider the historical context of the British Empire as it relates to the themes of Personal Identity and Religious and Cultural Diversity. From the 17th to the early 20th centuries, the isle of Great Britain invaded or otherwise took possession of colonies in Australia, Africa, Asia, and North America, establishing settlements, trade routes, and local governments, all under the banner of British imperialism. Kipling’s writing career coincided with the prime years of the British Empire, and his works show the effect of colonialism on the literature of that time. Kipling’s writings, enormously popular in the metropole of England, provided a window into the lives of people in the colonies through a pro-colonial perspective, allowing ordinary citizens of the British empire to see how far imperialism reached as well as to possess a sense of justification of Western presence in the lands of the “orient.”

• Britannica Kids provides a succinct overview of the British Empire.
• The Guardian discusses post-colonial perspectives of imperialist literature in the 2014 opinion piece “British Readers and Writers Need to Embrace Their Colonial Past.”

Short Activity

During his decades-long career, author Rudyard Kipling wrote hundreds of poems, short stories, and novels, many of which focused on British imperialism and life in the British colonies. Working in small groups, select one of Kipling’s texts of which to share an overview with the class. Analyze how Kipling approaches the discussions of colonialism and British imperialism in his text. In particular, how does he discuss themes such as Life as a Game, Personal Identity, and Religious and Cultural Diversity?

Teaching Suggestion: This Short Activity invites students to explore Kipling’s works within the context of the novel’s themes. Based on the level of the class, students may complete this Short Activity as an informal sharing of information, or a formal in-class presentation, complete with relevant visuals and videos.

• Britannica shares a background of Rudyard Kipling.
• The Kipling Society provides a list of Kipling’s works.

Differentiation Suggestion: For a creative addition to this Short Activity, the following question may be added to the above prompt: After presenting your works, come together in a class discussion to make a visual timeline of Kipling’s works. Are there any patterns in Kipling’s subjects and themes over the course of his career? If so, what are they?

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

What factors shape a person’s identity? How do the experiences a person faces as a child shape who they become?

Teaching Suggestion: This Personal Connection Prompt invites students to consider the theme of Personal Identity and prepares them to meet Kipling’s Kim, who has a complicated understanding of who he is. His context is unusual, as he comes of age passing as a native child in a culture that is not his own. Furthermore, Kim learns how to navigate life on the streets, altering his appearance, language, and mannerisms depending on his audience. As a result, Kim’s notion of identity causes him to struggle throughout. Students may wish to consider how their identity would be different if they spent their formative years in a different world than their own. They may also like to discuss how adversarial life conditions affect who a person becomes.