‘Burmese days’ portrays the expansion of the British Empire into the third world during the 1930s presenting Colonialism’s constraints through the protagonist “Flory”. Orwell uses a third person narrative to explore themes of desolation, despair, love, and oppression. In a Marxist reading, Flory fails to revolt against the Capitalist hegemony that conditions him; this eventually causes a dialectic to occur which results in his own suicide. “It is never right to kill myself in order to relieve my own suffering because I am then using myself as a means of achieving my own ends – the relief of the suffering”. Kant’s quote illustrates Flory’s cowardice. He has the tools to cause a vanguard of the proletariat, but his failure to voice his consciousness of the “slimey white man’s burden” and friendship with a native to the ruling class shows his confinement and downfall.
Orwell refers to the British factor as The Club, here Flory is conditioned to exploit ‘the natives’ against their will. Flory is forced to contradict his egalitarian beliefs because he expropriates the natives through his vocation as a timber merchant. Flory says “The British Empire is simply a device for giving trade monopolies to the English”. This shows his opposition to Capitalism as it highlights the disregard the British have for the natives, and are only in it for the economic benefit. It is phrase that damns Flory as he has spent “fifteen years” in the country and is part of the controlling hegemony over the natives in “Kyauktada” which means he is unwillingly advocating the Capitalist ideology.
Flory attempts to fuel a vanguard of the proletariat by attempting to appoint his friend Dr. Veraswami to the Club. This will cause conflict to arise between himself and the British members of the Club, as they are against the appointment of a native, resulting in a possible revolt led by the doctor. However, Veraswami holds the British in a degree of veneration calling them “pukka sahib” and “honourable English gentleman!” highlighting a respect which forms a barrier to any revolt occurring. Flory’s egalitarian nature means he disagrees with “More banks and more prisons” because they expand Capitalist control over the economic progress of the proletariat, and the threat of imprisonment forces them to act within the law. Veraswami believes “The mighty-master mind” has brought “law and order” to the natives, transforming them into a civilised nation, improving the way people live. This shows the impact the British has had on the Doctor and how it has alienated him from the traditional Burmese culture of Paganism. It also increases Flory’s alienation from society, as his attempts to fuel a revolt can be deemed pointless because he and the doctor share opposing views on the Empire, sustaining a class divide and foreshadowing a climax to occur.
Orwell uses U Po Kyin to symbolise the proletariat who are bound by the Capitalist ideology. Saying that the proletariat are alienated into believing the Darwinian philosophy of the “Survival of the fittest”. Animalising U Po Kyin as a “crocodile” Implies a lack of human reasoning, and an immediate binary of Flory’s character who’s egalitarian nature means
and how with it progression is possible. U Po Kyin highlights the mane applying it that competition among human beings for one’s own success is just.
U Po Kyin mirrors the destructive nature of the ideology, he is compared to a “croco
Called “the crocodile” it is implied that U Po Kyin has a destructive nature. “His people were no match for this race of giants” implies he has a disregard for others’ lives. Orwell uses U Po Kyin’s take down of Flory, a British man (for his own appointment to the club) to show how Capitalism has stretched into the third world and alienated them. U Po Kyin’s actions however can be deemed paradoxical because the Club state they are “The last club to hold out against ‘em”, referring to the natives. Meaning Capitalism not only forced a native to alienate himself from his own culture, but also caused the needless targeting and destruction of Flory to occur. Showing that when the proletariat achieve consciousness, they will switch class roles with the bourgeoisie, and oppress them. This highlights that classes will remain, and Capitalism will progress further. After Flory’s death U Po Kyin gets appointed to the Club, providing evidence that Capitalism succeeds through the destruction of a man’s life.
The character Ellis is a parallel opposite to Flory, with a “spiteful cockney accent” and a hate toward the natives “with a bitter, restless loathing” he states that “I’ll rather die in a ditch before I see a nigger in here”. This opposes Flory’s nature of accepting the natives as equals. “Though by nature anything but a silent man”, Flory’s voice has “a way of trembling”, suggesting low confidence, and inability to express views against the racist Ellis. The friction between the two characters foreshadows a revolt, the revolt occurs when Flory announces his proposal of “Dr. Veraswami as a member” of the Club. Up until the proposed appointment Flory fears siding with the natives will jeopardise his freedoms as a British man. It is implied when Flory goes against the hegemony that he will justify his reasons for appointing a native because he “seldom found much to say in club conversations”. He fails to do this, and he commits suicide before the appointment is complete. Without the words of a British man (the bourgeoisie) the power of Veraswami’s words (the proletariat) do not carry enough weight to get him appointed to the club. Orwell implies that to rise above ones class, it is only possible with the help of the ruling class. With this in mind, it can be said a revolt is impossible because Flory was the only willing British man to suggest a native’s appointment but committed suicide.
Orwell uses Flory’s “birthmark” to represent a difference Flory has from the British, symbolising his alienation from them. His “birthmark” also alienates him from the Burmese, excluding him from both societies and making it inevitable for him to reach a dialectical moment. He fears the cost of being further isolated within society, causing an inability to live with the freedoms of the bourgeoisie. This causes him to put on an “incomprehensible dumb-show” [1] infront of the British which proves his actions to be contradictory as he shows an awareness of his own oppression yet “Turns away” showing the hierarchies conditioning.
Flory sees that Burmese culture is far superior to the British as it involves relationships formed from emotions, and the respect of nature.
An exchange value that creates surplus value through production costs and the distribution of wages forms the proletariat and the Bourgeoisie. Capitalism causes judgments of another person to take place on the amount and quality of material assets they own. This forces Veraswami, a native, to state he has “whisky, beer, vermouth and other European liquors”, the capitalist ideology alienates him into believing that the more material objects owned, increase the status of himself among the British. This ownership of material objects and status dictate relationships. “He felt stiff in her presence” shows the barrier formed between Elizabeth and Flory. Elizabeth is a petty bourgeois character who ends up marrying “A rather old perhaps but a Deputy Commissioner” Macgregor for the economic stability and status she’ll have “For which Nature had designed her from the first, that of a burra memsahib”, showing her disregard for equality in the household. This highlights the inevitably damning actions Flory commits to winning her hand in marriage. Orwell deliberately diverts expectations of a happy ending in marriage to highlight Capitalism’s destructive nature. Their ideologies oppose each other presenting forth a struggle within the same class.
Camus stated “At the end of the awakening comes in time, the consequence: suicide or recovery” [2]. Implying that the ‘truth’ of the capitalist superstructure can be damning, or cause a revolutionary change that enlightens one of their own standing in society.
Orwell shows how Flory is alienated from society by being born with a “birthmark”. Flory was never a suitable character to lead a revolt, his inability to accept his own appearance, his disagreement with his own class’s ideology, and his inability to voice his own opinions freely to his own class foreshadows a dialectical moment, “suicide or recovery”[3]? Flory upholds a false consciousness as a façade to keep intact his own freedoms as a bourgeois man. This shows a failed class struggle because he cannot communicate freely with his own class, he cannot educate his own class on the control the capitalist hegemony as they are content with a false consciousness. Being forced to live a secret life, discarded by Elizabeth, and taken down by U Po Kyin, his isolation from society in his opinion is finalised. Despair in being able to revolt and educate the bourgoisie leads him to take his own life.
[1], [2], [3] – The Myth of Sisyphus – Albert Camus