In the extract, what impression do you get of the relationship between the British and the Burmese?

In the extract, what impression do you get of the relationship between the British and the Burmese?

1. how are the British described?

   • vocabulary describing British installations metaphorical? parallel to white population?
   • Flory
     • male main character. first seen drunk = negative "bloody, bloody" = very English. Obnoxious?
     • half drunk previous night
       • "liverish"
     • Seems obnoxious, disrespectful
       • shouts "bloody hole" out loud to the tune of a religious song
   • Installations
     • bungalows
       • "dazzling white"
     • cemetery
       • "English", "white wall"
     • church
       • "tiny" "tin-roofed"
     • Club
       • "European" "dumpy One-storey wooden building" "proud boast" "never admitted an Oriental for membership" = intensely racist & posh

2. How are the Burmese described?

   • colourful, interesting, imagery
   • Irrawaddy
     • "huge and ochreous" "glittering like diamonds" "patches that caught the sun"
   • Native town
     • "hidden in green groves of peepul trees" described as peaceful, tranquil village disturbed by English arrival
     • pagoda
       • "rose from the trees like a slender spear tipped with gold"
   • the mali
     • meaning gardener
     • compared to an animal
       • "some large nectar-sucking bird"
   • gardens & plants
     • Burmese are nameless but described, British are named but enhanced by Burmese climate