Orientalism In The Man Who Would Be King

In analyzing The Man Who Would Be King orientalism is depicted as being quite the opposite of what the western culture sees it to be throughout the film. Orientalism is the point of view that the western man has on the eastern culture. Huston’s attempt to treat the differences between western and eastern cultures are present by the presentence of two ex-British officers, Peachy Carnehan and Daniel Dravot. In the western culture, people are characterized as masculine, democratic, and logical to name a few. While on the other hand, the eastern culture is seen to be the opposite as feminine, despotic, and superstitious. The fusion of both the British and the native people of Kafristan demonstrated the key differences between the eastern and western …show more content…
Huston uses a scene early in the film that portrays how the west is masculine and the east is feminine. Peachy and Daniel show their lust for dominance by heading out to become kings and gods of a small civilization that was thought to be submissive. Ambition and intrigue lead both Peachy and Daniel to seek out a place that seemed to be below them which leads them to Kafristan. The people of Kafristan showed how submissive that they were by allowing Daniel to take over as King. For a short time they were both able to accomplish their goals of taking over as gods, but they were short-lived as the so thought weak civilization was able to overthrow Peachy and …show more content…
In the mind of someone that is raised in a western culture many ideals are held consistent. Masculinity in a biological sense is seen to dominant over femininity. Democracy is seen as the only way to rule a government, while autocratic is seen as inadmissible for people to live under. The final ideal is the conflicting thought of logic and superstition. Superstition is a thought provoked by feeling and emotion, while logic is used to disprove superstition by following strict principles of validity. In one of the final scenes, Preachy brings Daniel’s head with the crown of Alexander the Great attached back to India. The message that the scene can be interpreted to be that if a person stereotypes a group, then that same person will ultimately flounder. Hudson sheds light on how orientalism can be realized to be true, but he also shows how that notion can be disproven through a closer look at the eastern