Who Is Mr Burnham In Sea Of Poppies

It is common knowledge that not everything in life can be fair and that not everyone gets treated equally. However, that does not mean that the unjust treatment of others is an any way acceptable. In the novel Sea Of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh uses the transportation of coolies, the opium trade, and the struggle of the lower class to unravel the exploiting power of colonialism and show how people with authority will do anything in order to maintain their power and feel righteous in doing so. One of the most powerful Characters in the novel is Mr. Burnham. He is an affluent self made European man, and most importantly he is the owner of the Ibis. He is not necessarily a hateful man but he is definitely an opportunist sometimes bordering on insensitive. He is proud of what he owns and it is …show more content…
Infact, it is all for a noble cost. It is for the sake of freedom. He reveals his thoughts on slavery and coolie transport to Zachary. He tells him that the abolition of slavery is a shame because “ … there are many who’ll stop at nothing to halt the march of human freedom...Freedom, yes, exactly,..Isn’t that what the mastery of the white man means for the lesser races?” (Pg. 79). The irony in what he says is tremendous. To become a slave means to be legally owned by another person and to be controlled and forced to work for no compensation. A slave is completely stripped from their freedom and human rights. So it sounds absolutely absurd when Mr. Burnham states such things. This is a great insight into the white masters’ mind. They justify such horrible actions with backwards logic. By abolishing slavery people take away the ability of the white man to free the Africans from their savagery. But in reality the only freedom they are truly worried about is their own. The freedom of being the “superior” race and making money off the back of others. There is also irony in