Joseph A. Montagna
1st paragraph: “ . . . today . . . ” good lead off paragraph for the narrator. Do we know who he is by the final paragraph of part one (p. 6)? Who are Peachey and Dan?
Paragraph 1, p.6: “Then I became respectable . . . ” He got a job in a newspaper office. Where is it? (refer to map of India) What is the office like? What does the narrator think of his existence there?
pp. 7-11 “ . . . one Saturday night . . . ” we meet Peachey and Dan again. They are going off to become kings. This scene may spur some good discussions, i.e. their Contrack.
pp. 11-13: Peachey and Dan make it across the border in a caravan. The narrator saw them off on their journey and describes the Serai and the day in question. Many caravans form there. Many strange characters gravitate to such places (just like the bar in Star Wars).
p. 13: Two years pass. Peachey enters. Why didn’t the narrator recognize him? Peachey then tells the story of the past two years. Interrupting Peachey very seldomly, the narrator asks some of the questions the reader might ask.
Everything between this point and p. 27 is about Dravot and Peachey’s adventures; what they did, what they thought and what motivated them. This part offers many opportunities to talk about the essence of imperialism, helping one party to defeat its enemy in order to gain power over all, a practice in which Peachey and Dan often engaged. P. 15 is where Peachey tells about their first encounter with natives of separate villages who were fighting. Here is the first example of imperialism. With their superior weapons, defeating the natives of one village was child’s play. After the fight Dravot is revered. He then sets down the limits of their territories. They train select villagers to march in close order drill and handle weapons, then move on to other villages.
pp. 13-17: What is the Craft? What is the significance of the symbol? What was Dravot’s experience that helped him become king?
pp. 19-21: The symbol on the stone is the same as that on Dravot’s apron. What is the symbol?
p. 21: Nation to Empire. Dravot notices that the color of the natives’ skin is lighter as they move on through their conquests. He notices that their features are more like his own. “They’re English!”, he declared, while, in the same breath, denigrating the darker peoples of the world. His delusions of grandeur are evident in the last paragraph on p. 21.
p. 22: Dravot wants a wife. Refer back to “Contrack”, as did Peachey.
pp. 22-25: dialogue on the topic of Dravot’s search for a proper wife.
p. 25: marriage ritual begins. She appears to suit Dravot’s tastes. When she is asked for a kiss she bites Dravot on the neck instead. Upon seeing the blood the priest realizes that Dan is not a god. He shouts, “Neither God nor Devil, but a man”. To say that trouble began here for Dan and Peachey would be an understatement.
pp. 25-27: we learn of Dravot’s death and the grisly details.
p. 27: back to the newspaper office. Both men are changed by the telling of the story.
p. 28: the contents of the horsehair bag are revealed.
p. 29: “Two days later . . . ” the concluding dialogue between the superintendent of the asylum and the narrator.
