Question

Explain how Kim’s heritage influences his relationships with the people he encounters , including his friends. What does Kim think about the British who live in India? Use text from excerpt to support your answer

Answer 1

Kim's identity is particularly complicated. He is European by birth, but he has been immersed the culture of India his whole life. Kim displays the traits of both the British and the Indians, but he considers the British superior to the natives, as seen in this interaction with an Indian friend:
"There was some justification for Kim - he had kicked Lala Dinanath's boy off the trunnions - since the English held the Punjab and Kim was English."

However, Kim is not comfortable with the idea of interacting with Europeans, partly because of the kind of life he leads:

As he reached the years of indiscretion, he learned to avoid missionaries and white men of serious aspect who asked who he was, and what he did. For Kim did nothing with an immense success . . . . [and] missionaries and secretaries of charitable societies could not see the beauty of [what he did].

Kim avoids British men and women who live in India. Since he has grown up with the natives, he shares their mistrust of the Europeans.

Answer 2

Kim is European, but was raised within Indian culture, knowing customs and making friends with Indians. Only having had little contact with European culture does he believe that British residents in India are superior to Indians, perhaps due to the influence of European culture in the media and the overvaluation of Caucasians worldwide.

Even with this thought he cannot make friends with British people and is only more successful in socializing with native Indians, establishing contacts and friendships.

He does not identify himself as a European and finds it uncomfortable to be in their presence, for this reason, he avoids contacting them daily, establishing friendships only with Indians.