When Love and Determination Work Together - Free Essay on Rudyard Kipling

What comes to your mind when you hear the name Rudyard Kipling? I'm probable you all would have something to say about this person in question and pretty sure it would all revolve around literature, poetry, and the like. Personally, I think he was a man born ahead of his time and had a way of connecting deeply with those who read his literature works by use of words. He had this gift in him that would make you long for more and more. He expresses the deepest, truest, creative and entertaining thoughts in writing making it all seem so easy, as if no one could have done it better. This is a story of a brilliant writer/poet who forever will remain imprinted in our hearts and in the books of literature.

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He was the humble product of an English art teacher by the name John Lockwood and Alice Kipling. Born in the year 1865 in Bombay, India, he did not have the best of childhood. Well, at first he did enjoy his life in India and we even see him developing a love for Indian language, culture and country generally. He tells us this in his autobiography called Something of Myself for My Friends Known and Unknown. In this book he describes his first six years as paradise although this was short-lived. This is because at the mere age of six years he was sent by his parents together with his sister (who went by the name Trix) to England to pursue their education and this led him to living with a foster family (Kipling). This was rather a cynical and neglecting move of the parents if you asked me. Here he spent the next six years and grew to hate the place so much that he called it the House of Desolation.

To add salt to injury, Rudyard suffered periodic mistreatment by the foster mother and her son. In his book (Something of Myself), he tells us of how he literally went through hell from regular beatings to severe punishments. One moment for instance he recalls where he was publicly disgraced and beaten for throwing a poor performance report card instead of having delivered it home. Eventually, due to all this he was going through he suffered a nervous breakdown (Kipling).

His eyesight needed correction and so was prescribed glasses. Later on in 1978 he attended college at an institution by the name United Services College. Here he made three new friends who grew to be close and were fascinated in his literature works. Kipling was disqualified in military because of his poor eyesight and upon completion of his study course in 1882; he was bound back to India where he rejoined with his family. His parents were not in a financial position to send him to the university and this left him with no option than to return to his home country (Winston).

Back in India, he was given a job as an assistant editor at a newspaper (his father connected him to this job). This was where his career as a journalist officially began and for the next five years this was his occupation. It is during this time that he published Plain Tales from the Hills and Departmental Ditties making it his earliest poems. His literary works did not stop there; he published a few more collections such as Soldiers Three and Under the Deodars which enhanced his popularity (Winston).

Kipling returned to England to work on his dreams of being a writer. He did this with great success and soon after settling in London, he reached the epitome of his career in the year 1890 (which was also called Kiplings year). He was remarkably the best in literary work and his readers would praise him for his rhythms, radical sentiments and bringing the best of emotions all in his stories and poems. Well, critics who found this extreme also crucified him for the same reasons.

One would not fail to notice his love for language in his literary work. Vivid descriptions he used portrayed a man who was at his best and words alone were enough to deliver the pictures he wanted to put across. Some of his masterpiece, perhaps the best remembered works include: The Jungle Book, Rikkit Tikki Tavi, Just So Stories and Kim. He wrote so many other stories after that and they were equally great. His involvement in the Boer War in South Africa saw him assigned a post there as Honorary Literary Advisor. However, he had unpopular political views and this was something that cost him his audience as he became bitter and isolated. For example he did not have any faith in democratic government yet he felt for the lower classes of people. Kipling was contradictory like that and we even see him declining awards from his own government yet accepting from foreign nations.

He passed away in the year 1936 due to terminal painful illness.

In conclusion, Kiplings early life was not a bed of roses and was punctuated with too much hardship. However, this is not a reason strong enough to prevent him from pursuing his dreams and even attaining excellence in his career. He exhibits strong will and determination to achieve his goals and we see him doing what he must do to ensure success. Although his parents could not afford university, his passion for literature was burning inside him and at the age of 32, he was the highest paid writer.

Works Cited

Kipling, Rudyard. Something of Myself and Other Autobiographical Writings. New York: Cambridge, 1990.

Winston, Frederick. Rudyard Kipling. New York: New York Random House, 1978.