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Chapter 24
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Burmese Days, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Imperialism and Hypocrisy
Status and Racism
Class, Gender, and Sex
Freedom of Speech, Self-Expression, and Loneliness
Friendship and Loyalty
Summary
Analysis
The clergyman presides over Flory’s funeral before leaving Kyauktada. Though Dr. Veraswami manages to get the death declared an accident, everyone believes Flory died by suicide “over a girl.” It shocks no one but Elizabeth: suicide is common among Europeans in Burma. Veraswami is left without European protection, and U Po Kyin succeeds in getting him demoted and transferred to a less prestigious hospital in a worse town with worse pay.
The revelation that suicide is common among British people in Burma hints that Flory is not the only one alienated and morally tormented by British imperialism’s violence, hypocrisy, and thought-censoring culture. Meanwhile, the ultimate social and career victory of self-serving official U Po Kyin over honest official Dr. Veraswami underscores the corruption of British Burma’s government.
Themes
With the 400 rupees Flory left Ko S’la in his will, Ko S’la starts a tea shop, but the business fails. After a long period of poverty, he ends up working as a servant for a Rangoon rice merchant. Ma Hla May ends up a sex worker in Mandalay; her clients underpay her and beat her. U Po Kyin is elected to the European Club, receives a promotion, eventually becomes Deputy Commissioner, and enriches himself through bribes. Shortly before his retirement, the Indian government gives him an award for his career, especially for “crushing a most dangerous rebellion.” Yet, days later, he dies of apoplexy before building any pagodas to aid his reincarnation.
Ultimately, every major Burmese character in the novel meets a bad end. Though Flory tries to take care of Ko S’la in his will, Ko S’la ends up a servant again. Ma Hla May, dependent on men for her livelihood, ends up abused and underpaid in sex work. Even U Po Kyin, though his career goes well, dies immediately upon retirement before he can start the good deeds he planned to carry out to ensure a decent reincarnation. These bad ends indirectly argue that British colonial culture is bad for the colonized Burmese, limiting their prospects and harming even those who seem able to game the system.
Themes
A few months later, Elizabeth is preparing to return to England “penniless and unmarried” when Macgregor asks her to marry him—as he has been planning to do since Flory’s death. Elizabeth says yes, because while Macgregor is old for her, he’s also Deputy Commissioner. They live happily, and Elizabeth becomes a burra memsahib, terrorizing her servants and obsessing over the Civil List.
Elizabeth marries Macgregor because he’s Deputy Commissioner—that is, because he has social status and can support her economically. The phrase burra memsahib, English slang derived from Hindi, essentially means “head married white woman.” That is, Elizabeth has taken over from Mrs. Lackersteen the role of white British woman enforcing, on a social and domestic level, status-consciousness and white supremacy. This ending ironically reinforces readers’ sense that even if Elizabeth had accepted Flory’s marriage proposal, she would never have been the confidante, companion, and guardian of freely shared thoughts that he wanted. He was always projecting onto her—and, through her, onto English culture—a purity, possibility, and freedom from conventionality that she did not possess.
Themes
