King Solomons Mines Essays -- Henry Rider Haggard

Henry Rider penurious sets out to reach an epic tale of courage, a breathtaking drama that attempts to capture, within its limits, the universal spirit of adventure. He appeals in particular to the proverbial young virile that seeks an audacious inspiration in life by which to model his own. He entices his readers because his motives lie simply in his desire to entertain, to delight, and to enthrall anyone with a prolific imagination. However, this purely entertaining account of an eclectic and adventuresome trio clearly manifests its motives by the simple elimination ambiguity, leaving little or postcode to the whims of infinite interpretation. As it is, everything within the novel seems to have the intention of creation taken with a grain of salt. Haggard knew his audience, a pretentious and loyal society bent on world domination or at the very least determined to reduce the rest of the world to cypher more than a means to meet their desires. And with these precepts in min d, Haggard creates a fantastical tale, taking heed of what is socially acceptable and what is not, all the go maintaining western superiority over the rest of the world.The fact of the matter is, that I thought that the best plan would be to tell the story in a plain straightforward mannerI cannot help view that simple things be always the most impressive, books are easier to understand when they are written in plain language, though I have perhaps no right to set up an opinion on such a matter. (Haggard 6).In this introduction/disclaimer, Allan Quatermain as our narrator, comes clean with his intentions, providing a stabilizing retrospective for the ensuing epitaph. He seems well aware of the vague decline between words int residueed for fiction and those intended for controversy. And by designating the comic old Quatermain as narrator, Haggard vicariously endear himself to his readers by exuding a simple humility in light of his grander than grand expos, all the date disp osing of the pretense intrinsic to most literary works. Haggard, due to the relative esthesia of his subject matter, has no desire to have his novel the target of untamed and unwanted social and literary criticism. In that, he makes certain that he reaffirms his intentions of entertainment rather than controversy.In addition, despite Haggards universal use of juxtaposition throughou... ... complexion Twala is described as Twala the One-eyed, the Black, and the Terrible (Haggard 118), not coincidently the only true Black among them. The plot is action-packed, carried along by one outstanding scene after another in which we as readers are peach to amazing feats of strength, bravery, and guile, leaving little or no time for readers to rest much on any aspect of the novel except the plot. Haggard even goes so far as to implement a dissentious source of comic relief in the form of Good, whom we see deified by the Kukuanas, who delight in the sight of his bare legs, transparent e ye, half-haired face, and vanishing teeth (118 Haggard). By the end of the novel we see all strings tied, imparting a grit of conclusive triumph without controversy. Haggards audience gets exactly what it wants, the threatening evil doers are vanquished peace, justice, and tranquility are returned to Kukuana land our deserving livid and pseudo-white heroes are the benefactors of the plunders of Solomons fabled mines and we as readers are left good entertained. Work CitedHaggard, H. Rider. King Solomons Mines. 1989. Oxford, New YorkOxford World Classics 1998