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Chapter 13
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
On the day of their hunting trip, Flory and Elizabeth ride in canoes with Ko S’la, Flo the dog, and Burmese guides toward a jungle village. When they come ashore, the village headman leads them to his house. Elizabeth, unwilling to enter “a native house” after the incident at Li Yeik’s, asks for chairs to be brought onto the veranda. Flory mentions that a leopard has been spotted around the village, but he suggests that they’ll probably only manage to find a few birds in the thick jungle. Elizabeth—who loves it when Flory talks about hunting rather than “mucky poetry”—decides he looks very manly. (He’s sitting with his birthmark away from her.)
Elizabeth’s refusal to enter “a native house” illustrates, yet again, her narrow-mindedness and racism. To Elizabeth, Flory’s discussion of the leopard contrasts with his discussion of “mucky poetry,” which hints that the leopard may represent Elizabeth’s positive conception of Flory as the conventional manly man who saved her from a buffalo. Interestingly, she approves of his masculinity while he is sitting with his birthmark—which suggests his social alienation—away from her. This, in turn, suggests that her approval of him comes of her not seeing the full picture of his personality.
Themes
Elizabeth asks Flory to describe tiger shooting to her. He dutifully narrates the time he shot a man-eating tiger, not realizing how much she thinks it “ma[kes] up for” his less attractive moments. Six young men and one older one walk up and tell Elizabeth and Flory that they’re ready to go. After the group has walked about half a mile, the young men “beat” scrub to scare up game. Nothing happens, much to Elizabeth’s chagrin. The group walks to the jungle’s edge, the young men beat again, and pigeons fly into the sky. Elizabeth, overexcited, misses, but Flory hits an imperial pigeon. Elizabeth feels both jealousy and “adoration” for Flory given his hunting skill.
Elizabeth believes that Flory’s hunting exploits help “ma[ke] up for” his flaws—which include, in her mind, his relatively progressive racial attitudes and interest in Burmese culture. This belief suggests that Elizabeth wants to marry and depend upon a conventional, high-status British man, and she is using hunting skill as a proxy for conventionality, status, and masculinity to judge whether Flory is a suitable husband for her.
Themes
Flory hits more birds, and Elizabeth kills nothing. Walking to the fifth beat, they spot an imperial pigeon on a branch. Flory suggests Elizabeth try to shoot it and gives her several tips. This time, though shaking, Elizabeth hits the pigeon. One beater brings it to her. After touching it and handing it to Ko S’la, who has the game bag, she longs to kiss Flory. Later, they come upon a flock of jungle fowl and Elizabeth instinctively shoots one. Excited, she and Flory run to the dead bird—and only then realize they’re holding hands. Flory’s about to kiss her when he remembers his birthmark and thinks, “not in daylight!” He drops her hands and picks up the dead bird instead.
Elizabeth’s desire to kiss Flory after handling the bird she killed subtly hints that exerting fatal power over animals sexually excites her. This subtle hint in turn suggests that the characters in the novel care so much about status because it is a stand-in for raw power, which people are atavistically attracted to. Meanwhile, Flory’s ongoing preoccupation with his own social difference and alienation, represented by his birthmark, shows that he does not understand Elizabeth’s excited reaction to hunting in general or his hunting skill in particular.
Themes
When Flory and Elizabeth rejoin the other hunters, they are clustered around an old woman who tells them she saw the leopard. Flory suggests to Elizabeth that they could try to hunt the leopard, and Elizabeth excitedly agrees even after Flory warns her of the potential danger. Flory, Elizabeth, and a young Burmese hunter crouch behind a bush while the beaters beat. Elizabeth is agonized by the thought that the leopard won’t come—but then it slinks out of the undergrowth just 15 years away. Flory jumps up and shoots the leopard twice but doesn’t kill it. He can’t find any more large cartridges, and the leopard is approaching, so Elizabeth shoots to scare it away. Then Flory loads his gun with smaller cartridges, chases the fleeing leopard, and shoots it dead.
Given Elizabeth’s deliberations over whether Flory is a good example of British masculinity—and given her intense emotional and sexual investment in hunting—Flory has likely unwittingly improved his standing with her a great deal by killing a dangerous predatory animal in front of her. Thus, at this point, the leopard seems to symbolize Elizabeth’s partial conception of Flory as a manly and dependable potential husband—a conception that his other beliefs and commitments cut against.
Themes
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Elizabeth and the other hunters join Flory around the leopard’s body to admire it. Some hunters make a bamboo pole from which to sling the leopard, and the group walks home. Flory and Elizabeth walk side by side, close together, behind the others. They feel intense joy at their “achievement.” Flory promises the leopard skin to Elizabeth, praises her bravery, and says he’ll get the skin cured for her by a talented convict at the local jail. Elizabeth thanks him. Though they say nothing more, they both know that Flory will propose marriage to Elizabeth.
When Flory promises the leopard skin to Elizabeth, it becomes a tacit agreement between them that he will propose to her. The link between the leopard skin and the proposal bolsters the symbolism of the leopard hunt: it represents Elizabeth’s positive but incomplete perception of Flory as competent, masculine, and conventional enough to please her.
Themes
