By definition, an epigraph is writing used at the beginning of a work to set the tone or highlight specific themes. In Kim, Kipling uses an epigraph to open each chapter. Much of the text used in Kim's epigraphs is drawn from Kipling's other written pieces. The epigraph that opens Chapter Five is an excerpt from Kipling's poem, The Prodigal Son. This poem references one of Jesus' best-known parables. Kipling's poem is a meditation by the younger son in the parable, comparing the life he has returned to with the freer, happier life he knew on the road. As Chapter Five progresses, it is clear that this is a fitting choice for the chapter's epigraph. Chapter Five is the moment in the story in which Kim encounters his father's former regiment and is rudely greeted by Reverend Bennett and Father Victor. Essentially, Kim's contact with the Anglican chaplains changes the course of his life and brings about a momentary pause in the hero's nomadic journey as the lama's chela.
The epigraphs, in their concise and poetic form, seem to summarize the struggles experienced by the novel's characters. The epigraph that opens Chapter Eight is a meditation on Kim's duality and identity. It reads: "Something I owe to the soil that grew / More to the life that fed / But most to Allah Who gave me two / Separate sides to my head. / I would go without shirt or shoes, / Friends, tobacco or bread / Sooner than for an instant lose / Either side of my head." From this epigraph, we gather that Kim (like Kipling himself) powerfully identifies with two nations—both the colonizer and the colonized. The fracture in his life is confusing and disorienting, but it is, ultimately, essential to his being.
