The Imperialist Experience
Maugham has asserted that the events which occur as a result of the conflict which grows between the Englishmen at its center could only have happened during the height of the country of the nation’s imperialist expansion and only if both men were in the same colony. Why? Because if they had never left England, the differences in class and social standing would have all but ensured they never had the chance to come into conflict with each other.
The Localization of Colonial Economics
The conflict between how the foreigners treat the indigenous people o British Colonial Malay provides Maugham with an opportunity to shed light on a colonial strategy not often portrayed either in storie that critique or defend the system. Mr. Warburton’s pragmatic approach to the locals eschews the desire to mercilessly exploit them or idealistically take on the role of assimilating them into a superior culture. His part in the complex machinery of colonialism is to efficiently manage a business that just so happens to rely upon colonial labor. Through Warburton, the reader gets a rare chance to view British expansionism through the lens of colonial microeconomics rather than imperialist macroeconomics.
The Psychological Pitfalls of Isolationism
Within the broader survey of imperialism and colonialism by an entire nation can be found the theme wherein the wick of the narrative is lit. As Maugham insists, the Oxford-educated snob and the boor from Barbados would likely never have crossed paths back in England and even if they had, there would be little opportunity for familiarity to breed into contempt. Place these same two men on a faraway British colonial possession and force them to work together, however, and the only thing keeping that contempt from reaching a boiling point would be the simulation of their respective cultural differences back home. The tragic events were not predetermined so much by class differences and personality as by the lack of the kind of outlets available back home that could have served to reduce the heat growing between to a low simmer. Instead, both men are not symbolic representatives of their respective classes, they actually are the class in isolated form. Tragedy was therefore dependent less on the differences in social class than in the differences in personal class. Score this win for Warburton rather than Oxford.
