Dravot’s Ambition

Ambition: Oxford dictionary defines it as “a strong desire to do or achieve something” and “desire and determinations to achieve success”. The philosopher Friederic Nietzsche calls this desire the “Will to Power”; it is with this will, this desire, that we manage to get a promotion at our jobs or save money to buy a new car. Its also with this desire that empires are made. In “The Man Who Would Be King”, a short story by Rudyard Kipling, who also wrote the adventures of wild boy Mowgli, two men decide to go to Kafiristan – today part of Afghanistan- in order to become kings. What caught my attenttion the most in the story was the character Daniel Dravot. He is the mastermind of the plot, leading his friend, Peachy Carnehan, in the adventure of conquering the tribes of Kafiristan and building a solid nation. Dravot speaks like a visionary; his words are able to inspire anyone who hears to fight your way to glory. However, everyone has their own form of ambition, their own peculiar goal in life. Dravot’s ambition isn’t to create his own empire but rather to gain the title of Knight of the Victorian aristocracy, a goal he attempts to achieve by uniting the Kafiristan tribes into a single army under service of the Victorian Empire. Dravot can be regarded as a symbol. A symbol that no dream is too big or too small if you are really willing to fight for it.