Gunga Din(er)

Chapter 1, Page 4--First "Gunga Diner" sign.

"Gunga Din" is a poem by Rudyard Kipling, written in 1892. The poem is about a "bhisti," or water-carrier, who saves the narrator's life and is then killed himself. Sacrifice is a huge theme in The Watchmen. The atomic bomb is discussed many times, and, as my last post shows, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima is shown as being a good thing because it saved many more lives than the ones it killed. Veidt thinks this same way, that killing many New Yorkers will save the country and world from entering a World War that would kill more, and will help them to achieve world peace. Moloch is a word for sacrifice as well as a character in the novel. Watchmen poses moral questions about sacrifice in order to save better things. This poem helps that; although, in "Gunga Din," nothing better is saved by Gunga Din's death. The famous last line of the poem, spoken by the man who was saved by Gunga Din, admits this, saying, "Tho' I've belted you an' flayed you, By the livin' Gawd that made you, You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!"

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