Amulets Symbol Analysis

In Kim, amulets symbolize the irreducibility of identity and the socially constructed nature of its traditional markers, like race, ethnicity, and culture. Both amulets in the novel reveal something essential to Kim’s identity which is not obvious from appearance alone. The amulet-case gifted to Kim by his father, for instance, reveals his Irish or white heritage, despite the fact that Kim looks and acts like an Indian native. Similarly, the amulet gifted to him by Hurree Babu reveals his status as a  "Son of the Charm," an organization of “Asiatic” spies, despite his looking and acting like a Buddhist chela. In this way, the two amulets juxtapose Kim’s exterior and interior identity, pointing to the difficulty of reducing someone like Kim to a single label like “white” or “Indian”; he is neither and both.

The amulets speak to the irreducibility of identity in another way, too. While the first amulet reveals a piece of Kim’s identity, it is not a piece of identity Kim earned; he had no choice in who his parents were. By contrast, the amulet gifted to Kim by Hurree Babu is a product of Kim’s personal efforts; he had to earn Hurree’s trust to get it. Thus, while both amulets reveal something hidden about Kim, only one reveals something about Kim’s lived experience. As such, the amulets embody not only the irreducibility of identity but also its paradoxical duality—how people are both the product of forces outside of their control and forces in themselves, capable of enacting change in the world. Together, then, the amulets point to the enigma of identity; the closer you look, the less clearly defined it becomes.