Father Wolfįather Wolf believes in the Law of the Jungle. Knowing that the only thing that will defeat Shere Khan is fire, Mowgli cleverly goes to the village and brings fire back to defeat Shere Khan.
One day, Shere Khan comes to the wolves’ den and demands the man-cub. Home for him is the jungle, not the village where men live. Knowing no other life, he thinks everything about his life is normal, but, of course, it isn’t. (Kipling claimed that Mowgli meant “Frog,” but he later admitted to making this up entirely.) Being raised by wolves and panthers, it is only natural that Mowgli would be crazy, wild, and brave.
When an Indian child comes to the wolves’ den, they lovingly take him in and name him Mowgli.
The wolf pack is alarmed because they follow the Law of the Jungle, which forbids the hunting of humans since they are defenseless. At the start of the story, a wolf pack hears that the tiger Shere Khan is hunting humans. The first character, of course, is the little man cub Mowgli. Although there are dozens of characters and groups of characters, a few play central roles in the main Mowgli stories. Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book stories are filled with anthropomorphic animals, from monkeys and cobras to seals and sea cows. The Jungle Book Characters: Mowgli, Baloo, and Others
If you’re ever in the mood, you can read The Jungle Book in its entirety online for free on Project Gutenberg. Characteristic of Kipling’s stories, each story is followed by a poetic piece of verse. Other well-known stories included in this classic are “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi,” the story of a mongoose who was a hero, and “Toomai of the Elephants,” a tale featuring a young handler of elephants. The most famous stories of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling are the three stories about the adventures of Mowgli, a “man cub” who was abandoned and raised by wolves. It’s worth a read.)īut back to The Jungle Book: because The Jungle Book characters are animals who primarily serve to teach moral lessons, both The Jungle Book and its sequel The Second Jungle Book are often considered fables. As Michael Dirda says, many recent scholars and critics point to Kipling mostly for his “ racial insensitivity, colonialist arrogance and anti-feminist caricature.” (However, Dirda goes on to make a fair argument for why Kipling is a great writer and deserves serious consideration in spite of his imperialist views. When talking about Rudyard Kipling, it’s worth pointing out that his place in English literature isn’t without controversy. A handwritten note found in 2010 has proved that Kipling wrote these stories for his daughter Josephine, who was six years old and ill with pneumonia. Joseph Rudyard Kipling first published his collection of stories that would later come to be known collectively as The Jungle Book in magazines back in 18.Īt the time these stories were written, Kipling lived in Dummerston, Vermont. Thanks in large part to Disney’s many animated and live-action adaptations, few children in the entire world have grown up without some notion of the fantastical world of Mowgli, Baloo, and Shere Khan.īut how much do children-and you- know about the original Jungle Book characters and stories by Rudyard Kipling? The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
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