Analysis of Kipling’s
“The Jungle Book”
Kipling's
childhood
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was a famous British
author and poet.
Kipling was born in Bombay, India. His father
was John Lockwood Kipling, a teacher at the
local Jeejeebhoy School of Art, and his mother
was Alice Macdonald. They are said to have met
at Rudyard Lake in Staffordshire, England, hence
Kipling's name. From the ages of six to twelve
young Kipling and his sister spent much time in
England with their aunt and uncle, while his
parents remained in India.
At the age of 6 he went to
boarding school, but Kipling
was very unhappy there. He
became ill and his mother took
him to United Services College
at Westward Ho, North Devon,
By 1880, he returned to Lahore,
(in modern-day Pakistan) India
where he began writing as a
sub-editor for "The Civil and
Military Gazette". He was just
seventeen and he began
tentative steps into the world of
poetry.
In 1892 he married Caroline Balestier,
the daughter of an American lawyer
and set up house with her in Vermont,
the USA, where they lived for four
years. His first two children, Josephine
and Elsie, were born there. When they
were little, he told them tales which he
made up himself. Later he published
these tales in “The Jungle Book “ and
“The Second Jungle Book” , and
children in many countries like them
very much. Many people know his book
about Mowgli, a little Indian boy, who
lived in the jungle with the wolves.
How the "Jungle book"
became popular?
A collection of short stories
featuring Mowgli, a "man-cub"
found abandoned in the Indian
Jungle and adopted by a wolfpack and raised by Baloo (a
bear) and Bagheeera (a panther)
As a man-cub, he is mistured by
some other animals for being an
outsider, despite trying to live
by their rules, because of man's
dangerous nature
The vicious tiger Shere Khan
wants to eat him
Later Mowgli returns to human
society but finds that he dislikes
their pointless rules and
ignorance of the jungle
➢
Rules and
Organisation
in Kipling
➢
➢
➢
In the Jungle Book, the animals all follow
the Laws of the Jungle, a code for
surviving of individuals and communities
The Law of the Jungle, which never orders
anything without a reason, forbids every
beast to eat Man except when he is killing
to show his children how to kill. (1.19)
"Thou hast been with the Monkey-People
– the grey apes – the people without a
Law – the eaters of everything. That is
great shame" (3.26)
For three months after that Mowgli hardly
ever left the village gate, he was so busy
learning the ways and customs for men
(5.23)
Family in Kipling
Animals in the Jungle Book
stick together, notably Akela
and Mowgli's Mother and Father
Wolf, and Messua, the human
woman who adopts him
"He is our brother in all but
blood" Akela went on (1.126)
"Those feet have never worn
shoes, but thou art very like my
Nathoo, and thou shalt be my
son" (5.12)
•
Coming of age
in Kipling
•
Mowgli starts as a man-cub but
over the course of the books
becomes an adult in both the
animal and human world, but
cannot really belong in either.
Mowgli grew and grew strong as
a boy must grow who does not
know that he is learning any
lessons, and who has nothing in
the world to think of exept things
to eat (1.70)
• Mowgli, as a man-cub, had a
good deal more than this (3.1)
Principles and Morality
in Kipling
The animal's follow The Laws of the Jungle, creating their
own "society" and these rules benefit everyone. The
amoral Shere Khan risks everyone
The reason beasts give among themselves (for not hunting
man) is that Man is the weakest and most defenceless (sic)
of all living things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him
(1.19)
Akela lifted his head again, and said: He has eaten our
food. "He has slept with us. He has driven game for us.
Hehas broken no word of the Law of the Jungle" (1.122)
"Run back, Messua. This is one of the foolish tales they
tell under the big tree at dusk. I have at leat paid for thy
son's life. Farewell; and run quickly for I shall send the
herd in more swiftly than their brickbats. I am no wizard,
Messua. Farewell!"