The Jungle Book
Rudyard Kipling
Some questions to consider
• Why is Mowgli’s introduction to the jungle community changed in the film?
Why is Shere Khan absent in the beginning?
• How does Disney’s adaptation undermine the ecopedagogical value of the
original story?
• How does the film adaptation re-present Mowgli’s interaction with the
animals in the jungle?
Children’s Literature
• Mostly instructional, with morals and lessons to be learned (before the 18th
Century)
• Rhymes, riddles, short stories
• Children’s literature was meant to entertain and instruct
• Environmental conservation is an equally important lesson to be learned
Environmental studies in children’s literature
• Children’s literature addresses both socio-cultural and environmental issues
through:
• children’s natural empathy with animals and their environment
• “ecological democracy” in which human subjects listen to what the nonhuman world
has to say
• The distinction between man and nature seems to be less distinct in children’s
environmental literature
• There is “an emphasis interrogating the relationship of culture and nature through the relationships of
children and animals, with particular scrutiny on the subjectivity or objectivity of the animals depicted
in these narratives” (Greta Gaard 325)
• There is also “a connected self-identity: a connection with and a joy in nature, and a connection across
cultures” (Gaard 332)
• Is it because children are still innocent and still very much connected to nature?
• “Ecopedagogy raises important questions of praxis—the necessary unity of
theory and practice—for ecocriticism. Noting the disjunct between theories
and activisms focusing on either social justice or ecological and/or interspecies justice, ecopedagogy raises questions that challenge the
backgrounding and invisibility of animal studies in ecocriticism, and argues for
the necessary confluence of social, ecological, and inter-species justice as
central to an inclusive and liberatory praxis” (Gaard 326)
• “Ecopedagogy clearly distinguishes itself from a type of environmental
education that seeks accommodation within a global neoliberal framework,
championing ‘‘sustainable development’’ without challenging the
unsustainability of an economy advocating endless growth” (Gaard 326) –
how does this relate to our questions about the selective interpretations and
applications of Thoreau’s nature writing in the previous lecture?
• Is ECOPEDAGOGY the answer?
Who is Mowgli? Who am I?
• Children’s literature often discuss a self identity which is constructed in relation to or in
opposition to nature, animals, and diverse human cultures and identities
• “We be one blood, ye and I” – how much of this unity do we see in the jungle? Does Mowgli share the
same (metaphorical) blood as the other animals?
• Who then is Mowgli? Man-cub or wolf-child?
• Is Mowgli one of the “white men” who ride elephants and carry guns or the “brown men” who serve
the white men?
• We find out that he is one of the Indians (he resembles one of the villager’s child)
• What is Mowgli’s role in this tale of self-discovery and social order?
• How does Mowgli’s identity (or identities) disrupt the natural order?
• Mowgli’s identity (or identities?) motivates the animals’ actions
• The wolves want to protect him, Shere Khan wants to eat him, the monkeys want him to be their leader
– they work within or outside of The Law of the Jungle, depending on their motivations
• Mowgli’s reluctance to adhere to the rules of the village places him outside of society; he is neither man
nor wolf
• How does this affect the discussion of a self-identity? Do readers identify with Mowgli? And if they do,
who do they perceive themselves to be?
• One of the questions raised in most children’s literature is “who am I?” and their
discussion of identity are often constructed in relation to “others
• The term on the left of the binary is the term taken to be at the centre of
discussion, of importance
• Left
“I”
Man
Man
/
/
/
/
Right
Other (Not I)
Animal
Nature
• “Man-cub” places man on the left of the binary, which empowers him, places him
at the centre of the system
• The animals are aware right from the start that Mowgli is human and therefore different. His
difference marks his identity as “man-cub” with “man” being the definitive characteristic.
• Also, we need to remember that the narrator is human and he would sub or unconsciously
place man in the centre of the discussion.
• “wolf-child” places the animal in him at the centre – this affects the discussion
about identity.
• The villagers on the other hand, refer to Mowgli as “wolf-child”, with his animal behaviour
defining him, marking him as different from civilised men
Nature, wilderness, or man-made spaces
• “[K]ipling’s Indian jungle are Edenic sites where children run wild, free for
the most part of adult control. This freedom has been earned by a violent
early rupture—but neither child seems to know what he or she is missing,
and thus makes a reasonably smooth transition to a new environment”
(Mary Goodwin 106)
• “Mowgli’s jungle is neither picturesque nor quaint; it does not require
cultivation or intervention by humans, most of whom are not up to the task
physically or morally anyway. The jungle is not changed or improved by
men … it was never a human habitat and never had a special meaning for
other humans except as a place to avoid” (Goodwin 108)
• “The jungle … has a well-organized ecosystem and ancient social structure
of its own, ordered on standards of survival that are as pitiless and
inexorable as age and death” (Goodwin 108)
The Jungle
The Lost City
The Law of the Jungle is a social structure which respects
The Lost City is a heap of ruins which “no self-respecting
nature’s law and maintain order in the animals’ world
animal would come within eyeshot of it except in times of
• The laws prevent men from entering the jungle and drought…” (45)
hunting its residents, and therefore prevent the
destruction of nature
The wolves are the “Free People” with dignity, and who
have clear and just governing laws that do not challenge
The Law of the Jungle
The Bandar-log or Monkey-People call the ruins their
home, and they are a people without laws and leader, and
are regarded as outcasts of the jungle
Baloo’s lessons reveal the hierarchical structure, and the
different rules that different animals follow to maintain a
delicate social and ecological balance in the jungle
The Bandar-log have no remembrance and have no respect
for the other animals as evidenced by their treatment of
wounded animals and the killing of their fellow monkeys
The clear laws and the mutual respect between species
(except Khan and the monkeys) ensure that the jungle is
safe; the jungle is nature, and it is also a regulated space
The Lost City was built by man, and creepers and weeds are
taking over the structure; the man-made space becomes a
lawless place where danger lurks
• The juxtaposition of the jungle and the palace ruins challenges previous
assumptions of nature, wilderness and man-built space
• The jungle is nature and is safe while man-built space is regarded as the
wilderness by the animals and therefore, dangerous
• What about the village? The animals keep their distance out of respect and
pity (they regard man as “the weakest and most defenceless of all living
things” (6)) but the village is not a dangerous space
• What is the commentary about human civilisation and enterprise here?
• How different or similar is the animals’ social order to that of men’s?
• The monkeys’ disillusion of freedom and immunity to the Law of the Jungle is a result
of their mistaken pretence to be men?
• Does man’s tendency to see himself as above nature and its laws lead to his eventual
downfall?
• Is this really a commentary about civilisation or is it about colonisation?
Postcolonial and environmental issues
• “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, and then he must hunt outside the hunting-grounds of his pack
or tribe. The real reason for this is that man-killing means, sooner or later,
the arrival of white men on elephants, with guns, and hundreds of brown
men with gongs and rockets and torches. Then everybody in the Jungle
suffers” (6)
• The arrival of white men on elephants (colonial masters) with their hundreds of brown
men (servants, locals, natives)
colonisation
• Men bring with them hunting tools and weapons of destruction
• The presence of men (colonisation) results in destruction of the jungle (nature)
• The worlds of the jungle animals and men come together to form an imperial
social structure or order
• So where is Mowgli?
Man (coloniser)
White men (colonisers)
Native villagers
(colonised)
Wolves, “Free People”
Shere Khan
(disregards laws)
Baloo, Bagheera
(animals who respect
the law and impart the
right values)
Birds, Snakes (Kaa) and
other animals whose
ways Mowgli has
learned
Monkeys, “Bandarlog” (lawless, outcasts)
Disney’s adaptation vs Kipling’s short story
• Recall the questions posed before the film was screened:
• Why is Mowgli’s introduction to the jungle community changed in the film? Why is Shere Khan
absent in the beginning?
• Why is Mowgli’s initiation to the pack omitted from the film? Are we to assume that man’s integration with the jungle
is uneventful and natural?
• The omission of the Council meetings diminishes the just laws and values the wolves uphold
• Shere Khan becomes less despicable; he is just a man-eating tiger
• How does the film adaptation re-present Mowgli’s interaction with the animals in the jungle?
• Bagheera points out to Baloo that “birds of a feather flock together” in the film whereas in the written
story, he tells Mowgli that since he is a man’s cub, he “must go back to men at last”
• Mowgli doesn’t seem to have problems interacting with the different animals in the film but his presence
creates tension in the Jungle in the written text
• How does Disney’s adaptation undermine the ecopedagogical value of the original story?
Implications on ecopedagocial value of “The
Jungle Book”
• What is Mowgli’s motivation to return to human society?
• He is casted out by the younger wolves (written story) vs he falls in love with a beautiful girl
from the “man village” (film)
• The difference in representations of Mowgli’s fight with Shere Khan
• He steals fire from the village and uses it to warn the younger wolves, and to teach Khan a
painful lesson (written story) vs he makes use of a burning tree to scare Khan away (film) – the
omission of the pain he feels at having been betrayed by the wolves, and his honourable fight
with Khan prevents an understanding of kinship (between Mowgli and the wolves) and his
identity (in relation to the jungle)
• Has Disney sanitise the story too much?
• The animals, Mowgli, and the humans are categorised neatly into good/bad and us/them
when in the written story, we are told that these animals have laws that govern them, and
that humans and animals are a part of the larger laws of nature even if they live separately
from each other
• Have the environmental lessons from the written story been taught adequately in the film?
Optional Readings
Gaard, Greta. “Children’s Environmental Literature: From Ecocriticism to
Ecopedagogy.” Neohelicon 36.2 (2009): 321-34. Web.
Goodwin, Mary. “The Garden and the Jungle: Burnett, Kipling and the Nature
of Imperial Childhood.” Children's Literature in Education Child Lit Educ
42.2 (2010): 105-17. Web.
Next week: The Lorax (film will be screened in class)
1st writing assignment (200 words) due