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The Jungle Book
From Neverpedia
The Jungle Book (1894) and its sequel The Second Jungle Book (1895) are a collection of stories written by Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893–1894. The original publications contained illustrations, some by Kipling's father, John Lockwood Kipling. Rudyard Kipling was born in India and spent the first six years of his childhood there. After about ten years in England, he went back to India and worked there for about six-and-half years. These stories were written when Kipling lived in Vermont.
The tales in these two books are fables, using animals in an anthropomorphic manner to give moral lessons. The verses of The Law of the Jungle, for example, lay down rules for the safety of individuals, families and communities. Kipling put in them nearly everything he knew or "heard or dreamed about the Indian jungle". Other readers have interpreted the work as allegories of the politics and society of the time. The best-known of them are the eight stories (three in the first book, five in the second) revolving around the adventures of an abandoned "man cub" Mowgli who is raised by wolves in the Indian jungle, and has some similarities to the character of Peter Pan. The most famous of the other stories are "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi", the story of a heroic mongoose, and "Toomai of the Elephants", the tale of a young elephant-handler. The White Seal about Kotick, a seal seeking a haven where his people would be safe from hunters, has been considered a metaphor for the then-new Zionist movement. As with much of Kipling's work, each of the stories is preceded by a piece of verse, and succeeded by another. The title of each is given in italics in the list of stories below.
Because of its moral tone, The Jungle Book came to be used as a motivational book by the Cub Scouts, a junior element of the Boy Scouts. This use of the book's universe was approved by Kipling after a direct petition of Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouts, who had originally asked for the author's permission for the use of the Memory Game from Kim in his scheme to develop the morale and fitness of working-class youths in cities. Akela, the head wolf in The Jungle Book, has become a senior figure in the movement, the name being traditionally adopted by the leader of each Cub Scout pack.
Like Peter Pan, the stories of Mowgli are best known today through their animated adaptation by Disney, which took substantial liberties with the story, chararacterization, and even names.
Contents |
Chapters in The Jungle Book
- Mowgli's Brothers: A boy is raised by wolves in the Indian Jungle with the help of Baloo the bear and Bagheera the black panther, and then has to fight the tiger Shere Khan. This story has also been published as a short book in its own right: Night-Song in the Jungle
- Hunting-Song of the Seeonee Pack
- Kaa's Hunting: This story takes place before Mowgli fights Shere Khan. When Mowgli is abducted by monkeys, Baloo and Bagheera set out to rescue him with the aid of Chil the Kite and Kaa the python.
- Road Song of the Bandar-Log
- Tiger! Tiger!: Mowgli returns to the human village and is adopted by Messua and her husband who believe him to be their long-lost son Nathoo. But he has trouble adjusting to human life, and Shere Khan still wants to kill him. The story's title is taken from the poem "The Tyger" by William Blake.
- Mowgli's Song
- The White Seal: Kotick, a rare white-furred Northern fur seal, searches for a new home for his people, where they will not be hunted by humans. The "animal language" words and names in this story are a phonetic spelling of Russian spoken with an Aleut accent, for example "Stareek!" (= Старик!) = "old man!", "Ochen scoochnie" (said by Kotick) = "I am very lonesome" = Очень скучный (correctly means "very boring"), holluschick (plural -ie) "bachelor male seal" (холощик) from холостой = "unmarried".
- Lukannon
- Rikki-Tikki-Tavi: Rikki-Tikki the mongoose defends a human family living in India against a pair of cobras. This story has also been published as a short book.
- Darzee's Chant
- Toomai of the Elephants: Toomai, a ten-year old boy who helps to tend working elephants, is told that he will never be a full-fledged elephant-handler until he has seen the elephants dance. This story has also been published as a short book.
- Shiv and the Grasshopper
- Her Majesty's Servants (originally titled "Servants of the Queen"): On the night before a military parade a British soldier eavesdrops on a conversation between the camp animals.
- Parade-Song of the Camp Animals parodies several well-known songs and poems, including Bonnie Dundee.
Characters
In alphabetical order:
- Akela — An Indian Wolf
- Bagheera — A melanistic (black) panther
- Baloo— A Sloth Bear
- Bandar-log — A tribe of monkeys
- Chil — A kite (renamed "Rann" in US editions)
- Chuchundra — A Muskrat
- Darzee — A tailorbird
- Father Wolf — The wolf who raised Mowgli as his own cub
- Grey brother — One of Mother and Father Wolf's cubs
- Hathi — An Indian Elephant
- Ikki — An Asiatic Brush-tailed Porcupine (mentioned only)
- Kaa — Indian Python
- Karait — Common Krait
- Kotick — A White Fur Seal
- Mang — A Bat
- Mor — An Indian Peafowl
- Mowgli — Main character, the young jungle boy
- Nag — A male Black cobra
- Nagaina — A female King cobra, Nag's mate
- Raksha — The Mother wolf who raised Mowgli as her own cub
- Rikki-Tikki-Tavi — An Indian Mongoose
- Sea Catch — A Northern fur seal and Kotick's father
- Sea Cow — A Steller's Sea Cow
- Sea Vitch — A Walrus
- Shere Khan— A Royal Bengal Tiger
- Tabaqui — A Golden Jackal
Stories in The Second Jungle Book
The Second Jungle Book features five stories about Mowgli and three unrelated stories, all but one set in India, most of which Kipling wrote while living in Vermont. All of the stories were previously published in magazines in 1894-5, often under different titles.
- How Fear Came: This story takes place before Mowgli fights Shere Khan. During a drought, Mowgli and the animals gather at a shrunken river for a 'water truce', during which Hathi the elephant tells the story of how the first tiger got his stripes. This story can be seen as a forerunner of the Just So Stories.
- The King's Ankus: Mowgli discovers a jewelled object beneath the Cold Lairs which he later discards carelessly, not realizing that men will kill each other to possess it. Note: the first edition of The Second Jungle Book inadvertently omits the final 500 words of this story, in which Mowgli returns the treasure to its hiding-place to prevent further killings. Although the error was corrected in later printings, it was picked up by some later editions.
- Letting In the Jungle: Mowgli has been driven out of the human village for witchcraft, and the superstitious villagers are preparing to kill his adopted parents Messua and her (unnamed) husband. Mowgli rescues them and then prepares to take revenge.
- Red Dog: Mowgli's wolfpack is threatened by a pack of rampaging dhole. Mowgli asks Kaa the python to help him formulate a plan to defeat them.
- The Spring Running: Mowgli, now almost seventeen years old, is growing restless for reasons he cannot understand. On an aimless run through the jungle he stumbles across the village where his adopted mother Messua is now living with her two-year old son, and is torn between staying with her and returning to the jungle.
- The Miracle of Purun Bhagat: An influential Indian politician abandons his worldly goods to become an ascetic holy man. Later he must save a village from a landslide with the help of the local animals.
- The Undertakers: A mugger crocodile, a jackal and an adjutant stork (erroneously referred to as a crane in the story), three of the most unpleasant characters on the river, spend an afternoon bickering with each other until some Englishmen arrive to settle some unfinished business with the crocodile.
- Quiquern: A young Inuit hunter and his sled dog set out across the arctic ice on a desperate hunt for food to save their tribe from starvation, guided by the mysterious animal-spirit Quiquern. But Quiquern may not be what it seems....
Characters
- Mowgli - A jungle boy
- Father Wolf - Raksha's mate
- Raksha - An Indian Wolf
- Mang - A Bat
- Bagheera - A Black panther
- Baloo - A Sloth bear
- Kaa - An Indian python
- Tabaqui - A Golden jackal
- Akela - An Indian wolf
- Jacala - A Mugger Crocodile
- The Dhole
- Ikki - A Porcupine
- Hathi - An Indian elephant
- Grey Brother - One of Mother and Father Wolfs" cubs. In a later Mowgli story written by Kipling titled "In the Rukh", Grey Brother is depicted as still living with Mowgli even after Mowgli has grown-up, and watching over his infant son. (Presumably Grey Brother remains with Mowgli, for the rest of His (Grey Brother's) life).
- Wikipedia: The Jungle Book