The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling
"The Jungle Books" by Rudyard Kipling is a collection of stories centered primarily around the character of Mowgli, a young boy raised by wolves in the Indian jungle. The narrative begins with Mowgli's escape from the clutches of the tiger Shere Khan, who seeks to claim him as prey. Mowgli is accepted into the Seeonee wolf pack, where he learns the ways of the jungle under the guidance of Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther. The stories explore Mowgli's adventures and the challenges he faces, including encounters with the foolish Bandar-Log monkeys and the threat posed by Shere Khan.
As Mowgli navigates his dual identity between the animal world and humanity, he experiences moments of conflict, loyalty, and self-discovery. His journey takes him to a nearby village where he is adopted by a woman named Messua, only to later confront the realities of his place in both the jungle and human society. Themes of belonging, nature versus civilization, and the moral complexities of both worlds are woven throughout the tales. Ultimately, Mowgli grapples with his identity and the inevitability of returning to live among humans, marking a poignant transition from the wild to civilization.
The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling
First published:The Jungle Book, 1894; The Second Jungle Book, 1895
Type of work: Short fiction
Type of plot: Fables
Time of plot: Nineteenth century
Locale: India
Principal Characters
Mowgli , an Indian boyFather Wolf ,Mother Wolf ,Shere Khan , the tigerAkela , the leader of the wolf packBagheera , the black pantherBaloo , the bearKaa , the rock pythonThe Bandar-Log , the monkey peopleHathi , the elephantMessua , a woman who adopts Mowgli for a timeMessua’s Husband ,Buldeo , a village hunterGray Brother , a young wolf
The Story
The most well-known stories within The Jungle Books center around the figure of Mowgli. Shere Khan, the tiger, pursues a small Indian boy who strays from his native village, but Shere Khan is lame and misses his leap upon the child. When Father Wolf takes the boy home with him to show to Mother Wolf, Shere Khan follows and demands the child as his quarry. Mother Wolf refuses. The tiger retires in anger. Mowgli, the frog, for such he is named, is reared by Mother Wolf along with her own cubs.
Father Wolf takes Mowgli to the Council Rock to be recognized by the wolves. Bagheera, the panther, and Baloo, the bear, speak for Mowgli’s acceptance into the Seeonee wolf pack. Therefore, Mowgli becomes a wolf. Baloo becomes Mowgli’s teacher and instructs him in the lore of the jungle. Mowgli learns to speak the languages of all the jungle people. Throughout his early life, the threat of Shere Khan hangs over him, but Mowgli is certain of his place in the pack and of his friends’ protection; someday when Akela, the leader of the wolves, misses his kill, the pack will turn on him and Mowgli. Bagheera tells Mowgli to get the Red Flower, or fire, from the village to protect himself. When Akela misses his quarry one night and is about to be deposed and killed, Mowgli attacks all of the mutual enemies with his fire sticks and threatens to destroy anyone who molests Akela. That night, Mowgli realizes that the jungle is no place for him, and that someday he will go to live with men. That time, however, is still far off.
One day, Mowgli climbs a tree and makes friends with the Bandar-Log, the monkey tribe, who because of their stupidity and vanity are despised by the other jungle people. When the Bandar-Log carries off Mowgli, Bagheera and Baloo go in pursuit, taking along Kaa, the rock python, who loves to eat monkeys. Mowgli is rescued at the old ruined city of the Cold Lairs by the three pursuers, and Kaa feasts royally upon monkey meat.
One year during a severe drought in the jungle, Hathi the elephant proclaims the water truce; all animals are allowed to drink at the water hole unmolested. Shere Khan announces to the animals gathered there one day that he killed a man, not for food but from choice. The other animals are shocked. Hathi allows the tiger to drink and then tells him to be off. Then Hathi tells the story of how fear came to the jungle and why the tiger is striped. It is the tiger who first kills man and earns the human tribe’s unrelenting enmity; for his deed, the tiger is condemned to wear stripes. For one day a year, the tiger is not afraid of man and can kill him. This day is called, among jungle people, the Night of the Tiger.
One day, Mowgli wanders close to a native village, where he is adopted by Messua, a woman who lost her son some years before. Mowgli becomes a watcher of the village herds; from time to time, he meets Gray Wolf, his brother, and hears the news of the jungle. Learning that Shere Khan intends to kill him, he plans with Akela and Gray Brother to kill the tiger. They lure Shere Khan into a gully and then stampede the herd. Exiled by stoning from the village because he is believed to be a sorcerer who speaks to the animals, Mowgli returns to the jungle, resolved to hunt with the wolves for the rest of his life.
Buldeo, the village hunter, follows the trail of Mowgli, Gray Brother, and Akela. Mowgli overhears Buldeo say that Messua and her husband are imprisoned in their house and will be burned at the stake. Messua’s husband saved some money, and he has one of the finest herds of buffaloes in the village. Knowing that the imprisonment of Messua and her husband is a scheme for the villagers to get their property, Mowgli plans to help his friends. Entering the village, he leads Messua and her husband beyond the gates in the darkness. Then the jungle people begin to destroy, little by little, the farms, the orchards, and the cattle, but no villager is harmed because Mowgli does not desire the death of any human. Finally, just before the rains, Hathi and his three sons move into the village and tear down the houses. The people leave, and thus the jungle is let into the village.
Kaa takes Mowgli to Cold Lairs to meet the guardian of the king’s treasure, an old white cobra who expresses a desire to see Mowgli. The old cobra shows them all the treasure; when he leaves, Mowgli takes a jeweled elephant goad, a king’s ankus, with him, even though the cobra says it brings death to the person who possesses it.
Back in the jungle, Mowgli throws the ankus away. Later that day, he goes with Bagheera to retrieve the ankus and discovers that it is gone. They follow the trail of the man who picked it up and find that altogether six men who had possession of the ankus died. Believing it to be cursed, Mowgli returns the ankus to the treasure room in the Cold Lairs.
Sometimes fierce red dogs called dholes travel in large packs, destroying everything in their paths. Warned of the approach of the dholes, Mowgli leads the marauders, by insults and taunts, toward the lairs of the Little People, the bees. Then he excites the bees to attack the dholes. The destruction of the red dogs that escape the fury of the bees is completed by the wolves lying in ambush a little farther down the river, which flows under the cliffs where the Little People live; it is the last battle of old Akela, the leader of the pack when Mowgli was a little boy. He crawls out slowly from under a pile of carcasses to bid Mowgli goodbye and to sing his death song.
The second year after the death of Akela, Mowgli is about seventeen years old. In the spring of that year, Mowgli knows that he is unhappy, but none of his friends can tell him what is wrong. Mowgli leaves his own jungle to travel to another, and on the way he meets Messua. Her husband died and left her with a child. Messua tells Mowgli that she believes he is her own son lost in the jungle years before and that her baby must be his brother. Mowgli does not know what to make of the child and the unhappiness he feels. When Gray Brother comes to Messua’s hut, Mowgli decides to return to the jungle. On the outskirts of the village, however, he meets a girl coming down the path. Mowgli melts into the jungle and watches the girl. He knows at last that the jungle is no longer a place for him and then he returns to the man-pack to stay.
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