Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” is a collection of short stories featuring anthropomorphic animals told in fable form. The first three stories relate to the story of Mowgli, a feral boy raised by wolves, while the last four are stand-alone tales.
There are seven chapters in ‘The Jungle Book’: Mowgli’s Brothers, Kaa’s Hunting, Tiger, Tiger, The White Seal, Rikki Tikki Tavi, Toomai of the Elephants, and Her Majesty’s Servants.
Mowgli’s Brothers
The main story introduction has Father Wolf and Mother Wolf of the Seeonee pack surprised to find a human stumbling into their home. Mother Wolf likes him. However, she is soon challenged by Shere Khan, the tiger, who had driven the baby’s parents from the jungle and claimed the baby as his prey. Mother Wolf refuses to hand the baby over and adopts him as one of her cubs. She names him Mowgli.
In the story’s rising action, Shere Khan contests Mowgli’s admittance at the council, where newborn cubs are presented to the wolf pack. Baloo, the bear who teaches the pack’s cubs the Law of the Jungle, speaks for him, and Bagheera, the panther, buys his admittance with a buffalo he killed. Shere Khan is furious and swears to hunt humans in the wolf hunting grounds, a move sure to bring the vengeful anger of the humans against the animals in the jungle.
Shere Khan schemes to break the wolf pack by inciting the young cubs to turn against the old leader of the pack, Akela, and convincing them to hate Mowgli. He hoped to use the opportunity to isolate Mowgli and make him easy prey. However, Bagheera reveals his plan to Mowgli and advises that the only way to beat Shere Khan is to attack him with fire, which all the animals fear.
Shere Khan’s ability to use words is remarkable. Throughout the story, he is known for his glib tongue rather than his strength. However, he can turn the other wolf cubs against Mowgli and his brothers because there is already a rift between them.
Mowgli rushes off to the village near the jungle and brings a pot of hot live coals. He returns just in time as the wolf cubs corner Akela. Mowgli saves Akela and scorches Shere Khan with a burning stick, driving him away.
Heartbroken to realize that the wolf cubs he assumed were his friends hate him, Mowgli runs away from the jungle, marking the story’s turning point. Before he leaves, however, he vows to kill and skin Shere Khan.
Kaa’s Hunting
The event narrated here happens sometime in the middle of the story, ‘Mowgli’s Brothers’; it is a key point in the Mowgli story. In this tale, Mowgli is seven. Baloo strikes him for not paying attention to his lessons, and he runs off in anger. Bagheera opposes Baloo striking Mowgli, but Baloo insists that his main goal is to make him learn the knowledge necessary for his survival in the jungle. Bagheera asks Mowgli to return to Baloo’s class.
There is a noticeable difference between how Baloo and Bagheera treat Mowgli. While Baloo is loving, he is stern and will discipline Mowgli when necessary. However, Bagheera is doting and tends to pamper and spoil Mowgli.
Mowgli reveals that he has been talking to the Bandar Log, the Monkey People, who promised to make him their friend. Baloo and Bagheera are angry with him because all the jungle animals avoided the Bandar Log. They forbid him from further contact with them.
However, the Bandar Log troop kidnaps Mowgli and runs off with him, and Baloo and Bagheera give chase, but the Bandar Log troop outruns them. Powerless to stop them, Mowgli speaks to Rann, the Kite, and asks Rann to tell Baloo and Bagheera of his whereabouts. He uses the Master Words for kites Baloo taught him, words that identified the speaker as a friend.
When Bagheera and Baloo meet Kaa the Python, the only one the Bandar Log feared in the jungle. Bagheera coaxes Kaa into joining them in hunting the Bandar Log by repeating the insults he claims the Bandar Log said about Kaa.
Rann the Kite informs the hunting party that the Bandar Log had stopped in the Cold Lairs, an ancient ruin. The Bandar Log troop quickly loses interest in Mowgli but refuses to let him. When Bagheera and Baloo arrive, the Bandar Log troop throws Mowgli into a cobra pit and engages Mowgli’s rescuers in a battle. Mowgli quickly uses the Master Word for the cobras to stop them from biting him.
I find the Bandar Log amusing until they throw Mowgli into the pit of cobras rather than let him go. This act of unnecessary cruelty made me lose sympathy for them when Kaa attacked.
Kaa finally arrives and entrances the Bandar Log. Baloo and Bagheera take Mowgli and return. This time, however, Bagheera strikes Mowgli to discipline him, but his strikes are only light taps.
Tiger, Tiger
This is the last Mowgli tale in “The Jungle Book.” It occurs immediately after ‘Mowgli’s Brothers’ and is the turning point of the Mowgli tale. Mowgli returns to the village, where he took the fire to fight Shere Khan. Messua, a woman in the village, adopts him, accepting him as hers because he looks like her long-lost son.
At first, Mowgli has difficulty adjusting to civilized life, but soon, he begins to pick up human customs, such as talking, dressing, and other conventions. He, however, is amused by some ill-informed beliefs held by the villagers about the jungle, such as Shere Khan being a reincarnation of a lame money-lender.
He keeps in contact with his wolf family through Grey Brother. Grey Brother meets with him at the edge of the jungle and keeps him up-to-date with events in the jungle. He lets Mowgli know that Shere Khan has gone away but is still plotting to kill Mowgli, which is the central conflict of the Mowgli stories. The villagers appoint him to herd their cattle to keep Mowgli from mischief.
Mowgli’s story is a classic coming-of-age story of growth, maturity, and the journey from innocence to experience. In confronting Shere Khan, Mowgli faced challenges that tested his courage, intelligence, and strength. He overcame these challenges mainly by relying on himself, even when he required external assistance.
Grey Brother tells Mowgli that Shere Khan has returned and is stalking Mowgli. With Akela, they devise a strategy to kill Shere Khan: the three would split the herd in Mowgli’s care into two and stampede them into two ends of a deep ravine where Shere Khan is hiding in wait. In the story’s climax, the herd tramples Shere Khan in the ravine.
Shere Khan’s death marks the point of the story’s falling action. While Mowgli is skinning the tiger, he is challenged by Buldeo, the village hunter who plans to collect the reward for the tiger skin for himself. Mowgli orders Akela to scare him off. Buldeo tells the villagers that Mowgli is a witch, and they drive him off when he returns with the tiger pelt.
As promised, Mowgli returns with the pelt to the jungle and places it on the Council Rock. In the resolution, the pack asks him to return, but he will not forgive them for casting him out and decides to go off on his own, allowing only his four wolf brothers to accompany him.
Even though Mowgli ultimately triumphs, getting the better of Shere Khan, the wolf pack, and the villagers, he seems tragic. He is forever lonely, rejected by all, belonging nowhere. In some sense, in solitude, he is similar to Shere Khan.
The White Seal
“The Jungle Book” turns away from the Mowgli timeline from this story, introducing Kotick, a seal born with a mutation that turns his pelt white. Kotick is born to a fierce fighting seal called Sea Catch and his mother, Matkah. Every year, the seals beach on Novastoshnah on the island of St. Paul’s in the Bering Sea. The adult seals fight for a spot on the beach to mate, while the adolescent seals go further inland, where they spend their summer playing.
Kotick experiences trauma when he sees humans hunting his fellow seals and beating them to death. He is spared because one of the hunters believes him to be the ghost of someone he knew. This incident troubles Kotick so much that he complains to the older seals about it. To his surprise, not only do they know about it, but they all accept that as natural and normal.
Kotick believes there must be a place in the world where the seals could live away from the reach of human hunters, and the other seals mock him for these ideas. Finally, halfway through getting rid of his obsession with finding a paradise for seals, the seals direct him to ask a sea lion, who refers him to a walrus. He goes across the oceans following the directions of other sea animals until he finds a group of sea cows that lead him to an island inaccessible by cliffs but accessed through a tunnel underwater.
Kotick differs from the other seals as a white seal and faces initial skepticism and resistance. His outsider status symbolizes how those who are different or unique often encounter challenges but can also bring about positive change and innovation.
Kotick returns to his seal colony, informs them of this new paradise, and is mocked again. He challenges the seals to a fight so they will follow him if he wins. He wins the battle because he is in better condition than most and with his father’s help. The seals follow him to the newly discovered island.
Rikki Tikki Tavi
This story introduces a baby mongoose that washed up in a storm and was left for dead. However, an English family stationed in India rescued and revived the mongoose. They nursed the mongoose back to health. He is named Rikki Tikki Tavi after the sounds a mongoose makes.
Rikki Tikki Tavi is extremely curious and adventuresome. He makes friends with a tailorbird couple in the garden. He encounters Nag and Nagaina, a cobra couple, in the garden, and although afraid and inexperienced, he manages to drive them off. He learns that mongooses are snakes’ natural enemies and gains self-confidence. He kills a karait that moves to attack the child of the couple who keep him as a pet.
Rikki Tikki Tavi’s presence upsets the cobras, expecting a brood to hatch. He overhears them in the bathroom drain, plotting to kill the family so the mongoose would leave, as it would have no one to stay with. As Nag lies in wait by a large barrel in the bathroom, Rikki springs on him, getting a grip on its neck. The commotion of their fighting brings the house owner into the bathroom, and he fires and kills Nag with a blast from the shotgun.
In one of Kipling’s poems, he asserts and develops the theme that the female of the species is more ruthless. I see a parallel here: Darzee’s wife and Nagaina, the female cobra, go to great lengths to eliminate entities they think threaten them. Darzee blithely goes through his day singing, while Nag has to be instigated by his wife to take action against Rikki and his host family.
The next day, the family congratulates the mongoose, but he worries about Nagaina. In the morning, Rikki consults Darzee, a bird in the garden, to know Nagaina’s whereabouts, but Darzee blithely sings his praise. Darzee’s wife helps inform Rikki of where Nagaina keeps her eggs. Rikki asks Darzee’s wife to lure Nagaina away from her eggs, and she does this by faking injury. When Rikki finds the eggs and destroys them, Darzee darts in to tell him that Nagaina is about to attack his adoptive family. Rikki rushes toward the house and holds Nagaina’s last remaining egg in his mouth. With this ploy, Rikki manages to lure Nagaina away, but Nagaina gains her only remaining egg and escapes quickly. Rikki follows her into her underground nest, and he emerges victorious after a fierce battle.
Toomai of the Elephants
In this story, Big Toomai and his son, Toomai, elephant keepers for the Imperial British military in India, are on a joint expedition with Kala Nag. This elephant has served in the military for 47 years and is close to retirement. A group of elephant catchers asks for the team’s assistance catching wild elephants. Little Toomai enjoys the company of the elephants, but the father thinks it is a dangerous activity and only keeps the elephant out of duty.
While taming the wild elephants, the boy is tasked with watching Kala Nag. However, he gets too close and aids the elephant-catching team to the displeasure of his father, Big Toomai, who thinks it is enough for his son to be only an elephant keeper and not dabble in catching wild elephants.
His exploits at the session attract the attention of Petersen Sahib, the British officer overseeing the expedition. When he gains Petersen’s attention, Little Toomai expresses his wish to be an elephant catcher, which amuses Petersen and his company. Peterson tells Little Toomai that he can do that when he is ready, which is when he sees the elephants dance—a veiled joke as no one alive has ever seen the elephants dance.
Kipling is praised for his deep immersion in Indian culture and keen reporting of his experiences. One can sense the fidelity of his accounts in his fiction, primarily as he reports the elephant-taming incident in the story.
At the camp that night, Kala Nag breaks free from his restraints in response to the call of a wild elephant deep in the jungle. Little Toomai is alert and follows Kala Nag, and because both boy and elephant share a deep friendship, Kala Nag picks him up and rides Toomai on his back.
He carries Toomai deep into the jungle, and Toomai witnesses a large clearing where elephants from deeper in the jungle convene and trample the forest, crushing the vegetation around. Toomai witnesses what appears to be a large elephant party, and the elephants conclude this before daybreak, each returning to its place.
Toomai breaks the news at the camp and is initially met with disbelief. Finally, his account is confirmed by members of their group, who give him accolades. One hunter calls him ‘Toomai of the Elephant’.
Her Majesty’s Servants
The story introduces a group of regiment animals in a military camp on a rainy night, as told by a man who could understand the language of animals.
His Majesty’s Servants reads the least like a story. It appears Kipling only used a story format to explore some ideas about courage in the way Plato used dramatic dialogue to explore philosophical topics.
A couple of camels break loose in the storm and kick down the man’s tent, but the man leaves before this happens. The man’s dog runs off, and he chases after it. However, he gives up, makes a makeshift tent, and stays out of the rain.
A mule comes along and questions the camels on why they are upset, and the camels confess to being scared by a nightmare. The mule kicks him and upbraids the camels for being afraid. They are joined by a troop horse, an elephant, a couple of yoked cattle, and another mule, and an impromptu discussion ensues about the nature of cowardice and bravery among animals.
They conclude by admitting they are afraid of certain things and brave in others, each with unique strengths. They also try to explore why men fight but end up accepting that all they know is to follow orders and trust in the judgment of their superiors.