On Kiplings The Jungle Books and Children in 1894-1895 - Book Report/Review Example

On Kipling’s ‘The Jungle Books’ and Children in 1894-1895 Table of Contents I. Introduction 4 II. Discussion 6 A. Kipling, Imperialist 6 B. British Imperialism and Children 9 C. Children and the Industrial Revolution in Britain 11 III. Conclusion 13 Works Cited 14 I. Introduction This paper discusses the novel ‘The Jungle Books’ by Richard Kipling in the context of the historical period in which it is written and the aspects of the period during which it was written that relate to conditions, assumptions, attitudes moral values, ethical stances, and theories about children. In particular, aspects of the lives and treatment of children during this time are contextualized within such realities of the time of the writing of the novel as imperialism, the symbolisms about and relating to British children, and how the industrial revolution in particular shaped social and economic attitudes and expectations towards children. The point of focus is British history during the time of the writing of the book, in 1894 and 1895. For context, ‘The Jungle Books; refers to two setts of short stories, one being the original ‘The Jungle Book’ published in 1894, and the second one being ‘The Second Jungle Book’, which is likewise a collection of stories that include five additional tales about the hero Mowgli, that came out a year after. For the rest of the paper, the discussion refers to both of these books taken together, and referred to as ‘The Jungle Books’ (Kipling; Kipling (b)). The book, as a collection of stories, highlight different animals who take on aspects of human personalities, with voices and thoughts that are human, even as the main character, Mowgli, is a human abandoned as a child, and raised in the forest by a family of wolves. In the main story Mowgli thrives in the forest, becoming friends with many animals in there, even as he also becomes enemies with a tiger named Shere Khan. The other stories can be construed in different ways, as explorations of jungle morality, as explorations of human nature and human morality viewed through the lens of humanized animals, and many other perspectives. The life of Mowgli, his adventures in the forest and his later integration into a human family, as well as the life of Toomai the boy who was tasked to look after some elephants, can be construed as Kipling’s representation of children, of relevance in the investigation of children during the time of the writing of the book, through the lenses of treatment, attitudes, expectations, conditions, and theories of children as discussed above (Kipling; Kipling (b)). To touch off discussions on the reading of ‘The Jungle Books’ from the lens of the fate of children during the time of its writing, new findings reveal that the book was dedicated by Kipling to a daughter who would die just five years after the book’s publication, and who was just a year old when the book came out. That daughter, Josephine, would succumb to pneumonia, and Kipling had written a dedication to that daughter in one of the early copies of the book (Fernandez). II. Discussion A. Kipling, Imperialist Perspectives on the book that look at the work as being suffused with the influences of British thought and philosophies relating to imperialism point out that the book was written in an Indian jungle setting, and a thoroughly Indian set of circumstances, even as India was a British colony during the lifetime of Kipling. Too, when Kipling was born in 1865, British influence of the thinking of its citizens extended throughout the empire, and though Kipling was born in India, the thinking goes that in the novel it is clear that Kipling imbibed and internalized, and approved of, British imperialist ideas and ways of viewing the world. For instance, there are interpretations of the law of the jungle as taught to the young Mowgli of the law of the British empire, and that the safety and security that Mowgli and his teachers and companions derived from observing the law of the jungle had its parallels in Kipling viewing British imperialist laws as necessary to preserve order and security for everyone in the British empire. The law of the jungle moreover, as a representation of British law, gave predictability and order to a world that is basically disorderly and without discipline, and the jungle is a representation of the wild parts of the empire, the colonies, of which India is a key component. Shere Khan, the tiger, is viewed in this imperialist lens as disobeying the law of the jungle by singling out Mowgli for attack, and therefore disobeying imperialist, British colonial laws. As such, the tiger is an enemy of the ruling power, as someone who is a challenge to the rule of the British in the empire. This is one take of the book as espousing imperialism and imperialist views of the world as those have been imbibed either consciously or unconsciously by Kipling (Ikegbunam; Cody). To extend the discussion further, the literature on Kipling and his imperialist ideas take on the line of thinking that Kipling was a product of his age, and steeped in the principles of imperialism and deep sympathy with everything British, he had a blind faith in the British view of the world, that saw them as being benefactors of the colonies that they ruled, imposing necessary order, bringing enlightenment and civilization, and saving the natives from a generally chaotic and backward, jungle-like existence. The British colonial law was the force that projected British empire throughout the colonies, and something that to Kipling was a positive force. In Kipling’s world view imperialism was something vital to the ordering of the Indian universe, and this view permeated the stories and the underlying vision of ‘The Jungle Books’ (Cody). The extent of Kipling’s thorough embrace of imperialism can be summed up by a phrase attributed to the author, of the role of the British in maintaining order in the empire and in the colonies as the burden of the British white person, a reference, according to some, of Kipling’s and the British people’s sense of self-importance and sense of superiority relative to its colonies and relative to other nations with which it competed for resources and markets all over the world. The narrative that Kipling and the imperialists acknowledged as true, is that it is the responsibility of the British to civilize the colonies and to transform and emancipate the peoples of the empire, to the mold of the enlightened British, who acted as benefactors of the inferior peoples in the colonized countries (Cody (b)). The dark side of that benevolence, on the other hand, would show that the benefactor vision of Kipling and others who espoused imperialism was a sham, and something that resulted in horrific atrocities committed against the colonized peoples that were akin to the crimes of the Nazis against the Jews in scale and in the extent of the barbarity committed (Monbiot). B. British Imperialism and Children The time of the writing of the book also coincided with a peak in the period of British empire history when the practice of sending children from British charities to various parts of the empire, to populate the colonies with British people, was also at its peak. This practice was of course tied to the imperialist impulse and world view, even as the underlying motivations that were not fully consciously acknowledged included the need of Britain to relieve itself of a burgeoning population of abandoned children. During the 1890’s and before that, the population of the cities was said to have been exploding, and so there was a surplus of young people who were sometimes ill-treated and not properly cred for by their parents and guardians. The practice of sending children to the colonies, therefore, was a way for the British Empire to solve pressing social problems related to what to do with their surplus children, and what to do with the colonies. The forced emigration of children across the empire hoped to likewise make sure that the Empire’s hold on its colonies was secure. Of course, in the minds of the imperialists like Kipling, the mass sendoff of children to remote corners of the British Empire was something noble and high-minded, something that was good for the children, and good for the colonies, who would benefit from having civilized whites living in their midst and improving the race profile. A seminal piece of legislation that formalized and made legal the practice of sending children to the colonies was passed just a few years before the publication of ‘The Jungle Books’, in 1891 (Coldrey; Museum Victoria). The timing of the forced migration of children into the colonies was the 1860’s all the way to the early 1900’s, after which the practice waned. In all, about a hundred thousand children were sent to the colonies, most of them to Canada and to Australia, and a small fraction to more remote regions of the Empire. In the context of Kipling’s work then, the law of the jungle takes on an even more profound meaning, when considered as being a euphemism too for the need for British colonial law to govern the actions of the colonies relative to the migrant British children. Moreover, looking at the story of Mowgli, there are rich veins of meaning and interpretation that can be had from taking the stories in the context of the fate of the British migrants. The historical records now show us that many of the children sent to the outlying colonies were not really orphans, but the British empire had vested interests in making the migration happen. This forced migration can be construed as part of the law of the jungle in Kipling’s fictional universe, and something that has to be followed in blind faith by both the colonies and the British children who were part of the migration schemes. (Kipling; Kipling (b)); Museum Victoria; Child Migrants Trust). Moreover, from an economic perspective, there are economic incentives for the Empire to make use of children in this way, by forcing them to migrate to other colonies in the empire. One, in Britain, this relieves pressure from the public coffers, by shipping excess and dependent members of the population to other parts of the empire. Two, the children were sources of dirt-cheap labor, and in Canada they were used for this purpose, to undertake the labor in the Canadian farms, and in so doing add to the economic output of the colonies. From a social perspective too, the empire benefited from being able to use the colonies as places where the threat of social unrest brought about by the expansion in numbers of needy children could be dissipated and held in check. There is the sense in all of these of that aspect of Kipling’s work that relates to the harmonizing and ordering function of the British colonial law, that children and all members of the empire can rely on. Elsewhere too, from an ideological perspective, it made sense to empire for it to send its good blood, the blood coming from its heart, to colonies, to fertilize the soil so to speak with British blood, and in so doing effect the preservation of the colonies and keep it safely in the hands of the British. No doubt Kipling and other imperialists believed this with all sincerity, and this faith in Empire and colonial law, and the designs of empire, are reflected in the book as well (Coldrey). C. Children and the Industrial Revolution in Britain By the time of the publication of Kipling’s ‘The Jungle Books’ in 1894 and 1895, the Industrial Revolution had long taken hold in Britain, an event that transformed the country from one whose economy is largely agricultural to one that was the pillar of Industrialization in Europe and the rest of the world. it is worthwhile to investigate the view of the Industrial Revolution from the perspective of the fate of children and the attitudes towards and treatment of children during this time. As discussed above, empire and imperialism had its own dynamic and impact on children, as evidenced by the phenomenon of the forced migration of British children to the colonies. The historical records say that children were extensively used for their labor during this time. In industries such as cotton, for instance, industrialists approached the heads of orphanages and offered to feed and house the orphans, but ended up using the orphans to man the cotton mills for free labor. This practice was partly driven by necessity too, as the mills were in need of labor that were in short supply, even as the demand for its products grew. Regulations reflected sincere attempts to mitigate child labor abuses, such as mandating a minimum age for the employ of child labor at age 9, but such laws reflected too the widespread acceptance of the use of orphan and child labor to power the Industrial Revolution in the country. In such a setting, it is worthwhile to put into context the stories in ‘The Jungle Books’ as reflecting again the acceptance of the “wisdom” of the processes of Empire and of the British economy, as part of the law of the jungle, something to be obeyed and respected even if the outward signs are that children are abused and taken advantage of. More recent revelations of the historical use of child labor to power the factories at the height of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, moreover, suggest that the practice was widespread, and that it was well known among the British general public. Surely it was known to Kipling at the time of the publication of his work and prior, that such was the reality facing children in Britain, even as he was also aware of the practice of the mass migration of children to the empire colonies. The scale of the use of child labor was truly massive, and the young age, the long working hours, oppressive work conditions, and the systematic recruitment of children into conditions of slave labor all amounted to a set of social conditions that viewed children as factors of economic production devoid of individual liberties and the right to a better future outside of work in the factories (Thatcher; Keys). III. Conclusion Various aspects of the life of children during the time of the publication of Kipling’s work has come to light from this paper, and those aspects relate profoundly to the British economic, political and social realities, especially with regard to the impact of the Industrial Revolution and the British imperialistic drive to the colonies on the fate of British children. British children were recruited into the designs of empire and the labor needs of the various new industries of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, and those find justification in a world order that is mimicked in Kipling’s book. In that world order, the law of the jungle mimics the real world colonial laws and the law of Britain, and the processes of British economic life and of empire. The book takes those as necessary aspects of maintaining order and of bringing enlightenment, British style, to India and the far-flung corners of the British empire (Thatcher; Coldrey; Kipling; Cody). Works Cited Child Migrants Trust. “Child Migration History”. ChildMigrantsTrust. 2014. Web. 2 December 2014. Coldrey, Barry. “2. Child Migration: An Overview and Timeline”. Australian Government National Archives. 2012. Web. 2 December 2014. Cody, David. “Kipling’s Imperialism”. Victorian Web/Hartwick College. 1988. Web. 2 December 2014. Cody, David (b). “The British Empire”. Victorian Web/Hartwick College. 1988. Web. 2 December 2014. Fernandez, Colin. “Tragic story behind Kipling’s Jungle Book revealed as first edition is found 116 years after it was published”. Mail Online. 9 April 2010. Web. 2 December 2014. Ikegbunam, Nicole. “Imperialism in Kipling’s and Disney’s the Jungle Book- Final Draft”. The University of Texas at Austin. 11 December 2010. Web. 2 December 2014. Keys, David. “Revealed: Industrial Revolution was powered by child slaves”. The Independent. 2 August 2010. Web. 2 December 2014. Kipling, Rudyard. The Jungle Book. 1894. Web. 2 December 2014. Kipling, Rudyard (b). The Second Jungle Book. 1895. Web. 2 December 2014. Monbiot, George. “Deny the British empire’s crimes? No, we ignore them”. The Guardian. 23 April 2012. Web. 2 December 2014. Museum Victoria. “On Their Own: British Child Migrants”. MuseumVictoria.com.au. n.d. Web. 2 December 2014. Thatcher, Wade. “Child Labor During the English Industrial Revolution”. BSU.edu. 2009. 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