The Jungle - Book Report/Review Example

The Jungle Book Just like in the famous Animal Farm, Kipling uses animals to preach morals and give life lessons through the use of animals in his The Jungle Book. Although it is well known for its many movie adaptations, The Jungle Book contains much more inside of its pages than simply the Mowgli stories. Where many people think of the Jungle Book as a story about a boy lost in the jungle, it is really much more than that, and also contains other stories that could have stood as stand alone works. However, by including these stories in the Jungle Book, Kipling helped broaden the width and tone of his collection of stories, and also developed a long lasting traditional tale that has been told over and over. These stories all contain strong moral lessons, and can also be viewed as allegories of real life, not simply the animal life that they can be read as at one level. In the story the White Seal, Kipling uses a seal to portray the conflict within our own lives, and also gives us a look into what we humans are doing to nature. Just like all his other stories, Kipling opens the White Seal Tale with a song, the Seal’s lullaby. This song, which goes as follows “Oh! hush thee, my baby, the night is behind us, And black are the waters that sparkled so green. The moon, o'er the combers, looks downward to find us At rest in the hollows that rustle between. Where billow meets billow, then soft be thy pillow, Ah, weary wee flipperling, curl at thy ease! The storm shall not wake thee, nor shark overtake thee, Asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas!” helps set the tone for the whole selection, and also keeps with the Kipling tradition of the rest of the Jungle Book. This opening poem helps set the character for the white seal that is later introduce into the story. By including words such as “flipperling”, “rustle”, and “billow”, Kipling is able to use this poem to set the feel and mood of the rest of the piece. These tone words help set up the feelings of tranquility and peace, however it is this exact feeling that is set up here that is later disturbed. Kipling then uses the start of the story as an allegory against human beings and their many odd behaviors. He describes how the seals all flock to get the best piece of land, and spend many an months simply sitting there and fighting over the best piece of land. Looking into this, one can see the “high esteem” Kipling held for humans who fought over land, and acted just as stupidly as all of the seals did. It is also important to note that Kipling chose only the male seals to fight over the land, and made specific notational differences between the two sexes. It is almost as Kipling himself understands the insane rationale of male species to fight over whatever they can, and is himself making fun of his fellow men. Being able to laugh at oneself is important, but here Kipling seems to be pointing a finger at his fellow men, pointing out the stupidity of fighting over a piece of land simply because it is “better” than another piece of land right next to it. While Kipling definitely made sure to keep the whole piece in a allegoric fashion, the tone of the story that is set in the opening poem is soon changed. He keeps it going at a steady pace by describing the birth and growing up of the main character, a rare white seal that goes by the name of Kotick. This seal was born different from any of the other seals however, and was born purely white. This singla of being marked apart different from birth would soon change the face of the story, and also alluded to the fact that Kotick would soon be setting in motion changes for the every day life, brawling, and fighting that the seals went through. The tale then takes a shift into the real meat of the story, with Kotick wondering why the seals stay stagnant and simply fight all the time, and do not move away from the beaches where the seal hunters hunt them. He soon finds however, that the seals are afraid to leave at first, and do not want to show fear or bow their heads in shame, and do not want to leave the beaches they have always known. Kotick, however, different from birth, does not understand this fact at all. He sees no reason why they should stay there and beat up themselves and let themselves get killed, he instead searches for new horizons, and hopes to find a new way to live and grow. This heroic archetype of a hero who is struggling to be different and have society accept his ideas is a commonly used in many piece of literature. Set as animals, Kipling tells this tale through a set lenses, the lens of an allegory using animals. Kipling could have told this story using humans; however he chose a seal to be the hero of his tale. This choice of a seal also has another connotation to is, as seals were widely hunted animals during Kipling’s time, and still are today. Instead of offering a solution to having people hunt the seals to extinction, Kipling decided to tell the tale and give the moral in a way that the seal’s had to find a way to escapes the situation themselves. And he did it by saying that the seals needed to change and move out of their old habits, which is something that many people do not want to do. Kipling was able to offer this morality anecdote by saying that people are often their own worst enemies, and that if they simply would learn to help themselves, they can more often than not improve their own situations. Instead of blaming the people for hunting the seals, which I am sure, was at the back of Kiplin’s mind the whole time, he decides to send the seals a white robed hero, with white often being the color of purity, royalty, and a savior cloaked in white. However, this allegory is in truth attacking both sides, as Kipling is by no means promoting the killing of seals. He found a unique way to both condemn the killing of seals, but to also promote the lesson that sometimes you need to move on and let go of your ego and your self, and stop all the fighting and find a path to peace. This is what he portrayed through the character of Kotick, the seal he so eagerly cloaked in pure white. The tale ends on a similar note that it began with the poem. With a happy ending and Kotick leading the seals that followed him to safety, the story concludes : “A week later he and his army (nearly ten thousand holluschickie and old seals) went away north to the Sea Cow's tunnel, Kotick leading them, and the seals that stayed at Novastoshnah called them idiots. But next spring, when they all met off the fishing banks of the Pacific, Kotick's seals told such tales of the new beaches beyond Sea Cow's tunnel that more and more seals left Novastoshnah. Of course it was not all done at once, for the seals are not very clever, and they need a long time to turn things over in their minds, but year after year more seals went away from Novastoshnah, and Lukannon, and the other nurseries, to the quiet, sheltered beaches where Kotick sits all the summer through, getting bigger and fatter and stronger each year, while the holluschickie play around him, in that sea where no man comes”. The story concludes with the point that the seals finally found a place where they could live in peace, simply by believing in themselves and by listening to the person who wanted to be different. More and more seals eventually believed Kotick, showing that people will eventually believe you if you can convince them. As with the rest of the Jungle Book, Kipling offers a great political satire and allegory through the use of animals. In line with the rest of the stories in the book, Kipling is able to offer a great look into the life of people and how we should act as compared to how we actually act. Kipling wrote a masterpiece with this story, and was able to truly give a India based jungle tales into a story that rivals Aesop’s Fables. Works Cited: http://www.online-literature.com/kipling/jungle_book/6/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle_Book#External_links Read More