Jungle Book: Lively Stories Filled With Talking Animals
On the one hand the Jungle Book tales are innocent, lively stories filled with talking animals, averted dangers, and moral conundrums. Their exoticism does not necessarily impart any political message. The names of characters and the jungle setting evoke the mystery and magic of India without implying moral inferiority of Indian culture. On the other hand, Kipling's stories epitomize the underlying themes and assumptions of new imperialism. By portraying the dark-skinned people like Mowgli as being raised by wolves in the jungle and communing with beasts, Kipling suggests that Indians are primitive, savage, animalistic and therefore sub-human. Their jungle culture is pitted against the modern European industrialized city. The juxtaposition of civilization and savagery is at the heart of the Jungle Book and one of its core themes. That theme was prevalent among Europeans around the turn of the 20th century and especially those whose families were actively involved in colonies like India. Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book is a timeless children's classic that reflects the core values underlying the new imperialism.Romanticizing the Indian jungle as Kipling does supports the idea that Europeans encountered what they perceived as noble
Asia and Africa as well as Native America were at once savage and beautiful. Beneath their anthropomorphism is a more sinister reflection of the new imperialism. On the surface the exoticism is based on the characters being talking animals. In "Mowgli's Song," as elsewhere in Jungle Book, the civilized humans form angry mobs. Interestingly, though, Kipling seems to be aware of the prejudices and attitudes of Europeans. With the help of Europeans, those Other cultures can enjoy the same material luxuries prevalent in European society. Similarly, the new imperialists believed it was not the Asians fault for being savages: they simply needed to be told the proper way of living in the 20th century. The stories evoke the ancient pagan roots of European culture, which were suppressed because of the triumph of Christianity. Mowgli is always portrayed as being peaceful. Otherness and exoticism is what compels young readers to savor the Jungle Book stories. Although Kipling does equate Indian culture with the jungle and European culture with urban civilization, the effect of the book is to engender admiration and respect for Asian civilizations and any other non-European culture. Kipling achieves his goal by encouraging the reader to relate to Mowgli as a fellow human while showing how different Mowgli is from European youth. Jungle Book is partly about the encounters between two cultures. Progress was directly related to industrialization.
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Acceptance Essays
