"The Jungle book" is a collection of topic-related stories written by English writer and Nobel-prize winner Rudyard Kipling. Stories were published in magazines within 1893 and 1894, each one followed with original illustrations, some of which were made by author's father.
Although the stories were written while living in Vermont, the author found inspiration in his childhood spent in India, where he returned for a couple of years after finishing college.
Allegedly, the stories were dedicated to his daughter who passed away at the age of six, not long after the first edition of the book was published.
The book consists of 14 chapters or stories about a boy named Mowgli who got lost in a jungle when he was just a little boy. When mother wolf found him and accepted as one of her own calves, Mowgli was brought up and raised among animals who were taking good care of him and taught him the laws of the jungle. He was living happily and carefree, only the tiger Shere-Khan was spreading the fear among the jungle animals, scaring Mowgli as well.
In this book animals are personified, becoming intelligent as humans, caring and emotionally attached to the little boy like he was the one of their own. Mowgli is capable of talking to them, as they were given the knowledge of human speech or Mowgli somehow succeeded in learning their way of communication.
Animals described have high moral standards, laws which they obey to and teach Mowgli about them. Also, they preach respect among all living beings and Nature itself. A righteousness of the animals can be used as a lesson for people's behavior. Besides vicious assassin tiger Sheer-Khan, humans are in the role of the leading villains in this book. Scaring the other living creatures, people are described as usurpers of nature without having any respect towards other living beings; acting reckless, unaware of consequences of their actions.
The book is actually an allegorical representation of modern life influenced and ruled by various politics. Book characters became extremely popular in 1967., after the book- inspired cartoon got released.
Mowgli and his friends Baloo the bear, panther Bagheera, python Kaa and scary tiger Sheer-Khan became modern day icons, recognized instantly by every child. Nevertheless, despite the famous cartoon, every child should read this interesting and educative book.
Here you will be able to read the summary of 3 stories: "Mowgli's Brothers", "Kaas Hunting", and "Tiger Tiger!"
Place: jungle, village
Book Summary
Mowgli's Brothers
It was a hot summer night. The wolfs were resting during the hot afternoon and gathering strength to go hunting when the sun goes down. Everything was quiet until they heard something in the bushes. There was a strange creature. He was completely naked and barely knew how to walk. He was human.
He settled in with the little wolfs with no fear while showing an impressing strength because Shere-Khan was coming after him. Mother Wolf adored this little creature and decided to accept him but soon a conflict with Shere-Khan came along because he wanted to get his hands on the baby.
Shere-Khan was despised because he was only hunting starved animals and humans and that was not alright by the laws of the jungle. Even though Shere-Khan tried to get the baby out of the wolf's pack he couldn’t do it because he faced mother wolf. She defended the baby.
For new decisions made in the pack, the whole pack was supposed to be present. Mother and father wolf had to speak with the pack about the baby. Once a new young member was introduced to the pack nobody could harm him.
Some wolf were furious because of the human introduced to their pack. Mowgli, which means frog, was accepted into the pack of the free people as the wolf were calling themselves and after that the bear Baloo and panther Bagheera stood up for him. Mowgli became a part of the pack. As the wolfs were growing so was he and he adapted to their lifestyle by learning from them. He studied The law of the jungle and Baloo was very helpful around that.
Shere-Khan still couldn’t get over the fact that a human youngling slipped right through his paws and he often turned young wolf against him. Akela, an old wolf, was the end of his life path and very weak. He was afraid for Mowgli and everything that Shere Khan could do to him.
Bagheera was born amongst people so she knew a lot about their customs. She told Mowgli that he should go to the human world and get the red flower that animals are afraid of and that was fire. Soon a new full moon arrived and Shere Khan was getting ready to take down the old Akela.
That got Mowgli so angry that he decided to fight Shere Khan but what Shere Khan didn’t know was that Mowgli had the fire. He set a branch on fire and he started to hit him with it. Shere Khan and his accomplices ran away from the fire.
Mowgli realized that the jungle wasn’t safe for him after this battle. He had to say goodbye to his wolf family but he promised them that he will come back and bring them the skin of Shere Khan. The next morning was sad and Mowgli went searching for the creatures named people.
Kaas Hunting
While he still wasn’t expatriated Mowgli had to learn a lot from the wolf and that led to several conflicts with his teacher Baloo. In the heat of the moment, he told him once that he spent some time in the woods with the Bandar-log.
They were monkeys with a very low status in the jungle. They did not have a leader nor did they stick to any law. They spent their days babbling and shouting meaningless songs. They did it all because they were trying to get some attention.
One of the monkeys came to the idea that it would be good to become friends with Mowgli because he knew how to do shelters of undergrowth. They even thought that they could become the most powerful ones in the jungle if he was their leader so they followed Baloo, Bagheera and Mowgli on their journeys through the jungle.
Around noon, they decided to get some rest. Mowgli fell asleep and the monkeys went down and kidnapped him. They ran away screaming and carrying Mowgli with them. They were proud that the attention of the panther Bagheera was theirs now. Even though the bear and the panther went after them they were fast as them.
They came up with a plan and talked with the enemy of the monkey, the constrictor Kaa. Kaa did not want to work with them at first but Baloo and Bagheera stated some insults that the monkeys said about him so he accepted their offer. With the help of a hawk, they found out that Mowgli was in the Cold lair. That was a torn up town.
One of the monkeys was giving a speech proudly where he stated that Mowgli's presence signifies a new start for them. Mowgli tried to teach them how to make shelters but he saw that the monkeys were losing interest. They started to pull each other tales and got restless so soon he realized that Baloo was right. He decided he should get back to his jungle.
Baloo, Bagheera, and Kaa already had a plan on how to get to Mowgli. All of the sudden a big battle started and everything got noisy. The monkeys realized that they were facing a stronger enemy so they backed down and the strong Kaa knocked down the wall and freed Mowgli. Even though Mowgli apologized he was punished for his behavior. He got beat up and they all returned to mother wolf.
Tiger! Tiger!
After he was expatriated from the jungle Mowgli didn’t stop in the first village because it was too close to the jungle where so many of his enemies were. He crossed paths with a man who got so afraid of Mowgli that he called the priest. The similarity between this boy and the lost boy Nathoom was unbelievable so it was suggested that he should be adopted by the lost boys mom Messu.
For Mowgli, a new period of learning started. He was getting used to human customs, how to get dressed, work in the fields. A big problem for him was money. After 3 months of education, they named him a shepherd and he was taking the buffalos to the pasture. He also participated in the meeting of the village club.
A lot of stories were told at the meeting about the jungle and most of them were told by the hunter Buldeo. When Mowgli called him a liar he was ordered to take the buffalos far away from the village. He encountered The Gray brother. He was the oldest son of a mother wolf and he warned him that he wasn’t safe here because Shere Khan could come after him.
There was a time for him to confront Shere Khan once and for all. He called to his assistance Akela who separated the buffalos, calves, and cows. They send the buffalos after Shere Khan who was resting after a meal and when he started to run he encountered the angry buffaloes and they killed him.
When Shere Khan was dead Mowgli had the chance to take his skin but the hunter Buldeo caught him and blacked mailed him because he wanted the skin of the wolf. Mowgli scared him with his wolf pack. Buldeo was terrified and told everyone in the village about Mowgli's sorcery. When Mowgli came to the village the villagers were throwing rocks at him. He has expatriated again and said goodbye to Messu.
He was bitter because of everything that happened to him. When he showed the wolf's Shere Khans skin they wanted him to be their leader but he refused. He said that the humans and the wolf rejected him so that from now on he will be hunting alone.
Characters: Mowgli, Bagheera, Baloo, Shere Khan
Rudyard Kipling Biography
Rudyard Kipling is an English writer born in 1865 in Bombay. His father was a professor in an art school. Even though he spent his early childhood in India he went to school in England. When he finished he studies he went back to India and worked as a journalist.
Rudyard led an exciting life filled with journeys and interesting situations. In 1894, he published his most popular work "The jungle book" which got its sequence as "The jungle book 2".
From 1902, and in his life was connected to England where he played an important role in the political and cultural life of his time. In 1907, he got a Nobel prize.
He was a supporter of order and discipline and he carried it as life lessons into his work. He considered that the law about British colonization was good and despite his literate work he was judged for being a supporter of the British imperialism.
Book reports from Rudyard Kipling
Leave a Reply