"The Jungle Book" is a book of storied linked by their themes and written by the English author and Nobel Prize winner Rudyar Kipling. They were published in magazines between 1893 and 1894. In the magazine editions the stories contained original illustrations, some of which were made by the author’s father.
Even though the stories were written while Kipling lived in Vermont, his inspiration emerged for his childhood spent in India. It is assumed that the stories were written for his daughter who passed away when she was six, shortly after the first book came out.
The book has two parts, 14 chapters which are actually 14 stories. Every part contains 7 stories. In the first part we have the chapters: "Mowgli’s Brothers", "Kaa’s hunting", "Road Song of the Bandar-Log", "Tiger! Tiger!", "Mowgli’s Song", "The White Seal" and in the second are chapters: "Lukannon", "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi", "Darzee’s Chaunt", "Toomai of the Elephants", "Shiv and the Grashopper", "Her Majesty’s Servants" and "Parade-Song of the Camp Animals".
"The White Seal" is a story about a fearless, brave and loyal seal of white colour named Kotick. Since he was a little seal everyone knew he would be special because of his color and personality.
On one occasion he saw an incredible event. People were taking his friends away and he did what no seal had done before – he followed them and saw people killing them. Ever since that event Kotick was on a mission. He was looking for a place where humans hadn’t been before and where every seal will be able to live in peace.
Theme: short stories
Time: a few years back
Place: the sea, island of Saint Paul, Novastoshnah
Moral: One should never give up and should always aspire to better and higher causes.
Book Summary
The whole story was retold by a little strange bird that ended up on the rope of one ship which was travelling to Japan. The writer took him into his cabin and took care of him until the bird was strong enough to fly away to the island of Saint Paul.
No one came to Novastoshnah is they didn’t have to and the only job they had there were seals. During the summer many seals came there because of the colder sea and everyone was fighting for a better spot. All those information were familiar to Sea Catch who had spent over a month in Novastoshnah.
Sea Catch was a big, grey seal that had 15 years. He had long hair and long teeth. He was filled with scars from his battles and he always fought fair.
One spring, Sea Catch had just finished his 45th fight when his wife appeared in a nice coat. Sea Catch told her that she was late as usual but his wife didn’t care much about his sarcastic tone. She commented that he won a nice spot for them. Sea Catch was so wounded that his left eye vision was blurry.
His wife didn’t understand men. She told him that he looks like he had fought a whale. She couldn’t quite figure out why they had to fight about the best place instead of dealing with the problem by talking.
Soon she gave birth to Kotick. He was just like any other seal except for his skin that was white. No one has ever seen a white seal before.
Kotick grew up fast and he was even ready to crawl to the other kids on the playground. All of the other mothers left their kids there while they were hunting. The little seal didn’t know how to swim and Kotick’s mother always told him that nothing bad can happen to him as long as he doesn’t go into the filthy water, let sand get into his wounds and goes swimming while the sea is restless. On one occasion Kotick dared to go swimming and he almost died. After that he spent his days lying in the shallow. He spent two weeks learning how to use his fins. Sometimes he would see the fin of a shark and get scared.
By the end of October the seals began to abandon Saint Paul’s island. Young seals who didn’t have a family could play and swim wherever they wanted to.
This year Kotick had to learn how to hunt fishes so that next year he could swim freely. His mother taught him to swim and figure out if a storm is coming. He spent six months alongside his mother and he had learned a lot about hunting. In that period of time he never came close to land.
One day he was around the island of Juan Fernandez and he felt powerless all of the sudden. He remembered the shores of Novastoshnah and the good times he had there. He turned north and started swimming and on the way he met some of his friends who were still surprised by the color of his skin. When he came to the place he was born the seals started to dance. They also talked to some older seals who gave them advices about life.
One day Kotick saw a human being. The seals drifted away immediately because the people they saw were seal hunters – the chief Kerick Booterin and his son Patalamon. They were picking the seals with the best skin and then they saw Kotick. Kerick was pale and told his son not to touch him because he had never seen a white seal before. He thought that he could be the spirit of old Zaharrov who disappeared in a storm a year ago and Keric still owed him money.
They hunted a herd of seals and proceeded to the slaughterhouse with them. All of the other seals kept on playing like nothing happened. Kotick was the first seal who followed them. they were convinced he was Zaharrov’s spirit.
They moved slowly to the slaughterhouse because they didn’t want the seals to get to warm because their skin would tear apart while they would strip it from their bodies. Kotick couldn’t recognize his friends after they took away their skin. He was horrified, turned around and went back. At the Sea Lion Gates he threw himself into the awater and then the sea lions asked him what he was doing there because they were not accustomed to socialize with anyone.
He told him what had happened to his friends and Sea Lion told him it was old news. People knew that they came to the island every year and it was easy for them to hunt them. He also suggested that it would be good to find an island that was people free and to go and see the Sea Vitch because she could help him.
When he came to the arrogant and lazy Sea Vitch he was no help at all. He got rid of him fast by saying he should find seaweed. Kotick went back to Novastoshnah but no one agreed that they should find a new place for the seals to be at. They tried to explain to him that seal hunting was a job for people and that they can’t stop them. No one, except for him, saw what people did to seals. His mother told him to forget about the whole thing and plays with other seals.
That fall, Kotick decided to swim and look for Sea Cow but he couldn’t find him but he did encounter and albatross who told him that island Kerguelen is an ideal place to find peace. When he got there he almost died due to the storm that pushed him against the rocks. Kotick spent the next five years investigating islands and every four months he would take a break at Novastoshnah where the other seals would make fun of his idea of an ideal island. He didn’t give up on his dream and he would always get disappointed because in every island seals were getting killed.
On his way he met an old seal and caught some fish for him. The old seal was the last member of the Lost Herd of MAsaufer. He told him that he had heard a story about a white seal who will rescue them and advised him to just keep going.
That summer he came to Novastoshnah and he was losing hope. His mother told him that it was about time he got married and he begged for just one more year. Luckily he had met a female seal that was postponing her marriage so she promised she would wait for him. After doing the seal dance with her he headed west.
When he got tired he slept on an island and when he got up he saw some weird creatures. They were funny looking and when he asked them something they would answer. Kotick thought they were the ugliest creatures he had ever seen and came to a conclusion they were sea cows.
He decided to follow them on their journey. In the beginning the sea cows swam slowly and took a lot of breaks but then all of the sudden they started swimming so fast that Kotick was impressed. They dived into the water, entered a cave and Kotick followed them. When he dived out he couldn’t believe his eyes. He saw a beautiful beach where people had never been before. He had to make sure there was enough fish there so he went to Novastoshnah to get the other seals. He had to bring them to place that was people and killing free.
When he came back his future wife greeted him with happiness. He was bragging to everyone about finding the place where no man has been before but no one believed him. In order to make the seals believe him he decided to fight everyone. If he won the seals will have to follow him and in the end it happened. His parents were very proud of him because he was brave and fearless. His skin wasn’t white anymore because it was covered in blood.
A week later thousands of seals headed off to the Sea Cow’s tunel. The seals who were left behind called them stupid but when Kotick’s seals started telling them about that place more and more seals joined them. Kotick enjoyed getting stronger by the year on a place where no man had ever been before.
Characters: Kotick, Sea Catch, Kotick’s mother, Kerick Booterin and his son Patalamon, Sea Vitch, Sea Cow, seals, Kotick’s seal...
Characters Analysis
Kotick - is an unusual white seal. His parents loved him a lot and his mother taught him everything one seal must know. Since he was a little seal he was taught how to swim, hunt and know when a storm was coming. He loved to learn and he was extremely brave. He was different from other seals not only by his skin but by his personality as well. He saw what no seal had seen before - people killing seals. It was carved into his memory and he had to find a place where humans won’t be able to hunt them down. He had many adventures and often he would get tired and he would lack self-confidence but he was persistent. In the end he found a place in which the seals could live freely.
Sea Catch - was his father who took good care of his family. Every year he would fight other seals so that his family would have the best place. He never fought seals he had already defeated because it was against the rules.
Kotick’s mother - didn’t understand why the male seals fought every year for their place on the rocks. She thought everything could be fixed by communication. She loved her son and taught him everything he needed to know to become a good seal.
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.
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