Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book Essay

The Jungle Book is a book written by Rudyard Kipling. This book tells a story about animals and people living together in the jungle. It takes place in India where a baby boy is raised by a pack of wolves that found him alone in the jungle. In this story there are many different animals that help teach Mowgli, the boy raised by wolves, all the ways of living in the jungle. In the beginning of the book, a baby is found by a pack of wolves at the entrance of their cave. They call him, a man cub, name him Mowgli and take him in to raise him as their own.

Later they sell him to a tiger named Shere Khan for a fat bull cow to feed their wolf pack. By the time they ate the bull they realized they had made a mistake and went to go get him back. Shere said they could get Mowgli back if he could go get the hot flame that burns orange. This is what they call fire. They never call fire by its real name because they are so afraid of it. Mowgli set out to find fire while everyone waited at Council Rock. Mowgli was able to go to a nearby camp where he found a man cub carrying a lantern.

He ran up and took the lantern from the man cub and ran back to the Jungle Council at Council Rock where everyone was waiting. When he returned with the fire Shere did not keep his word about giving Mowgli back if he brought back fire. He started a huge argument and Mowgli got mad, got a stick and lit it on fire and burned Shere Khan on the face just enough to scare everyone. After Mowgli burnt Shere he was able to return to the wolf pack. Baloo, the old wise bear, met Mowgli at council rock and he said the man cub isn’t a cub anymore.

What he meant by that was that Mowgli was growing into a man because he was able to get the fire and he stood up to Shere Khan. A little later in the book a group of monkeys that cause trouble to aggravate Baloo, swooped down from the tree tops and got mowgli and carried him way up high in the tree tops. Mowgli thought it was pretty cool until he looked down and saw how far he was from the ground then he began screaming and yelling. Then one of the monkeys threw him to another and the escort monkey carried him away. Baloo and Bagheera, the black panther, were furious that this happened and were prepared to punish the monkeys.

Bagheera started climbing up the tree as though he had never climbed before but the branches broke beneath his weight and he slid down with his claws full of bark. He was very enraged at this point. Then bagheera started yelling at Baloo and said “why didn’t you warn the man cub of the monkeys”. Meanwhile, Baloo was in a clumsy trot toward the monkeys hoping to overtake them. Then Baloo said we might be able to catch them. Bagheera told Baloo to just sit down and start thinking of a plan this is no time for chasing. If we follow too close they may drop him. Baloo worried that they may have already dropped him.

Baloo was so angry he just started running toward the way the monkeys went but he quickly realized he would not be able to catch them and laid down to cry. Then Baloo suddenly sprang up from the ground where he had laid down to cry and said I know Kaa steals little monkeys from the group of monkeys all the time. Baloo wondered if we could get him to steal us one in promise of many goats. We could trade it for Mowgli. Bagheera didn’t really know Kaa and was suspicious but he went with it and said we must go to him and make a deal. Baloo said then let us be off old hunter and friend of mine.

When they found kaa he had his thirty-foot body stretched out on a rock in the sun. He has just woke from a month’s sleep said Baloo so he will be hungry. Baloo started to approach him but Bagheera stopped him and said look he has just gotten his new skin so remember he is still a little blind after he gets his knew coat. I will be ok, Baloo said. Hello Kaa, sleep well asked Bagheera. Yes and now I am hungry said Kaa. Well maybe I can help with that said Baloo. If you will steal me a little monkey I will give you many goats for the eating so you will be so full after you eat you will be able to sleep another month.

But I will have to hunt from the trees for days I’m hungry now said Kaa. Not if you hunt for a baby one, they like to play in the rotten logs on the ground said Baloo. Then kite the colorful bird comes flying in yelling “Baloo, Baloo” I have been told to drop off a message from Mowgli he has told me to tell you that the Bandar log monkeys have taken him to the cold lairs and they might stay there for the week or they might stay there for an hour, I do not know. I have asked the bats to watch through out the night while I sleep. Many thanks said Baloo, I will save you the head of my next kill.

Thank you kite said licking his beak. May you have the deepest of sleep and thank you again said Baloo. After kite left, Bagheera said we need to hurry and get to the cold lairs. Baloo agreed. So they set out and Baloo stuck with Bagheera and Kaa for the first 50 yards then stopped, panting, and Bagheera and Kaa left him behind for him to catch up on his own. Kaa and Bagheera were running and even though Kaa was a 30ft snake he was able to keep up with Bagheera until they reached a river and had to swim across. When they got back on land he caught back up to him.

When they reached the cold lairs they saw the monkeys by the old red looking foundation. They saw a monkey giving a speech, he told his companions that Mowgli’s capture was a new marker in history for the Bandar-log monkeys. Mowgli was busy showing them how to weave sticks and canes together to use as protection against the rain. Then Mowgli started thinking of a plan to run away but he was tired, hungry and sore. He thought about slipping away in the darkness but he was too tired. He didn’t know he had two good friends watching over him from a ruined ditch.

Kaa and Bagheera came up with a plan. Kaa would slip down the west wall and move toward Mowgli and when a cloud covered the moon, Bagheera would go to a terrace that the Bandar log monkeys held council at sometimes where he would be able to get Mowgli. Good hunting said Kaa, grimly. As Bagheera made his way to the terrace he knew not to waste time fighting monkeys left and right. He needed to get Mowgli and leave. Then a monkey woke up and yelled “there is only one” kill him. After several monkeys had jumped on him, six or seven had drug Mowgli up the back wall.

Then they threw him over the wall and said we will finish you if the poison people leave you alive. Then he heard rustling and hissing all around him. He did a snake call twice and at least a half a dozen tiny voices said “hoods down brothers” for the cold lairs were alive with cobras. Then Mowgli got up quietly and listened to the cries of Bagheera and the monkeys fighting. He shouted to Bagheera, roll to the reservoir and plunge into the water. Then Baloo snuck up grabbed Mowgli and put him in a safe place. The monkeys stopped fighting and returned to the reservoir.

In conclusion, “The Jungle Book” is a collection of great stories that tell about an orphaned boy raised by wolves and as he grows older he encounters and overcomes many obstacles to become king of the jungle. He is taught by many different animals in the jungle, the ways of life in the animal kingdom as well as the dangers of living in the jungle. As he journeys through his life in the jungle trying to figure out if he belongs in the human world or in the animal world, he gains respect and friendship with many animals and realizes that his place is in the jungle.