Rach's Reading Club 2024

The Jungle Book

I read the Rudyard Kipling classic, The Jungle Book. I first encountered this book when I was a Cub Scout many years ago. As you may know, the Cub Scouts are loosely based on this book. It's the reason that a troop of Cub Scouts is called a pack, that a cub scout leader is called Akela, and that the ranks in cub scouts are labelled Bobcats, Wolves and Bears.

Of course, later, I was taken to see the Disney cartoon, but I'll talk more about that later.

The book is arranged in kind of an odd way. The first three chapters tell the story--although not in precise chronological order--of feral Indian child, Mowgli whose parents are killed by a tiger named Sher Khan and who is subsequently adopted by wolves. He is also aided by Bear named Baloo and a panther named Bagheera. (Actually, I never noticed this before, but in the cub scouts Bagheera is a bobcat. The only reason I can think of for this discrepancy is that it was to sort of Americanize the story.)

Actually, the story takes kind of a dark turn. It is revealed that when Akela, the leader of the wolf pack becomes too old to make a kill, the younger wolves kill him. That's not exactly in line with the Scout values and it certainly wasn't in the Disney version.

There are other ways in which this story is different from the cartoon. Baloo is an interesting character. Disney fans probably remember Baloo as the goofy guy who sings "The Bear Necessities" but in this book he's actually a fairly strict disciplinarian with Mowgli. Also the monkeys--called Bandar Log--are kind of different too. In both versions, the monkeys kidnap Mowgli and take him to their home in a ruined human city. But the book makes much of the fact that they are a lawless people compared to the rest of the jungle folk. The idea of them having a king--certainly one that sings jazz--seems a bit out of character.

Anyway, the book also contains some unrelated stories. One is about a white seal who helps his people find a new home in the ocean. It's a nicely told story if a little short on plot. By contrast, another story, Ricki Ticki Tavi, stands out as having a strong plot about a mongoose who saves a British boy named Teddy from a family of cobras. This is, in some ways, the most memorable story in the book because it is a straightforward conflict between good and evil.

The last story in the book is my least favorite. It's a sort of war story, in which all the animals used in the battle gather together and talk about themselves. Not a lot really gets said, but then it takes a satirical turn when the animals wonder why they have to go to war. The answer is simply that their masters ordered it. Obviously, this is making a point about war, but I think it could have been presented in fewer words.

So overall, I enjoyed this book, although it may seem a little dated.