Review on The Jungle Book’s Mowgli Brothers by Rudyard Kipling

The story begins when the Father Wolf, Mother Wolf, and a pack of wolves need food and prepare to hunt. Tabaqui, a mad jackal came to the wolves’ den. He came who made the wolves beware. He searched for food scraps and found bones. For a wolf it is not food but for a jackal it is a good feast. Tabaqui delivered the bad news that an evil tiger, Shere Kahn, was about to hunt around a wolf’s den. The news shocked Father Wolf so he threw Tabaqui out. Suddenly they heard a sound from the bushes and they were worried that it was Share Kahn. After careful investigation, it turned out that the voice came from a human baby. They took the boy to the wolf’s den but Shere Kahn and Tabaqui came and blocked their way to the cave. Share Kahn asks to hand over the boy but Father Wolf refuses. A feud ensued which eventually led to Shere Kahn and Tabaqui leaving. Shere Kahn knew he would have the child one day. The wolves decided to take care of the boy and named him Mowgli. Then they took him to Council Rock which was attended by many kinds of animals including Shere Khan. They discuss whether to take care of Mowgli or not. There was a huge debate that ended with an agreement to treat Mowgli who must comply with the Law of the Jungle. And after some time Mowgli has grown up and already understands how to live in the jungle. Shere Khan who saw the leader of the pack of wolves aging and weakening took advantage of him to provoke the young wolves to fight Akela. Mowgli who already knows intends to leave the pack of wolves and go to the human village. Bagheera, a phanter tells Mowgli to take fire from the human village to fight Shere Kahn. After successfully fighting Shere Khan using fire, Mowgli threatens with fire to let Akela live and the rebels are driven out of the herd. Mowgli knowing he has no right to be here, leaves the herd. The story of Mowgli’s Brother ends.

Released in 1894, The Jungle Book’s Mowgli’s Brother has a slightly dark theme and is suitable for mature readers. This story is written by the British writer who was born in India, Rudyard Kipling and is based on the British colonization of India that occurred at that time. Mowgli who since childhood was raised by wolves and hangs out with other animals in the jungle. He also studied The Law of the Jungle where the rules take a fairly large role in the story.

The Law of the Jungle, which never orders anything without a reason, forbids every beast to eat Man except when he is killing to show his children how to kill, and then he must hunt outside the hunting grounds of his pack or tribe. The real reason for this is that man-killing means, sooner or later, the arrival of white men on elephants, with guns, and hundreds of brown men with gongs and rockets and torches. Then everybody in the jungle suffers. The reason the beasts give among themselves is that Man is the weakest and most defenseless of all living things, and it is unsportsmanlike to touch him. “They say too — and it is true — that man-eaters become mangy, and lose their teeth.” (Mowgli’s brothers page 1)

The human village in this story represents the British Empire and the animals who obey The Law of the Jungle represent the Indian people who obey the rules of the British Empire. Mowgli also represents a British soldier who was sent to India and mingled with the natives there. The main antagonist in the story, Share Kahn who violates The Law of the Jungle and kills humans is similar to the Indians who fought against the British. The monkeys in the ruins claim they are the most powerful animals in the Jungle but they don’t obey any rules and live as they please. They are similar to how British soldiers treated native Indians arbitrarily. Tabaqui, a jackal who becomes Shere Kahn’s subordinate to survive foraging for food. As Akela begins to age, Shere Kahn brainwashes the young wolves to fight Mowgli and becomes a Tabaqui-like personality who obeys Shere Kahn. These traitors are similar to the British soldiers who chose to live alone and the Indian natives who fought the British. The point is that the characters in this story are like conditions where there are Indian people who obey British rules and some don’t. Rudyard Kipling was amazed by how the Filipinos fought against the American invaders and finally won. Kipling believes that the Indians will win as well as the Filipinos.

Every writer writes their story mostly influenced by their environment. John Steinbeck who wrote Of Mice and Men based on dark events such as The Great Depression, The Dust Bowl, and Jim Crow Laws, Charles Dickens who wrote David Copperfield and Great Expectation based on his dark life, and finally Rudyard Kipling who wrote The Jungle Book based on colonial events that he experienced in India by the British. This book The Jungle Book’s Mowgli’s Brothers is for me like other English writers, the writing is difficult to read and there is a lot of vocabulary that I don’t know. I had to see animated adaptations and feature films to fully understand this story. At first, because I knew about the adaptation first and then the book, I thought that this book was a light book and more like a fairy tale read to children before going to bed. However, after reading this book, it turns out that there is a hidden meaning about British colonialism and the original story is even darker than I thought. This book is intended for people who have often read books in English because the sentence patterns in this book are sometimes difficult to read and understand. Overall, I can’t recommend this book because I didn’t really enjoy the original story myself.

Reff:

Kipling, R. (2006, January 16). The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 5, 2021, from https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/236

Weiss, E. (2019, April 2). British Imperialism in Kipling’s Jungle. YouTube. Retrieved December 29, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtvvOV2i41Y