Significance Of Imperialism In The Jungle Book

Rudyard Kipling

Imperialist Messages within “The Jungle Book”

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English author, journalist and poet that supported the British Imperialism. He was born in the British India, Bombay. His father Lockwood Kipling, was a sculptor that worked as the head of department of the architectural sculpture at the Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy School of Art and Industry. His mother was Alice Kipling; both parents were English citizens that moved to India. According to Dylan J. Sirois the Kipling family had some connections that made them able to furnish their home and have several servants. Kipling grew up surrounded by a society that was affected by the imperialism. In his home he commanded the black skinned people around him, adopting

It is about a curious little white seal called Kotick that was born on the beach. One day Kotick discovers that there is a place in which every year the men came and kill seal to skin them. The experience is very traumatic for him, but when he talks about it with the other seals, the black ones, everybody suggest him to forget what he had seen and to remain in his place. Not convinced with the answers Kotick travels to other beaches so as to find a secure place for the black seals. In this story it is possible to observe that once more, the white seal is the one that is worried with the security of the back ones. Compared to human beings the black seals would represent the native people, the brown man, which wanted to remind in their place even when it was not safe enough. The white seal in this sense would represent the white man or the Europeans that wanted to find a better place for the native people, but had to work alone because nobody wanted to help them. Within the story Kotick finds a secret place in which no human being had arrived. Unfortunately, the black seal do not want to follow him. The best way Kotick finds to make the other seas follow him is challenging the others to fight with him, should he win, they would have to follow him to the secret place. At the end of the story Kotick wins and the black seals follow him. Dylan J. Sirois explains that the aim of this story is to demonstrate that

In the first one an aged elephant, Kala Nag, works for the Indian government, catching wild members of his own specie. This story may represent the Indian people that that worked for the British Empire trying to bring the civilization to their own people. As in the previous stories in this appears an English man that causes terror among the native people that hunts elephants. Once more it demonstrates that the British people are in a way superior to the native Indian people since they are afraid of what the English man could say to them. In the second story “Her Majesty Servants” there is an example that is more directed to the wars. This story teaches the readers that everyone had their own role in the success of the British Empire. The plot is centered in a discussion between some camp animals that served their human masters, soldiers of the British Empire. The characters of the story are a troop horse, a mule, two bullocks, an elephant and a camel. Each one has a way of fighting and creates an argument to support it. For some of the animal´s point of view, some of them are more cowardice than the others. But in the end it is reflected that the job of each animal would depend on the hierarchy of intelligence. That means that each animals have a specific job, some of them carry munitions and other participate directly in the war. The story helps to