The Jungle Book introduceyourself

hi

About the author
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in India in 1865. He
travelled widely during his life, living in England, India,
the United States and South Africa.
During his second visit to India, from 1882 to 1889, he
worked as a journalist, keeping exhaustive notes about life
in that country. These notes became the basis of many
books, including the children’s story The Jungle Book.
Kipling was an immensely popular author during his
lifetime, producing a vast amount of novels, poems, a
semi-autobiography and several collections of short stories.
His poem If is now included in innumerable anthologies
around the world, and the Disney version of The Jungle
Book became one of the most popular children’s films of all
time. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.

Summary
A very young boy, called Mowgli lives in the jungle. Shere
Khan, the tiger, wants to look after him, and so do the
wolves. Akela, the wolf leader, decides that Mowgli will
stay with the wolves. Baloo the bear and Bagheera the
panther also look after him. Mowgli stays in the jungle for
ten years. When Akela becomes old, Shere Khan thinks he
might now get Mowgli with the help of the young wolves
who don’t like him. Mowgli defends himself by throwing
fire at his enemies, but he must leave the jungle. He says
goodbye sadly to his friends and family and goes to live in
the village.
Chapter 1: Mowgli, the man-cub, arrives at the mountain
top home of the wolf pack led by Akela. He is taken in by
Mother and Father Wolf. But Shere Khan, the tiger, wants
to catch and eat the man-cub. He is very hungry and in
pain because his foot hurts badly. He is finally accepted
into the pack after Baloo, the bear, speaks for him and
Bagheera, the panther, gives the pack food in return.
Chapter 2: Mowgli grows up happily with the wolves. He
learns the law of the jungle but also watches the men in
the village. As Akela becomes weaker and weaker, Shere
Khan gets closer and closer to the young wolves to get
support to have Mowgli excluded from the pack. Finally,
Mowgli realises that it is time to move on. But before he
goes, he follows Bagheera’s advice: he gets the Red Flower
from outside the house of a man. The Red Flower is the
animals’ way of talking about fire. Animals are too afraid
of it to use it as a weapon, but Mowgli is not an animal.
He is a man-cub. He hits Shere Khan with a fiery stick
and leaves the mountain-top, promising to return one
day with the tiger’s skin. He cries for the first time and
Bagheera sees he is now a man.
Chapter 3: Baloo, the old brown bear, is Mowgli’s teacher
during his happy years with the pack. He teaches Mowgli
the language of the jungle. He learns how to hunt,
how to communicate in the different animal languages,
survival techniques and all about jungle etiquette. Baloo
and Bagheera also warn Mowgli to stay away from the
Monkeys because they are foolish and have no law. But
one day, Mowgli is kidnapped by the Monkeys. Mowgli
remembers Baloo’s teachings and asks Chil, a big bird, to
notify Baloo and Bagheera. Baloo asks Kaa, a ten-metrelong
snake for help, and they track Mowgli to Monkey
City.
Chapter 4: Once in Monkey City, the monkeys take
Mowgli to a building with no doors or windows. Bagheera
is the first to arrive and fights hard with the monkeys,
which want to kill him. Mowgli suggests Bagheera gets
into the water, where the monkeys will not follow him.
Then Baloo arrives and some monkeys attack him as well.
In the end Kaa comes down, kills a few monkeys and the
rest are so afraid that they climb walls, running away from
Kaa. The great snake starts a snake-dance which captivates
all the animals, including the bear and the panther.
Mowgli sees no fascination in it, and helps his friends
not to fall under the snake’s spell. Mowgli has disobeyed
the Law of the Jungle and is physically punished for his
mistake.

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