Tammy’s Reviews > The Jungle Book > Status Update

Kaa's Hunting - I can be slow in picking up poetry.i was confused until I realized one big idea. Each animal has its own reason for pride. Too much pride can be deadly, especially for cubs because they are so small. I love that Baloo's maxims are poems, unlike the Calormen poetry. The Seeone Packers Hunting Song sounds like it's for marching.

Mowgli realizes that he now must go to the man village. He says good-bye to his mother and father and the cubs. He cries and does not know what it means to cry. Bagheera tells im he is truly a man. He promises to come back with Shere Khan’s hide. Dawn is breaking as he leaves. This is so good. He’s found his true identity. He is ascending to a highter place. He is back where he belongs.

He dashes the pot on the ground and sparks fly everywhere. He dips a branch into the fire and they swings it around. He singes the tiger’s fur and shows everyone what a coward he is. Then he promises that the next time he comes to the Council he will be carrying the tiger’s hide.He warns all of them that if they dare touch Akela there will be payback. All but ten wolves scatter plus his friends and the four cubs.

He comes up with a plan to save THREE lives. He will back down from one-to-one combat (saving a young wolf’s life), will not fight anyone when it is his time to die if they will let Mowgli go (Mowgli), and will support the pack (saving his own life). The pack wants Mowgli dead and Bagheera says to bring it! Mowgli reveals his firepot and he rages with anger because he had no idea how much he was hated.

In his gentlest voice (the Father?), Bagheera reminds them of the bull’s sacrifice (Law). The pack snarls their excuse; Bagheera fiercely reminds them that it is a pledge. They have a choice to ascend to Mowgli’s level or descend to Shere Khan’s level. I wonder if wolves are higher in the great chain of being than tigers. Akela accuses them of following Shere Khan’s teaching and snatching children for food at night.

Adelaide is now the Dead Wolf, and he no longer leads the pack. Shere Khan starts speaking, Mowgli objects and quotes the Law, and the fickle mob says a lot of different things. Akela has led for 12 seasons. He accuses them of setting him up with an untried buck and admits his failure. He cites the Law and demands a one-on-one combat. Nobody is brave enough to fight him. I see Mowgli as a Christ figure.

The language about fire is neat. It’s like a plant. They put the coals (seeds) in a pot. He blows on the fire to make it bloom and feeds it sticks to make it grow. If you pick up a branch and put it in the fire, it blossoms on the branch. After Mowgli snatched the pot from the boy, he spent the day in the cave practicing how to tend it based on his habit of attention! The jackal came to the cave. Mowgli laughed.

I wonder if swinging a jackal by his tail and letting him go is a bit like running out the moneychangers. Mowgli checks in with Mother Wolf who is in the cave and she can tell he is worried. Akela missed the buck and now Mowgli knows that Bagheera was right. Mowgli ran to the man village and presses his face against the window. He watches the woman with the coals to learn what to do. She sent the boy out with a pot.

The reason why other animals hate him is none can look him in the eye, not even Bagheera who was born among men. He comes up with an idea for Mowgli to get the Red Flower (fire) tha man grows. Animals are afraid of it. Man grows it in the twilight and carries it around in pots (like the pioneers). Mowgli agrees to do so but, for the first time in his life, he is troubled.

Mowgli obeyed the Law of the Jungle (also Christ). Then Bagheera reveals to Mowgli that he was born in captivity. He and his mother wore a collar and lived in a cage with iron bars. Men fed him in pans. One day he was large enough to break his collar and break out of the cage. He learned the Law of the Jungle. That combined with his knowledge of man made him feared and powerful.