Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Imperialism representation in The Jungle Book

The story of The Jungle Book is an allegory based on Imperialism in India. When Europeans come to "civilize" they seem to neglect how it's damaging the natives, animals and environment. This plot provokes the ideas of Imperialism by showing the relationship of the Europeans desire to conquer and the distaste of this expressed by Mowgli and the animals.

A key point in this work was "Jungle Law vs. Man's Law". In a distilled form Jungle Law is only killing to keep yourself alive, whether
to eat or be eaten. Man's Law on the other hand is bluntly selfishness, or rather, killing for their desires instead of to keep themselves alive.
The characters have a strong effect on the representation of Imperialism as well. They are seemingly divided into good vs. evil. The "evil" characters, who are William and his cohorts, can be considered Imperialistic. They show the disregard of the environment and creatures that they have taken from. Mowgli and the animals, the "good" characters, represent the smaller-less powerful countries that are the process of being extracted from during this time. Mowgli himself represents the Independence of these countries, the fighting of what is rightfully their own.

All of these points relate to Imperialism through the representation of Nationalism and Racism. Racism is observed through the Europeans thinking the natives, and the country itself, need to be civilized. They have justified this thought through the philosophy of "Survival of the Fittest", thinking that if they have the ability to conquer, then the land and it's rights were their own. Nationalism is shown through Mowgli and the animal's desire to do what they believe is right and remain loyal to themselves through traditional beliefs.

1 comment:

  1. I posted a link to this on Goodreads.
    https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1773799-the-39-steps-by-john-buchan?comment=96427110#comment_96427110

    ReplyDelete