Jungle Book

            Many morality tales created for children function as didactic myths, explicitly delineating right from wrong. The Jungle Book is more suggestive and conflicted. There is a multiplicity to morality and a range of approaches to life. In fact, The Jungle Book can be looked at as a loose approximation of the story of the Garden of Eden. Since the morals of that scriptural account are contradictory and complex, the morals of this film are too.

            Mowgli is a man-cub – a feral child, raised by wolves in the jungle. His portrayal is that of an amiable, though insolent, child, perfectly content to be quite nearly unaware of his humanness. Mowgli could represent an innocent first man, neither fully good nor fully bad, and incapable of being either. But he is not without guidance. Here’s where enters an interesting conflict in this film. According to The Jungle Book, both childhood and animalness are associated with a lack of morality and a lack of progression. The binaries of childhood and animalness are adulthood and humanness. Mowgli cannot be wild and innocent, moral and irresponsible, a child and an animal. The film suggests that these things are mutually exclusive.

            Mowgli has yet to develop a strong sense of morality; and so he is guided and misguided by adults. The “adults” in Mowgli’s life are the animals he interacts with. These characters show a range of morality.

            Bagheera is serious and driven, the most “human”-like character in the film because of his impulses as a guardian to Mowgli – he has an understanding of development and species distinction, and he feels responsible to bring Mowgli to the man-village where he belongs. Baloo the bear is carefree and lovely, but ultimately stagnant, unreliable, and counterproductive to Mowgli’s character progression even though Mowgli loves him best. The elephants are militant in their discipline and routine. Kaa lulls, and tries to deceive and harm by lulling. The apes are particularly threatening because of their closeness to humanness. They long to be powerful like man but their nature disallows it. As such, their way of living ends in chaos and destruction.

            Shere Khan is portrayed as the ultimate villain of the narrative. He is intelligent and deliberate and cunning. He stalks Mowgli until he confronts him, eager to kill any and every man who might overthrow him with their inherent intelligence and constructed weapons. This puts another narrative emphasis on the significance of humanness. In The Jungle Book, humanness is not only morality – humanness represents potential and accountability.

Ultimately, though, these adult figures are all wild animals. Their views of morality, according to the film, cannot be completely whole because they are still animals in the jungle. Mowgli, since he is a human, has that capacity, but he must be in the right environment in order to progress.

            At the end of the film, after tangential adventures and resistance of his nature, Mowgli stumbles upon the girl at the river. Left to his own agency, “growing up” would have never even occurred to Mowgli. He was content with his wanderings and rebellion. The distinction between childhood and adulthood appears to be a construct, until natural impulses eventually make Mowgli’s turn towards civilization inevitable. The man-village is where he can be happier and more fulfilled. And now that Mowgli has left the Garden, there will not be any turning back. Except for in the sequel.