How Does Mowgli Change Throughout The Novel

Rudyard Kipling’s character Mowgli from The Jungle Books is a character with many different dynamic elements in his characterization. Mowgli experiences different emotions throughout the stories that each give him better ethics and cause him to gradually become more human. In the beginning, Mowgli learns about betrayal and despair which drives him to increase in emotional maturity. Then Mowgli experiences guilt over other humans beings’ follies, giving him a heightened sense of responsibility for the wellbeing of others. In the book’s final story Mowgli experiences the new emotions of nostalgia for the past and the feeling of belonging. As the books progress that internal challenges that Mowgli faces grow more complex as he emotionally evolves. These changes form emotional complexity in Mowgli that is
The responsibility he feels is expressed when he says that “If it be left here, it will assuredly kill men…. The fault was mine.”As a result of this responsibility he experiences guilt over the six deaths that are the consequence of his carelessness (241, 242). He sees the men as foolish but also feelings an inherent kinship with them and pities their obsession with the ankus (242). He then takes this responsibility a step farther and returns the ankus to the White Hood, an animal that attempted to kill him and mocked him. When Mowgli takes this initiative it shows that he has matured and placed the ankus’s possible future victims over his own pride. In this story Mowgli has also gained power within the hierarchy after calling upon Hathi, causing him to have a level of responsibility for the Jungle People as well. These events highlight distinct emotional growth in Mowgli because he has growth in empathy for others and sees it as his duty to keep both humans and animals from harming themselves with unwise