The jungle book contains seven short stories, the first three about Mowgli, while the remaining four focus on different protagonist.
Summary
On the night of a big hunt, Father Wolf and Mother Wolf discover a man’s cub in the bushes, abandoned and naked. Mother Wolf immediately decides she will raise him as one of her own cubs.
Shere Khan the tiger believes the child was his to eat, and he is not happy to be turned away. Mother Wolf names the child Mowgli, which she says means frog. At the wolf Pack Council, Mowgli is accepted by the other wolves only after Baloo, a kind bear who teaches the cubs about the Jungle Law, and Bagheera, the black panther
After Mowgli left his Wolf Pack, he visited a Human village and was adopted by Messua and her husband, who both believed him their own son, previously stolen by a tiger. They teach him Human customs and language and help him adjust to a new life. However, the wolf-boy Mowgli hears from Grey Brother (a wolf) that trouble is afoot against him. Mowgli does not succeed in the Human village, but makes enemies of a hunter, a priest, and others, because he denounces their unrealistic comments about the jungle and its animals. For this, he is reduced to the status of cowherd. This story suggests that perhaps the animals are more just than Humans.
The tiger Sheer Khan enters the village, while Mowgli takes half his cattle to one side of a ravine, and his wolf brothers take the rest to on the other side. Mowgli lures the tiger into the middle of the ravine and the cattle trample him to death. The envious hunter broadcasts that the boy is a wizard or demon and Mowgli is exiled to wander the countryside. This certainly shows the dark side of human beings, again suggesting that animals are nobler creatures.
Review:
I like the book because they address the prime relationships in one’s life –