There's more than one correct answer to the question, "What's this story really about?" And your chances of getting the question right are way above 25%. "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" is a lot like a multiple-choice test with one major difference. It sure takes a lot of pressure off filling in that little bubble-well, 25% less pressure. You know what the best part of a multiple-choice test is? So long as you answer, you've got at least a 25% chance of being right. What is Rikki-Tikki-Tavi from The Jungle Book About and Why Should I Care? Considering the average mongoose only lives to be twenty, Rikki-tikki is beating the odds in a major way. One hundred years after its first printing, "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" remains an inseparable part of the Jungle Books collection and has found a life of its own on many a child's bookshelf. Along with "Toomai of the Elephants," "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" is one of the few Jungle Books short stories to not feature Mowgli, yet still gain enough recognition to be printed outside the collection.Īnd Kipling's story about a mongoose's backyard battle remains in print to this day. In it, the warrior mongoose Rikki-tikki matches himself in a mythic battle against the devilish cobras Nag and Nagaina in the back yard of an Indian bungalow.Īlthough never as famous as Jungle Book alumnus Mowgli-whose combined tales take up eight of the total Jungle Books tales-Rikki-tikki has done fairly well for himself. Titled "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," after the story's furry protagonist, the story was a classic hero's tale shrunken down to critter size. Nestled amongst these imaginings of wolf cubs and tigers was a story about a little mongoose. By 1894, he had written enough of the stories to combine them into a collection, which was titled The Jungle Books. He wrote these fantasies as short stories and sold them to various magazines. In 1892, Kipling began projecting his mind away from the frigid Northeast winter and back to the warm tropics of India ( source). So, naturally, Kipling was in India when his muse struck, right? He stared out his window at the rich jungle canopy and imagined what was occurring in that vast wilderness just beyond his grasp.Īctually, he was living in Vermont when he began writing The Jungle Books, one of his most famous works. His tales "impress upon the minds of Englishmen at home the almost divine necessity of maintaining the British Empire" ( source), meaning, of course, India.
Action and riches waiting for the most courageous of manly men.Īs a journalist for the Civil and Military Gazette in India (Intro.9-10), Rudyard Kipling spun popular tales of the "mysterious" land the British had come to know as the Orient. Danger and intrigue lingering between ancient city alleys. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi from The Jungle Book IntroductionĪ sweltering jungle-covered land.
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