Boundaries Heighten Curiosity

            “The grass is greener on the other side.” We want what we can’t have. The primary difference between The Jungle Book’s Mowgli and The Graveyard Book’s Bod is that Bod can see beyond the graveyard fence to what lies outside of his world – Mowgli is completely submersed in the vastness of the jungle. Because he can see what he can’t have and wonders what the world of the living is like, Bod’s curiosity envelops him and he realizes that there are things he must learn outside of the graveyard to ever hope to live there someday.

            Boundaries have a funny way of heightening curiosity yet clearly defining one’s belonging. Because Bod feels that he doesn’t fit in with the world of the dead, yet he is physically bounded by the graveyard fence, he longs to explore the outside world where he came from and recognizes that there is knowledge out there that he needs. “ ‘I’ve learned a lot in this graveyard,’ said Bod. ‘But there’s a world out there, with the sea in it, and islands, and shipwrecks and pigs. I mean, it’s filled with things I don’t know. And the teachers here have taught me lots of things, but I need more. If I’m going to survive out there, one day” (Gaiman 180). Bod desires to no longer be bound by the fear that the man who killed his family, but rather to face it head-on and learn to protect himself.

            Mowgli, on the other hand, has more of a mental boundary, rather than physical boundary, in the jungle. The Law of the Jungle provides structure to the enormity of the area, but Mowgli has more freedom than Bod does, giving him an outlet for his curiosity. Mowgli can’t see the human world around him and know that he can’t go there. The freedom he has gives him more of a healthy curiosity of the world around him, not a desire to get out.

            In his earlier years, Bod could satisfy his curiosity by asking Silas questions and merely observing the world beyond the fence. But he doesn't always get a clear answer. He was even advised against going some places within the graveyard, like Potter's Field and the Witch's Headstone (Gaiman 100). But now, as he gets older and more confident, the graveyard boundaries are doing nothing but enforcing Bod’s instinct that he cannot learn everything he needs to know while limited in the world of the dead. He longs to be with people like him and to know how to defend himself. The limits of boundaries and laws define where Bod and Mowgli belong, but also spark a desire to break them.