Children as a Solution

           In The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman comments on modern society’s greed. This is quite similar to Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. In both works, the authors comment on the greed of men and depict a society in which children, the innocent, are protected from modern society. An outside world takes in a seemingly special child and gives him the knowledge and senses necessary to survive without worldly desires. However, taking children out of their atypical developmental environments results in sensible, intelligent characters, as seen from Bod and Mowgli.

            In The Jungle Book, Kipling shows an organized, civilized society of animals that adopt a young boy, Mowgli, and raise him to be a seemingly more civilized individual than his human counterparts. Mowgli is taught the Law of the Jungle by Baloo and Bagheera. He understands how to survive and get by on simply the “bare necessities.” However, he cannot comprehend the worldly desires of men. When he takes the bejeweled tusk from the white cobra’s cave, his small act of necessity, proposing to take the tusk for hunting, results in the deaths of all the white men exploring the jungle. The men kill each other in order to obtain the tusk for financial gain. They do not see the practical use of the piece. Rather, the humans see the tusk as power or a status symbol. Kipling depicts Mowgli following the trails of each of the men to see exactly how they stepped and how they were ultimately defeated. Mowgli has a deeper level of thinking than these men. He can survive while the men slaughter each other for something they could do without. However, the animals in the jungle are not killing each other. They are able to hunt and survive with respect for one another. Thus, Kipling juxtaposes the greedy society of humans falling apart at the seams while the jungle has an organized system of rules that keeps it intact.

            Gaiman takes Kipling’s commentary a step farther in The Graveyard Book by not only condemning the greed of modern society, but also suggesting humans look backward to history and their ancestry to learn how to behave. He does this by using children, similar to Kipling, but does more with the concept of children having the capacity to understand how to “live.” Bod is rescued from the man Jack by the people of the graveyard, like the jungle accepts Mowgli. In Gaiman’s novel, human Life has become so corrupt in its quest for power that Death is safer. The Jacks are out to possess more power by killing the boy who can survive on the border of Life and Death. To be protected from this greed, Bod must live among the dead. In the graveyard, he learns about history from those who lived it. He passes this along to Scarlett. Their knowledge of the Romans is surprising to adults, yet the children still comprehend it. When Scarlett’s father asks, “Where did you hear about the Romans?” she simply responds with “Everybody knows” (45).Through this scene and the countless lessons Bod receives in the graveyard, Gaiman shows children having the ability to learn complex and valuable lessons.

Because children have a greater brain capacity than credited, they are the perfect place to start the reformation of society. Thus, though society is corrupt with greed, children are the solution for both Kipling and Gaiman. Placing children in an environment absent from this need for power gives them the ability to grow into sensible adults. In The Graveyard Book, dancing with the dead lifts the spirits of the townspeople, and the world seems to be a safer place. So, in teaching children to live a better life, Gaiman suggests looking to the past, the dead, and learning from history. If children are taught more about the past and protected from this greed, they will be able to survive, as seen from the eventual success of Mowgli and Bod. After growing to adulthood and learning about courage, bravery, respect, and much more, their atypical environments release them. By depicting this, both authors show the effectiveness of their developmental proposals.