Monkeys and Ghouls

The main characters in The Jungle Book and The Graveyard Book are both portrayed as heroes of their stories, but they differ in one key characteristic: obedience to the law. Mowgli is represented as the ideal boy becoming a man in the jungle, while Bod is represented as an explorative boy who learns from his experiences, good or bad.

            An occurrence that takes place in both books is the main characters being “taken” by creatures that are not accepted by the rest of the jungle or the graveyard. “I went away, and the gray apes came down from the trees and had pity on me. No one else cared,” says Mowgli as he attempts to justify why he ventured through the jungle with The Monkey People (Kipling 30).  Mowgli’s adventure was primarily out of ignorance of the fact that the monkeys are vindictive animals and lack any law in the jungle. Kipling is making the argument that if one wants to succeed in life, he or she must obey the laws. When Mowgli does not obey the law, such as when he goes off with The Monkey People, that is when his life is at risk and he is not on the path to success in the jungle. Mowgli was vulnerable and unaware that what he was doing was wrong, but had he known it was against the law, he would have never done it- a point that greatly distinguishes him from Bod.

            Unlike Mowgli, Bod’s journey to Ghûlheim was deliberate and he did have the proper warning to stay away from the ghouls; “Why do you keep away from them? Where do they come from? Where do they go? Why do you not stand near a ghoul-gate?” Miss Lupescu questions Bod as she educates him on the dangers of the ghouls (Kipling 70). The fact that Bod had the proper warning to stay clear of the ghouls and still agreed to go with them differentiates him from Mowgli because Mowgli would never go against the Law of the Jungle. On the other hand, Bod is inquisitive and wants to experience anything that is unknown to him, even if it breaks the rules set for him in the graveyard. Bod recognizes that to learn things in life, sometimes he has to break the rules because the end result is worth the risk of the experience. Even after his near death experience with the ghouls, Bod tells Silas, “It’s okay. Miss Lupescu looked after me. I was never in any danger” (Kipling 98). Bod just broke one of the biggest rules set for him, yet he can act like it was nothing because he gained real life experience from it. Now he truly knows why you don’t stand near the ghoul-gate.

            These two stories characterize the main protagonists in each book, portraying Mowgli as a straightforward boy who follows the rules to achieve success and Bod as a rule breaker who gains real life experience mainly when he strays from the “Law of the Graveyard.”