Villains in Kipling and Gaiman

Upon completing The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, similarities between both stories become obvious. Both following a similar storyline, the books follow the childhood of a boy growing up in a less than conventional way. In addition to this characteristic, both Kipling’s Mowgli and Gaiman’s Bod encounter more than one run in with a villain of some kind. Shere Khan from The Jungle Book and the man Jack from The Graveyard Book both symbolize a threat to what each author sees as the ideal society.

In Kipling’s exotic story, Shere Khan is the lame tiger whose attack on a family of humans causes Mowgli to stray into the jungle. Throughout the book’s short stories, Shere Khan is constantly attempting to kill Mowgli and have the meal he feels was unrightfully taken from him on day one. The other animals of the jungle all know of Shere Khan’s plans, and do everything in their efforts to protect Mowgli until the boy is ready to defeat Shere Khan in his own right. Defeating Shere Khan is what finally allows Mowgli to earn power and respect in the jungle and have free, uninterrupted reign of its land.

Gaiman’s villain is slightly different. The man Jack is sent to Bod’s childhood home with one mission, murder the family, most importantly the baby boy, and slip out undetected. Bod’s curiosity causes him to escape Jack’s knife and stray into the graveyard, into the arms of his soon to be replacement parents. In the ensuing years, Bod’s only guarantee of protection is staying in the graveyard, never venturing into the human world. Although this is a slight twist on Kipling’s tale, Jack’s motives are entirely similar to those of Shere Khan. Jack feels as if he has the right to the baby boy that escaped his grasp that night, and he spends years attempting to complete his job. But by defeating Jack, Bod is able to come and go freely from the graveyard without fear. 

It is the initial actions of each villain that cause both Mowgli and Bod to stray from the conventional life they were intended to live. And it is the presence of these villains that remains as a constant threat to each boy throughout their childhood. Although Shere Khan and Jack have many surface level differences, their underlying motives and actions are quite similar. Both villains serve as a means of disrupting what each author sees as the ideal childhood. By defeating these villains, both boys are able to comfortably continue living in their unusual circumstances and eventually make the transition into human life, taking with them the lessons they learned in childhood. These unusual circumstances are what both Kipling and Gaiman see as the ideal way for a boy to be raised, free to roam and experience life away from humans, allowing for more lessons than a human raised child could ever hope to learn.