Good vs. Evil in Kipling’s Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
Kipling’s Rikki Tikki Tavi has all the necessary parts of a battle story. It is full of battles, war tactics, good, evil, motive, song, and drama.
A battle story needs a gripping introduction, one that hints at the battles to come and one that brings the reader in with an exciting anticipation. This story first begins with a poem of the brave Rikki Tikki angrily chasing death with a lust to kill. It right away shows the necessary bravery and strength of the protagonist/hero and the might and evil of the antagonist. The lines like… Eye to eye and head to head This shall end when one is dead …start the book with the promise of great fights between two great forces.
The first paragraph is also cleverly written to further exaggerate the greatness of the hero and the battles that he has won.
This is the story of the great war that Rikki tikki tavi fought single handed, through the bathrooms of the big bungalow in Segowlee cantonment After the introduction the plot begins by bringing the hero Rikki to the setting by a coincidental occurrence. His home is flooded and he is washed away and near death when a family finds him and nurses him to health. Again here Kippling shows the bravery of the hero, “It is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a mongoose.” Rikki Tikki is thankful to the family and like all good heroes he is loyal and decides to protect them.
Then enters evil, which creates the conflict for which all battling and killing takes place in battle stories. Rikki is exploring the yard one-day and discovers two birds mourning the loss of an egg that was eaten by the evil snakes ruling the jungle. Just then the head snake Nag appears. Rikki already dislikes him as he is good-natured and loyal like all good heroes and Nag ofcourse has eaten his friend’s egg. This is a very important scene, the introduction of the antagonists. Nag is introduced with a boisterous “I am Nag. The great God Brahm put his mark upon all our people, when the first cobra spread his hood to keep the sun off Brahm as he slept. Look, and be afraid!” And Rikki was afraid, “for the minute; but it is impossible for a mongoose to stay frightened for any length of time.” Then out of no where the first real action of the story takes place, “’Behind you! Look behind you!’ sang Darzee” as Nagaina, Nag’s equally evil wife attempts ...
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...nd goes down with her. This is the climax of the story; it is very suspenseful. Using phrases like “and very few mongooses, however wise and old they may be care to follow a cobra into its hole;” Kippling lines the hole with exaggerations and depictions to increase this already thick suspense. All the animals assume he is dead, similar to countless action movies where there is an explosion and the hero is thought dead, but like in those movies the hero comes out to the amazement and joy of all and there again is much celebrating. And so the book ends on the happy note of Darzee’s glorious battle song of Rikki’s tale.
The story followed exactly the guidelines of a battle story; its plot, descriptions, characters, motives, and action are all proof of this. While reading I noticed that the story, if edited slightly could be confused as a story of humans fighting in the jungle.
The names mongoose, snake, and bird sound like the code names we give our pilots and fighters. Also Rikki has special training and tactics in killing snakes as if he were a trained soldier.
In conclusion, Kippling’s Rikki Tikki Tavi can possibly best be described as a classic war tale of good vs. evil.
In the beginning Rikki Tikki is washed away from his home in a flood, then is rescued by humans. He decides to stay and meets Nag and Nagaina ,two king cobras who try to kill him. The young boy who saved Rikki finds him in the garden but Karait a deadly but small snake shows up and Rikki kills him to save the boy Teddy. Later Nag and Nagaina get into the house to kill the humans and Rikki finds out, he is fighting Nag when the man shoots Nag and kills him. Rikki goes out the next day and destroys all Nagaina’s eggs. Nagaina goes to the humans and is going to bite the Teddy but Rikki starts to fight her. They go down a hole and Rikki comes up victorious and Nagaina is dead. He goes back to the people's house and they are thankful for him. Rikki then on protects the garden from snakes forever.
The three incredible works of literature by Owen, OBrien, and Sassoon give a true sense of what fighting for ones country was really like. The battles, soldiers, and wars that most of the public see is glorified tremendously through movies and books mainly. These writers wanted a change and they went about this by giving the true and honest facts of what happened. War should be thought of as a tough obstacle that no one should ever have to go through, a sad occurrence, or a horrible burden, but not as a glorious victory. In order to reach that victory, the road is anything but sweet.
Does being the antagonist always mean you are evil? In AELA this year, we read a short story called Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, by Rudyard Kipling. In the story, the main character, a mongoose named Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, is washed out of his home, and taken in by a family of people. In the backyard, there are two snakes, Nag, and his wife Nagaina. Rikki has to fight the snakes in order to ‘save’ himself, and the other creatures in the backyard. That is, however, only Rikki’s side of the story. This essay is about Nagaina, and how she may be more than just an evil antagonist. In the story, Nagaina is not only sly, but also intelligent and caring. Almost everything Nagaina did was for her children, still eggs at the time.
SNAP! A cobra’s neck snaps from being bitten by a mongoose. A mongoose is a fearsome creature that hunts and kills snakes in Asia. Rikki Tikki is a fictional Mongoose from a short story by Rudyard Kipling, and a movie that is based on the book. He was picked up and cared for by a family in India. The movie was akin to the book, with a few, but lesser variations, but mostly the movie is strictly by the book in the setting, characters, and conflict.
Most critics focus on the chilling way he gloriously recounts battles, narrating them in an epic fashion worthy of Homer's ageless tales. He deals with historic clashes of great importance and manages to transcend their essence to us, reading about them millennia afterwards. His clever and careful use of native vocabulary also aids in the immersion of the reader.
The story explains that mongooses are curious, so Rikki spent his time exploring everything in the house. When exploring outside, Rikki meets a bird that explains to him that one of his babies fell out of the nest and was eaten by Nag, the cobra. That night, Rikki overhears the cobras’ plans to kill the family, so that Rikki would leave and they could take over the garden. Nag sleeps in the bathroom overnight, planning to kill Teddy’s dad in the morning; Rikki attacks him, causing the father to wake up and shoot Nag, saving the family. Rikki also helps save the family by distracting Nag’s widow, Nagaina, as she was about to attack, eventually killing her as well. The family was very thankful, as he had saved all of their lives.
Without love there is no loyalty, and without loyalty, there is no bravery. In the book and movie of the story Rikki- Tikki- Tavi, they were neck and neck. Snake against mongoose, though one must surely die, neither will back down just yet. The book, Written By Rudyard Kipling, and the movie, produced by Julie Ross, generally both carry the same plot and main idea: After being washed out of his home, and cared for by a loving family of three, he wants to repay them, and in the process does an unforgettable act of service. Though both the mediums were exciting, there were also numerous similarities and differences between the book, and the movie, such as the banana scene, the scene where the family first found him, and the resolution.
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What are the stakes of your battle? What are the possible consequences for your main character if he doesn’t win? Will he die? Or is it worse? Will his army/companions/country fall into the hands of the enemy? Will his entire race be obliterated? Or is it better? Will he win the hand of the princess and the day? Will he amass a fortune that he will use to take over the world? The higher the stakes, the more tension there is to build. Make the consequences high enough that something MASSIVE will be lost or gained. Put it all on the line. Make your readers clamor for the outcome!
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