Common Themes In Kipling's The Graveyard Book

The bestselling children’s book The Graveyard Book was published in 2008 and is still being enjoyed by book lovers of all ages. The book is about a toddler who escapes the presence of a killer and finds refuge in a nearby graveyard. He is raised by many different characters and personalities, both living and dead in the graveyard. Unfortunately, another topic is creating a buzz about this novel other than its awards. The Graveyard Book is being called out because of its many similarities of the much older and equally popular novel The Jungle Book. The author of The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman, doesn’t deserve all of the credit for his bestselling novel because he wasn’t totally original. The Graveyard Book has many different scenes that are just like Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. Gaiman does acknowledge that he wanted to follow the same fundamentals as The Jungle Book in his Newberry Medal acceptance speech when he said, “I

wanted the book to be composed of short stories, because. The Jungle Book was short stories. And I wanted it to be a novel, because it was a novel in my head (Gaiman)”. However, there are a few key events that help Gaiman prove the story has a fair amount of originality that he can hang his hat on. But all in all, The Graveyard Book uses much more than the fundamentals, it uses similar scenes and characters.
The Jungle Book was published around 1900. This book is not to be confused with Disney’s translation of the story in the form of an animated movie. It has many differences, especially with specific character traits. The Jungle Book is essentially a combination of several short stories that features a boy named Mowgli who is raised by wolves and mentored by a bear and encounters multiple problems that include monkeys. Even in the one sentence of summary of the book someone could find similarities between the two author’s writings. Not to mention the covers of the two books, The Jungle Book and The Graveyard Book seem to be very relatable. The titles of these books are nearly identical. Gaiman just switched the word “Jungle” with the setting of his own novel. Tara Prescott chimes in her own opinion in her own book analyzing Gaiman, “Kipling’s Jungle Book stories and Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book are inextricably linked; Gaiman rarely omits the connection when discussing inspiration or writing process (Prescott 66)”. So the fact that Gaiman has kind of scooted his way around the fact that his children’s book nearly copies some of The Jungle Book is obvious in other eyes as well.
A boy who is raised by a unique family? That seems to ring a bell. In The Graveyard Book gives the reader a character to rally around with Bod escaping death and being raised against all odds by these people of the graveyard both alive and dead. This sequence is implausible yet interestingly exhilarating. This is the first parallel that Gaiman noticeably takes from Kipling. Kipling uses the same fundamentals in his writing with the idea of Mowgli being raised and mentored by wolves and finding wisdom from a bear. Neil Gaiman recycles these ideas for his own novel, which doesn’t seem right with the amount of awards he has received for the book.
One major theme behind The Graveyard Book is “Don’t Fear Death”.

This idea is very evident and obvious within the text. Yet it isn’t totally original of Gaiman. The Jungle Book seems to have similar taste with not fearing the unknown. It could also have the theme to not fear adventure. Tara Prescott talks about the common themes of these two books, “Both authors are fathers writing stories for their children (and for others’ children) based on the same scenario: what happens to a child in danger, separated from his parents, and raised by an unorthodox surrogate family? Both stories ultimately reassure; there will be danger and adventure, but the heroes will endure (Prescott 66)”. This bit of text from Prescott is talking about the same sort of ideas of similar themes. Now, the fact that The Graveyard Book was written for his children is very sweet, but this doesn’t justify the fact that he is receiving awards for not totally original story ideas. He uses the same themes that Kipling based his writing off of nearly a century before

Gaiman.
Characters of these two books really follow similar character traits. Some more than others, but many do nonetheless. The first character that is fairly akin to Mowgli is Bod. This is evident because they are the main characters and their roles in both novels are very evident. These characters are both very young and they both created a sort of helpless hero form in their own books. Mowgli is a little more of a forceful figure comparable to Bod as he tries to become the king of the jungle. Now having a kid hero isn’t new to children’s books, but other attributes do link these two heroes. Mowgli and Bod handle the climax to their respective books very similarly. Shere Khan tries to kill Mowgli by making an attack, but Mowgli uses his wolf friends to navigate the cows in a pasture to trample Shere Khan. After telling the wolves what to do, they find much success with Mowgli’s plan “Akela and Gray Brother ran to and fro nipping the buffaloes' legs, and though the herd wheeled once to charge up the ravine again, Mowgli managed to turn Rama, and the others followed him to the wallows (Kipling)”. Bod uses the same idea on the Jack of All Trades when Bod uses different dangers of the graveyard that he became accustomed to growing up to essentially kill the evil trying to kill him. The last man named Jack followed Bod to the Sleer. From there Bod tricks Jack into being the Sleer’s master and as his master the Sleer must wrap up his master to protect him “the Sleer twined about him, and in a huge crushing movement, engulfed the man Jack in his coils. (Gaiman 284)”. This is Bod also using his own allies and thinking power to get out of a fatal situation.
The next character that Gaiman reuses is Silas. Silas follows the same structural traits that Bagheera has in The Jungle Book. The characters are similar because they are the ultimate wild card in the sense that they help link the protagonists to both worlds. The local town to the graveyard for Gaiman and the village in the jungle for Kipling. These are characters that aren’t necessarily as common in any other books. They are very unique characters that further show the unoriginality of Neil Gaiman. Growing up as a young child outside of their actual family creates a gap in a central caring motherly figure for these two books. Another fairly obvious link of characters is the common ghost of Mrs. Owens in The Graveyard Book and the wolf mother Lakshi in The Jungle Book. These characters have small roles in these books, but are very important for the young protagonists, because they need a central maternal figure in the book.
A very important moment in both of these books is Bod being admitted into the graveyard and given the “Freedom of the Graveyard” and Mowgli being adopted by wolf-pack. These two scenes are very similar in the way either character is admitted. In the meetings of these main characters trying to get into their respective group/pack a voice is speaking on behalf of the child. In The Jungle Book Baloo is trying to convince the wolf pack to allow Mowgli to be a part of the wolf-pack, and in the The Graveyard Book Silas does his best for Bod (at the time an unknown child) to be protected by the graveyard.
A big part of an argument is the counterargument. To oppose the similarities there are many differences that can be included between The Jungle Book and The Graveyard Book. Gaiman includes very many unique situations and settings that help the book become so popular. The main theme the The Graveyard Book is “Don’t fear death”. There is another angle that can be followed to reach the conclusion that Gaiman altered his theme to help reach more of an original novel. Another point of originality could be the differences in character traits.
For The Graveyard Book’s theme “Don’t fear death”, Gaiman tries to show kids that death can be their friend and there is nothing scary about it. One powerful conversation in The Graveyard Book comes when Silas decides to tell Bod about how his family was murdered and the man that did so is still looking to murder Bod. Bod then responds in a very non-typical manner “Bod shrugged. “So?” he said. “It’s only death. I mean, all of my best friends are dead. (Gaiman 179)”. Silas very wisely tells Bod of all of the good that he can do for the world now when he is still alive, and that Bod doesn’t want to miss out on his potential. Silas also tells Bod when he is done all he needs to do he can die and be with his friends. This is where Gaiman can really drive home his point of originality. The fact that this story can really teach a lesson about the good things that come along with dying is very popular and unique.
Another characteristic that Gaiman has in his writing is the very adventurous spirit through the afterlife of a graveyard in his writing. “The best parts of this book are the departures from Kipling, the parts where Gaiman tells his own story and his world begins to take on its own life beyond the equipment of the concept. It is interesting to imagine the post-modern mash-up that occurs inside a graveyard. (Jones)”. Traits like Bod’s ability to enter dreams, fade away, etc makes This bit of information is very accurate as a counterargument for Gaiman. The main reason The Graveyard Book found so much popularity was the not the parallels with Kipling, it was popular because of subtle differences from Kipling.
The Graveyard Book obviously has many comparable features to The Jungle Book. Niel Gaiman does recognize that he wrote his bestseller inspired by its forth comer, but the fact is many different aspects are nearly copied by from Kipling’s short stories. First, these aspects are shown by characters of the two books. The obvious character parallel is the main child heroes Bod and Mowgli. Other characters that have similar traits are the wisdom givers Silas and Bagheera. Mrs. Owens and Lakshi also have many similarities as the adoptive motherly figure for the protagonists. Also, many different problems and resolutions seem to reappear in these two books. Bod and Mowgli take down their enemies with their wisdom in the latter parts of their respective stories. They are also initiated into the jungle/graveyard by the original users in a similar way. These stories can be seen as similar in many different angles. For these reasons Gaiman’s work in The Graveyard Book seems unoriginal. His ideas behind this book cannot be considered to be based on The Jungle Book. The writings are based on more than Kipling’s ideas; it is based on many details of The Jungle Book. The Graveyard Book has many subtle differences from Kipling’s work, but many unoriginal characters and scenes take away from how great the novel is perceived to be.