Rikki Tavi Quotes

Rikki Tikki Tavi

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is the short story about a mongoose who was washed away from home. He was picked up by British-Indian a family living in a bungalow. From there, he met many friends and adversaries, including; Darzee, the not-quite-intelligent songbird, Chuchundra, the cowardly muskrat that dwells the corners of the bungalow, Nag, the evil killer cobra and co-ruler of the garden, Darzee’s wife, the quick-witted, perspicacious wife of the songbird with an instinct to protect her young, and Nagaina, the foul, sneaky snake that has a treacherous cause. Rikki nearly becomes Nag’s supper after nearly being struck in the back by the evil Nagaina. Afterwards, he travels back to the bungalow to be nurtured by the family, when suddenly

he sees the deadly Karait preparing to attack Teddy. Rikki springs into action and makes short work of Karait. After the close encounter, Rikki sleeps with Teddy, when he hears Chuchundra the muskrat cowering in the sides of the room. Rikki threatens Chuchundra with a bite if he didn’t tell him information about Nag and Nagaina, and due to the pusillanimous nature of Chucundra, he told Rikki that Nag and Nagaina were outside of the bathroom sluice. Rikki listened to Nagaina’s plot to murder the people inside the household to rid of Rikki. This infuriated him, but he held back his anger and waited. After waiting and plotting his strike, Rikki attacked Nag and did not let go until “the big man” fired a shotgun into Nag, finishing him. The next day, Nagaina was mourning for nag on a rubbish heap while Rikki and Darzee’s wife developed a plan to lure Nagaina. Darzee’s wife pretends to have a broken wing and lures Nagaina away from her eggs. Rikki then destroyed each of Nagaina’s eggs, except for one. Darzee’s wife accidentally lead Nagaina too close to the veranda of the home, and Nagaina now has Teddy in killing range. Rikki 
used the egg he spared to get Nagaina away from Teddy. Rikki fought Nagaina, but he had left the egg out of his possession. Nagging took the egg and slithered towards her snake hole. However, the fight did not end there. Nikki sprinted as fast as he could, following Nagaina into the snake hole. The entire garden thought Rikki had died in the snake hole. But Rikki emerged. The garden never again had such a threat, after Rikki-Tikki-Tavi defeated Nag and Nagaina in his most valiant efforts.

Animals have many human-like attributes in the story Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.

One example is Nag, the evil ruler of the garden. A quote from the story directly shows his nature; “We are very miserable,'' said Darzee. “One of our babies fell out of the nest yesterday, and Nag ate him.'' In this part of the story, Darzee tells Rikki about Nag, the cobra that ate one of his babies. This expresses that Nag is a heartless evil-doer with no borderlines whatsoever. Normally, an animal would not have these attributes, but through the story, they translate into actual personality traits that fit the chaacter. Another quote from the end of the story that supports this is; “Evil that plagued us is slain, Death in the garden lies dead.” T his is from the song that Darzee sings in the end. He directly refers to Nag as “evil” and “death”. Another animal in the story is Chuchundra, the cowardly muskrat. This quote sh “ows his craven personality; “I am a very poor man,'' he sobbed. ``I never had spirit enough to run out into the middle of the room.” In that quote, he says he has never had the heart to just wander in the middle of the room, which is most cowardly. Usually, you would not think of a musk-rat as cowardly. However, the story gives him that human-like attribute that otherwise would not be there. This is a piece of dialogue in the story that infers Chuchundra to be timid; “Don't kill me,'' said Chuichundra, almost weeping. ``Rikki-tikki, don't kill

me.''
“Do you think a snake-killer kills musk-rats?'' said Rikki-tikki scornfully.
“Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes,'' said Chuchundra, more sorrowfully than ever. “And how am I to be sure that Nag won't mistake me for you some dark night?’' Chuchundra is over-worried that Nag will mistake him for Rikki-tikki and try to attack him, even though he goes nowhere close to him in any time during the night or day. Many more characters have traits such as these, but the last character to discuss is Darzee’s wife. Darzee’s wife is an intelligent songbird, and an example of her intelligence is in this quote; “…But his wife was a sensible bird, and she knew that cobra's eggs meant young cobras later on; so she flew off from the nest, and left Darzee to keep the babies warm, and continue his song about the death of Nag.” Unlike Darzee, Darzee’s wife did not waste any time making nonsensical conclusions to things. Instead, she took action to save her babies and the garden. One more action that is intelligent on her part lies in this line of the story; “Darzee's wife knew better than to do that, for a bird who looks at a snake's eyes gets so frightened that she cannot move.” If another character, such as Darzee, was in this situation, it would end in death for him, for he would look Nagaina straight in the eyes without thinking, and would’ve been petrified by fear. I believe that makes Darzee’s wife intelligent.

The theme of this story is to fight for what is right no matter what, even if it has personal sacrifice. Rikki risked his life to save others-and the garden-multiple times throughout the story, such as when Teddy was nearly killed by Karait; “Rikki jumped sideways and tried to run in, but the wicked little dusty gray head lashed within a fraction of his shoulder, and he had to jump over the body, and the head followed his heels close. Teddy shouted to the house: “Oh, look here! Our mongoose is killing a snake…” Rikki nearly died protecting Teddy from Karait, but he did it because it was the right thing to do. Another example is when Rikki nearly sacrificed himself to save the garden from Nagaina after following her into her snake hole. “… and very few mongooses, however wise and old they may be, care to follow a cobra into its hole. It was dark in the hole; and Rikki-tikki never knew when it might open out and give Nagaina room to turn and strike at him. He held on savagely, and struck out his feet to act as brakes on the dark slope of the hot, moist earth.” Rikki-tikki had a small chance of survival and he knew it, but he did it because it’s what was right—right for him and the entire rest of the garden.