The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book
[1]
In our North American society, life is reminiscant of the social environment of the animals in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. Just as there is an ever changing social structure, such as the one where Akayla loses rank in leadership as he gets old, and hierarchy amongst the jungle "people," so is there is the old U.S of A. Yet, even within the wolves, seemingly the top dogs, there are issues that trump social class. This is also the case in the US. An issue that affects even the alpha male wolf, the leader of the jungle microcosm, is that of aging. Getting old is an inevitability, yet you would think, that with our stigmas attached to it, that it was a choice (and a unsavory and unsightly one at that). In the jungle, as well as in our society, an aging person translates to a person being less desirable, less able and of a lessor value. Akela, the alpha male dog, is getting old and not every body appreciates him or respects him and so his leadership is changing. Shere Khan , who now has his own following, is not a fan of Akela: "for as Akela grew older and feebler the lame tiger had come to be great friends with the younger wolves of the Pack, who followed him for scraps, a thing Akela would never have allowed if he had dared to push his authority to the proper bounds. Then Shere Khan would flatter them and wonder that such fine young hunters were content to be led by a dying wolf and a man's cub." [1] In the jungle, it was practice that as soon as the lead wolf grew too old he would die or be killed and then a new lead wolf would be chosen, reign for a few years, and then suffer the same fate of his predecessor when he also became too old. That sounds awfully familiar. We continually replace people in our country with newer, younger, better people because the others are "too old." Well, how old is too old? "But remember, Akela is very old, and soon the day comes when he cannot kill his buck, and then he will be leader no more." [2] The jungle creatures equated hunting prowess with that of leadership ability and life worth. The ability to kill really did determine life worth, for if you could no longer hunt, not only could you no longer be the leader of the pack, but you could no longer live. Being old means being weaker. Apparently, according to the Jungle Book, it also means having less worth. The jungle culture was not one that respected their elders, despite the wisdom that came with it. The United States is also a culture in which we impose superficial judgments upon the aging people. Age descrimination runs rampant in the US, yet that practice seems to often fly under the radar. We have simply just gotten used to the idea that we like new and lively better than "old." Even if that means ignoring the experienced, and wise. I could give example after example of how American society loves to just cast off the old and the decrepit. They are a group is society that can simply be pushed to the side and ignored. And there is no way that we could see that they may have worthy insight or contribution. Not only are we a society that shuns the elderly as untouchables, but we worship youth in some ways. Case in point: celebrities. While there is pressure among the general public to stay young, it is virtually inescapable if you are famous. You are pressured (or at least desired) to be thin, have nice skin, get a face lift, surgery, injected toxins into your forehead, which have no doubt been tested on animals and that has now been found to seep into the brain and affect neurons, color your graying hair, wear a toupee or wig, get teeth implants, lift saggy breats, get a tummy tuck, use starvation diets, remove wrinkles, whiten your teeth, and the list goes on. Not only is this everlasting youth now the norm, it is almost a necessity. If you are famous and you don't try to minimize the effects of aging, you may very likely be viewed as over-the-hill has-been who no longer has any value, worth, and, most importantly, marketability. Whatever your job as an aging celebrity, you are usually replaceable. It is no problem to get a younger, fresher, hotter version of you. You, Version 2.0 Just as in the Jungle Book, people today in our country are disposable. Youth = Life. Old = Death. The "aging" celebrities know this, and so did Akela: "It is certain that I must die, and my life is of no worth." [3] The below youtube is a depiction of the wise wolf's dilemma of aging:
[4]
[6]The Jungle Book, 26
[7]http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/10_04/kippoemMS2710_228x625.jpg Also, 2nd story (parallism analysis of Kipling)....
The Jungle Book
[1]In our North American society, life is reminiscant of the social environment of the animals in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. Just as there is an ever changing social structure, such as the one where Akayla loses rank in leadership as he gets old, and hierarchy amongst the jungle "people," so is there is the old U.S of A. Yet, even within the wolves, seemingly the top dogs, there are issues that trump social class. This is also the case in the US. An issue that affects even the alpha male wolf, the leader of the jungle microcosm, is that of aging. Getting old is an inevitability, yet you would think, that with our stigmas attached to it, that it was a choice (and a unsavory and unsightly one at that). In the jungle, as well as in our society, an aging person translates to a person being less desirable, less able and of a lessor value. Akela, the alpha male dog, is getting old and not every body appreciates him or respects him and so his leadership is changing. Shere Khan , who now has his own following, is not a fan of Akela: "for as Akela grew older and feebler the lame tiger had come to be great friends with the younger wolves of the Pack, who followed him for scraps, a thing Akela would never have allowed if he had dared to push his authority to the proper bounds. Then Shere Khan would flatter them and wonder that such fine young hunters were content to be led by a dying wolf and a man's cub." [1] In the jungle, it was practice that as soon as the lead wolf grew too old he would die or be killed and then a new lead wolf would be chosen, reign for a few years, and then suffer the same fate of his predecessor when he also became too old. That sounds awfully familiar. We continually replace people in our country with newer, younger, better people because the others are "too old." Well, how old is too old? "But remember, Akela is very old, and soon the day comes when he cannot kill his buck, and then he will be leader no more." [2] The jungle creatures equated hunting prowess with that of leadership ability and life worth. The ability to kill really did determine life worth, for if you could no longer hunt, not only could you no longer be the leader of the pack, but you could no longer live. Being old means being weaker. Apparently, according to the Jungle Book, it also means having less worth. The jungle culture was not one that respected their elders, despite the wisdom that came with it. The United States is also a culture in which we impose superficial judgments upon the aging people. Age descrimination runs rampant in the US, yet that practice seems to often fly under the radar. We have simply just gotten used to the idea that we like new and lively better than "old." Even if that means ignoring the experienced, and wise. I could give example after example of how American society loves to just cast off the old and the decrepit. They are a group is society that can simply be pushed to the side and ignored. And there is no way that we could see that they may have worthy insight or contribution. Not only are we a society that shuns the elderly as untouchables, but we worship youth in some ways. Case in point: celebrities. While there is pressure among the general public to stay young, it is virtually inescapable if you are famous. You are pressured (or at least desired) to be thin, have nice skin, get a face lift, surgery, injected toxins into your forehead, which have no doubt been tested on animals and that has now been found to seep into the brain and affect neurons, color your graying hair, wear a toupee or wig, get teeth implants, lift saggy breats, get a tummy tuck, use starvation diets, remove wrinkles, whiten your teeth, and the list goes on. Not only is this everlasting youth now the norm, it is almost a necessity. If you are famous and you don't try to minimize the effects of aging, you may very likely be viewed as over-the-hill has-been who no longer has any value, worth, and, most importantly, marketability. Whatever your job as an aging celebrity, you are usually replaceable. It is no problem to get a younger, fresher, hotter version of you. You, Version 2.0 Just as in the Jungle Book, people today in our country are disposable. Youth = Life. Old = Death. The "aging" celebrities know this, and so did Akela: "It is certain that I must die, and my life is of no worth." [3] The below youtube is a depiction of the wise wolf's dilemma of aging:
[4]
"What is the Law of the Jungle? Strike first and then give tongue. By the very carelessness they know that thou art a man. But be wise. It is in my heart that when Akela misses his next kill--and at each hunt it costs him more to pin the buck--the Pack will turn against him and against thee." [5]The world of the rich and famous is a dog eat dog world. And just as in the jungle, in our country, when someone is no longer in the in-crowd, it really is as if just about everyone has turned against them. When it comes to modern fame, you are either in or out. And that fame is usually unpredictable and fleeting. In fact, this is so much the case, that many people would rather be notorious or infamous rather than be forgotten or not famous at all. As the celebrity saying refers to bad press: "any press is good press." Such is this desperate society: many people dead-set not to be nobodies. That's just it. Maybe they'd rather be dead than be nobodies, left with a legacy of any sort as long is their remembered well... sort of like today's martyr's or military "heros". But Kipling's views seems to be if so many people determine their worth from their fame, and we don't view old people as having worth, then how can they view themselves worthy when they no longer have fame because they are old? Growing old is like a death-sentence in our society, on many levels: "When a leader of the Pack has missed his kill, he is called the Dead Wolf as long as he lives, which is not long." [6]In the US, that time between "growing old" and dying (you know "the golden years") is no-man's land. Just as Kipling aptly put it, being old is this society is like being a dead-man walking. I think this has more to do with what people do when they're old or, in the case of my grandmother, what you think you can do. Her 89 years hasn't kept her from getting up everyday and taking it as it comes. I've taken this much as a lesson from my old grandmother. And while Kipling made these sorts of implications in his writings in the Jungle Book, he also left behind a telling reflection of what made him feel as if "alive" in his old age when he wrote about his son Jack who was killed by an exploding mortar shell. Sometimes a memory is all we have, but that's enough to get us through the day.
[7]
[1]http://www.akayla.com/picts/AKAYLA5a.jpg
[2]The Jungle Book, (Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Ed. LTD) 24
[3]The Jungle Book, 24
[4]http://youtube.com/watch?v=pNeHObm4pyU
[5]The Jungle Book, 36
[7][1]http://www.akayla.com/picts/AKAYLA5a.jpg
[2]The Jungle Book, (Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Ed. LTD) 24
[3]The Jungle Book, 24
[4]http://youtube.com/watch?v=pNeHObm4pyU
[5]The Jungle Book, 36
[6]The Jungle Book, 26
[7]http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/10_04/kippoemMS2710_228x625.jpg Also, 2nd story (parallism analysis of Kipling)....
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