Experiences gained before puberty are deeply ingrained in our personality and stay with us for a lifetime, while imagination and dreams are the invisible fabric of our being and often the main drivers of our actions. That is why children’s literature plays a significant role in shaping character and attitudes towards value systems. Great writers help us recognize what is good and beautiful, the meaning of friendship, love, and selflessness, giving us the opportunity to recognize these archetypes in our own lives and helping us to remain internally alive and young, regardless of any circumstances. That is why their works are enduring.
Rudyard Kipling, a renowned British Nobel laureate, undeniably contributed to human culture by creating heroes who embody endeavor and heroism. The most famous of them, the boy Mowgli, was raised by a wolf and adopted and nurtured by the jungle. He is the embodiment of justice and leadership that respects the whole, thereby ensuring the preservation of life and general order in the jungle. There is also the selfless and brave little mongoose Rikki-Tikki Tavi, the white seal. A person who accepts the great challenge of life, and the master of elephants Toomai, and all of them testify to the necessity of trusting in oneself and our yet unexpressed potentials in order to overcome the temptations that life and fate put before us, and to grow as beings and be of benefit to our community. They also testify to the great secret of human life: to continuously and patiently strive, and never give up on what our conscience and heart dictate to us. Never give up on improving and perfecting oneself, that is a powerful elixir of the soul’s youth that deserves our full attention.
The modern man more or less knows this, but the problem lies in the fact that very few people are oriented towards a serious understanding and practical application of these values in life. The reason for this is that such an attitude requires us to take responsibility and take actions that are in conflict with the softened hedonism as the dominant surrogate of happiness in today’s modern society.
Kipling’s living and authentic heroes, people and lives… They, obviously represent ourselves and our characteristics and can serve as models for real life. Kipling himself succeeded in what is mostly missed today: raising awareness of the need for contemplation that is connected to the ideal of action, adventure, and personal responsibility.
Rudyard Kipling
Life and Works
Rudyard Kipling was born on December 30, 1865, in Bombay, where his parents had moved from England earlier that same year. His father, the artist John Lockwood Kipling, was appointed as a professor of architectural sculpture at the newly established School of Applied Arts in Bombay, and soon became its director. His mother, Alice MacDonald, came from a distinguished family and was also multi-talented.
From birth, he was cared for by an Indian nanny and servants, and he learned Hindi as a child. In his autobiography Something About Myself, he writes: My first impressions were tied to dawn, light and colors, and golden and purple fruits at eye level. My shoulders ache. It’s a memory of early morning walks to Bombay Market with my ajah (nanny), and later with my sister in a stroller, and returning home with a load of groceries on the cart. Our ajah was a Goan Catholic who would pray – me alongside her – by the roadside cross. Meeta, our Hindu servant, would occasionally stop by small Hindu temples, while I held his hand and looked at the vague, friendly faces of the gods… During the midday heat before naptime, ajah or Meeta would tell us unforgettable Indian stories and children’s songs, and after dressing us, they would send us to the living room with a warning: “Now, speak in English with dad and mom.”
Idyllic childhood will come to an end when, at the age of six, he is sent to England for upbringing and education, together with his three-year-old sister, to a retired naval officer’s family. He will spend six painful years there, with frequent, unjustified and cruel punishments. He will find solace and salvation in reading, which will turn into a true passion. Read He took everything that came his way, and when his parents found out, they started regularly sending him books from India. At the age of twelve, he went to a boarding school for the sons of military officers and civil servants in Devonshire, where the conditions were Spartan, but he received a solid education. The headmaster was a friend of his family and Rudyard found in him a paternal figure; he allowed him free access to the library and was the first to recognize Rudyard’s literary talent. It was there that he became familiar with the works of English writers such as Emerson, Browning, Tennyson, as well as Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman, whom he would love and appreciate throughout his life. Due to a lack of funds, he was unable to attend university, so at the age of just seventeen, he returned to India to live with his parents. In Lahore, where his father was the director of the Mayo School of Arts (now the Pakistani National College of Arts) and later the curator of the Lahore Museum, he was appointed assistant editor. In the local English-language newspapers. He spends several summers in Simla, the summer residence of the Indian viceroy, where he becomes acquainted with the life of the British colonial elite. In 1885, he was admitted to the Brotherhood of Freemasons in Lahore. It is around this time that he begins to publish his first literary contributions. In November 1887, he was transferred to the sister newspaper, The Pioneer, in Allahabad, where he continues to write short stories with great enthusiasm.
Those were years of success and fame. He traveled almost the entire world, and when he established himself as a famous and wealthy writer, he settled in England. Many distinguished people were his friends, including Theodore Roosevelt and King George V. They offered him opportunities hip, high positions and titles, and numerous other honors, and he was the only one, as the first English writer, to accept the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. After the Nobel Prize, he receives many other important recognitions in England and around the world (gold medal of the English Royal Literary Society, honorary doctorates and membership in famous universities and academies, etc.). However, fate did not spare him suffering; his oldest daughter succumbed to pneumonia at the age of seven, and he also lost his seventeen-year-old son in World War I.
He captivates a wide readership with short, vivid, and convincing stories on the then-new subject – the life and experience of the English in the colonies, especially in India, the “jewel in the British imperial crown” that fascinated the English. In his earlier stories, filled with naive enthusiasm and youthful idealism, he glorifies the enlightening role of colonial authorities through the characters of ordinary but devoted people who build and maintain the British Empire (sailors, soldiers, lower officers). and the bureaucrats…). He celebrates the concept of “Anglo-Saxon masculinity,” which included patriotism, physical toughness, self-discipline, selflessness, bravery, and daring. This concept, very popular during the time of British imperialism, was based on the idea of English nation’s superiority, so conservative political circles advocating uncompromising stance towards colonies used Kipling’s reputation, which would diminish his sympathy among the general public. However, as his love for India was instilled in him from early childhood, he specifically pointed out the harm of naked exploitation of colonial wealth. His conception of imperialism is more humane, implying obligations and responsibility, as well as encouraging collaboration, investment, and development of dominions that naturally should strive for their independence. British imperialism in his works resembles more a romantic and idealistic impulse than a cold exploitative colonial policy, so he appears to be a misunderstood advocate of imperialism. Through his works, he has shown a deep understanding of the human psyche, subtle humor, original imagination, and great storytelling talent. However, he did not write any great novels in the spirit of the 20th century. His most successful work in that genre is Kim (1901), the first significant English novel set in India, which is described here in the best unbiased journalistic style with a sense of the reality of colonial India. Kim is an orphan of white parents who grew up in the outskirts of Lahore. Full of joy, optimism, and inner purity, he fully integrates into the world of India, speaking its language and embracing its culture, earning the nickname “Little Friend of the World”. He encounters an old Tibetan lama in search of enlightenment and becomes his disciple.
Kipling gained the most fame for his short stories. In the collection of twelve stories titled “Simple Stories,” he humorously narrates how animals have acquired their characteristics since the beginning of the world on a fresh Monday morning. istike: camel has its hump, elephant has its trunk, leopard has its spots, etc. Together with man, they begin to shape this new world.
As an Anglo-Indian, he had the opportunity to interpret and bring the East closer to the West – and he succeeded in that, subtly bringing to the attention of Westerners a part of the treasures of Eastern wisdom.
Kipling dies on January 13th. In January 1936, Kipling’s ashes were laid to rest in Westminster Abbey alongside the graves of literary giants like John Milton, Thomas Hardy, and Charles Dickens. Kipling, who was both praised and criticized during his rich and eventful life, was called by American poet Thomas S. Eliot “a laureate without a wreath of laurels.” He was an overlooked figure, and his true greatness was only recognized after his death.
Kipling’s works employ a simple language, which reaches the common people but fails to appeal to the taste of the elite critics of his time, who considered him ordinary. The paradox of Kipling’s career is that his popularity was directly opposite to his reputation among critics. The spirit of action and adventure, which Kipling masterfully conveyed to the youngest audience, is embraced and felt by children with their hearts, as something natural and close. However, adults tend to rationalize and analyze it, based on the assumption that we grow wiser as we get older, and therefore, understand it better. advice. Kipling exposes this misconception and, as a gifted writer, manages to send us a message: we should not cling too tightly to this transient world (just as his hero Mowgli must eventually leave the jungle), but rather true values and happiness for human beings are always connected to one’s own actions and inner growth, which are achieved by participating in the challenges that life presents us with. As the great J.W. Goethe said in one of his poems, man can discover the meaning of life and be happy only if he directs his efforts towards his daily duty, rather than towards the deceptive illusions of egocentrism.
In the characters of the jungle animals, which are powerful and dangerous, deceitful and shallow, the reader becomes acquainted with the nature of the world and the relationships among people. Kipling wouldn’t be a great writer if he didn’t manage to express a great truth about coexistence in a very poetic way – a truth that is possible if there is wisdom, righteousness, love, and compassion within each of us. These virtues are immortalized in the character and destiny of the boy Mowgli, who Thanks to them, he manages to survive and conquer the jungle. Modern man, alienated from nature, still needs to start taking seriously what Mowgli from Kipling’s jungle is telling him.
In our modern times, a theory advocating the fight for mere survival is very popular. It glorifies the power of instinct and is much more present in the contemporary and unjust world, which is actually a real jungle. The jungle is within us and all around us, and expressing our humanity, i.e. being and becoming human, means mastering that jungle within ourselves.
The combination of Indian and English culture, Indian childhood and English upbringing, the blend of realism and unrealism, poetics and wit, and great creative fervor have made Rudyard Kipling a great writer, the founder of a new genre and approach to storytelling about seemingly childish topics. His message about the importance of striving and courage in the face of various fears is universally important and necessary for people in all stages of life. Kipling celebrates what contemporary man often lacks – the willpower, the perseverance, and the ability to survive and thrive in the jungle of life. To me, a softened consumer, despises and is horrified by the sense of duty and self-discipline, which are things without which there is no happiness or freedom for a human being. In order to understand and perhaps accept this as a driving force for change, it is necessary to maintain that childish purity, which we all used to have.
If
If you can keep your head while everyone around you
is losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
but make allowance for their doubting too.
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
and yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise.
If you can dream and not make dreams your master,
if you can think and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
and treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
or watch the things you gave your life to broken, Fix what’s broken, dedicate your life to it,
bend down and rebuild them even if you’ve already given your best.
If you can gather all your winnings,
put them on one card and surrender to luck,
and lose, and start over again,
and never say a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart, nerves, and strength to serve you,
when it’s your turn and when they’ve long since given up,
and to survive when you’re completely empty, my friend,
except for pure will that tells them: “Endure!”
If you can keep your virtue in the company of common people,
or in the company of kings – understand ordinary people,
if you don’t worry about being hurt by enemies or friends,
if you value every person, but don’t cling to anyone too much;
If you can run that merciless full minute
for sixty seconds and not stop –
then, my son, the Earth is yours in every part,
and you will be called a man!