Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Jungle Book, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Laws of Nature
Human and Animal Relationships
Loyalty
British Imperialism
Coming of Age
Summary
Analysis
On an island in the Bering Sea, there is a place called Novastoshnah, where large groups of seals live. Other than the seals, no one comes to Novastoshnah regularly because it is too inhospitable. However, the seals love the area and come every year to fight over the land and find mates. One seal, Sea Catch, is a particularly seasoned fighter at Novastoshnah. Sea Catch is a 15-year-old gray seal who has won dozens of fights against his male competitors. Despite fighting many times, Sea Catch has never lost.
Novastoshnah is a real location on Saint Paul Island in Alaska. Like Mowgli’s jungle, it is a place with distinct rules and rituals. In Novastoshnah, strength and the ability to fight are valuable traits that all seals respect. Unlike Mowgli’s jungle, Novastoshnah is not a place for human beings, at least not permanently.
Themes
Sea Catch is married to a seal named Matkah. One year while on Novastoshnah, Matkah gives birth to a pure white seal, which she names Kotick. As a young seal, Kotick grows up on Novastoshnah. He learns what it means to be a seal by exploring, swimming, and taking after his parents.
Like in “Mowgli’s Brothers,” Kipling tracks the story's protagonist, Kotick, from the moment of his birth to his coming of age.
Themes
One day, Kotick swims to a small island with a group of his seal friends. However, while he is there, a group of men show up and corral all of Kotick’s friends together. Luckily, the men are afraid of Kotick and leave him alone. Then, the men club Kotick’s friends and skin them. Kotick never knew humans killed seals, so he is both shocked and horrified.
"The White Seal" is unique among the stories in The Jungle Book in that humans are explicitly the story's antagonists. Kotick’s observing the men club and skin his friends marks a significant development for Kotick's character, as it the moment he realizes the cruelty and violence humans are capable of.
Themes
Kotick gets away from the humans as fast as he can. Eventually, he comes across a sea lion and explains what he saw. The sea lion is not surprised; he tells Kotick that men have been hunting baby seals for 30 years. Kotick asks the sea lion if there is anywhere he can go where humans will not follow and try to hunt him. The sea lion tells Kotick that, if such a place exists, then he does not know about it. However, he suggests that Kotick go and speak to a walrus named Sea Vitch who might know about such a place.
Kotick’s impulse after witnessing the deaths of his friends is to create a better world for his kind. He is not satisfied to let humans brutalize seals for their own ends. In this way, he stands up against the established order, though in doing so he does not break any established rules. Instead of upsetting the predator-prey relationship between humans and seals, Kotick attempts to find a habitat where his predator cannot reach him.
Themes
Get the entire The Jungle Book LitChart as a printable PDF.
Kotick finds Sea Vitch and asks him if there is an island where humans will never find him and his seal friends. Like the sea lion, Sea Vitch has never heard of such a place. However, he tells Kotick to ask a sea cow if he ever comes across one. Upset, Kotick returns home and tells the other seals what he saw. However, none of the others seems to care. They accept the fact that humans will continue to prey on them.
Everyone around Kotick is content with their current way of life because they have never known anything different. They assume Kotick is young and naïve and is not yet willing to accept the natural order of things. Nonetheless, Kotick stays determined, a key feature of his character.
Themes
When Kotick expresses his concerns to his father, Sea Catch tells him he should become a great fighter. After all, if Kotick can defend himself against all the other seals, he will be able to lay claim to land on Novastoshnah where hunters will never set foot. Kotick does not like Sea Catch’s answer. He thinks that all seals should have a place where they can be safe, not just the ones who are the best fighters.
Here, Kotick explains that his goal is for the good of all seals, not just himself. His loyalty to his species resembles Mowgli’s relationship with his Pack in the earlier stories, while seals like Sea Catch, who values their own welfare above the collective welfare, are similar to the Bandar-log.
Themes
Literary Devices
Kotick leaves his home in search of the sea cows or an island where humans have never set foot. Kotick swims all over the sea, searching for a seal utopia. Everywhere he goes, he asks his fellow seals whether humans have ever come to their respective islands. Each time, his fellow seals answer in the affirmative. They also tell him that the island he is looking for simply does not exist: the humans have been everywhere.
Kotick’s willingness to swim far and wide demonstrates his determination. Meanwhile, the responses he receives from the other seals suggest they are just as skeptical about the utopia Kotick is looking for as Kotick’s friends and family.
Themes
Kotick is dissatisfied with the answers he receives, but there is nothing else he can do. Eventually, feeling defeated, Kotick returns home to Novastoshnah. There, he meets an old seal who is close to death. The old seal tells Kotick not to give up on his quest because a long time ago, he heard a myth about a white seal who would lead his seal brethren to an island free from humans.
The old seal’s prophecy is reminiscent of Mother Wolf's prophecy regarding Mowgli and Shere Khan in "Mowgli's Brothers." The old seal is the first character in the story that gives Kotick genuine hope and helps him re-establish his faith in his mission.
Themes
Reinvigorated, Kotick decides to continue his search. He heads west of Novastoshnah, where he finds a group of sea cows. He attempts to communicate with the sea cows but discovers they do not have a language. Instead, Kotick follows the sea cows, who lead him to an island that looks exactly like what he has been looking for. One must swim underwater to get to it, and it is surrounded by high cliffs that humans will not be able to climb.
Kotick’s determination ultimately leads him to his goal. Like Mowgli, Kipling rewards Kotick for his willingness to act for the sake of the collective rather than out of selfishness.
Themes
Literary Devices
Once again, Kotick returns to Novastoshnah and tells his fellow seals what he found. However, the seals do not react as Kotick hoped. They tell Kotick that they do not care about his new island enough to give up the land they fought for on Novastoshnah. Desperate, Kotick challenges another young seal to the fight. The others promise Kotick that they will follow him to the new island if he wins the fight.
The other seals are too set in their current way of life to want to pick up and start over again. However, because Kotick cares more about the group than he does himself, he puts his safety on the line once again.
Themes
Even though Kotick never learned to fight like Sea Catch, all his swimming made him grow strong, and he manages to defeat the other seal. As promised, Kotick’s fellow seals follow him to the hidden island he discovered, and what they see amazes them. Seals flock to the hidden island in the years following Kotick’s discovery. Meanwhile, humans never manage to find it. Kotick lives out his life happily. He gets married, is always well-fed, and is never in danger.
Kotick’s fight against the other seal is an important moment in his coming-of-age journey. At this point, he is a fully mature seal, both physically and mentally. Notably, his physical maturation comes from his willingness to search for the hidden island, and his determination pays off in the fight against the other seal. "The White Seal" is one of the few stories in The Jungle Book that has a happy ending for its protagonist.
Themes
