About Rudyard Kipling and His Story Rikki - Tikki Tavi

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"Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" is a war story that depicts in the simplest of terms the triumph of good over bad. Emulating the contemporary trend in children's literature to create imaginary worlds to appeal to a child's imagination, "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" takes place entirely in a small garden populated by anthropomorphized birds, snakes, muskrats, and frogs. By imparting values particularly characteristic of Kipling's Victorian society, including loyalty, productivity, hard work, and courage, the story serves an educational purpose. "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" also implicitly affirms the Victorian assumption of British superiority and its faith in the inherent goodness of empire-building. In its use of suspense and pacing, "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" is a wonderful example of Kipling's expertise in storytelling and a testament to why his stories remained popular into the early 2000s. "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," both as part of The Jungle Book and as an independent story, appeared in numerous incarnations throughout the twentieth century. An English family, who have moved to a bungalow in the British Sugauli Cantonment in India, discover a young mongoose half drowned from a storm and decide to keep it as a pet. The young mongoose, called Rikki-Tikki, soon finds himself confronted by two dangerous, murderous cobras, Nag and his even more dangerous mate Nagaina, who had had the run of the garden while the house was unoccupied. After that first encounter with the cobras, Rikki's first true battle is with Karait, a small venomous sand snake who threatens the boy (Teddy). Although Rikki is inexperienced and the snake, because of its deadly venom and small size, is an even more dangerous foe than a cobra, the mongoose defeats him. At Nagaina's urging, Nag plans to kill the human family to get the house empty again so they can have free run of its garden. She also reminds him that their eggs would hatch

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