Anita Gou

Thanks to Walt Disney, we are well accustomed to stories with anthropomorphic animal characters that reflect real-world issues and morals. But in 1894, British writer Rudyard Kipling mastered this form of storytelling with The Jungle Book, a collection of short stories about Mowgli, a boy raised by wolves who navigates a dangerous world caught between his adopted family in the wild and the human community.

The work was inspired by ancient Indian fables, and the storyline was based on Kipling’s childhood experiences of growing up in India and later being sent to live in a foster home in England. As a result, The Jungle Book explores subjects such as belonging, friendship, abandonment and self-actualisation.