Raised By Wolves

Ever read The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling?

It starts with a human baby lost in the Indian jungle during a tiger attack.  The baby is adopted and raised by wolves.

His Mother and Father Wolf name the boy Mowgli, and he grows up with the pack, hunting with his brother wolves and learning the ways of the jungle. The boy develops remarkable strength and skills through his childhood experiences with the wise and nurturing wolves.

Other characters are Bagheera (the black panther) who befriends Mowgli, because both he and Mowgli have parallel childhood experiences; the panther was raised in the King's cages from a cub and knows the ways of man.  Another friend is Baloo the bear,  teacher of wolves, with the thankless task of teaching Mowgli The Law of the Jungle.

But Mowgli faces an ever-present enemy: Shere Khan, the tiger. The tiger is vicious and cruel, and Kipling wrote many stories of the efforts of Mowgli's nemesis to destroy him.

Finally, Mowgli finds a weapon he can use against the tiger — fire.

Are there lessons to be learned by Kipling's Adventures of Mowgli, boy raised by wolves and his battles with the wicked Shere Khan?

Maybe a few.

1.  Being raised by wolves is not a bad thing!  Don't knock it till you've tried it.

2.  Though your enemies may be vicious and cruel, they will over-estimate their own skills; in their pride they'll miscalculate the abilities of their prey.

Conversely, when being stalked by a proud and reckless beast or even a pair of them- a he-beast and a she-beast (who are assisted by other shadowy jungle creatures in their hunt for blood and/or free speech) all one has to do is find their weakness.

For Mowgli, it was fire.  

Illustration by John Lockwood Kipling (father of Rudyard) from The Second Jungle Book, 1895