The gentle man of the jungle summery
Answers
A fable is a common genre in literature that uses animals as characters in a story where there is a moral lesson at the end. This lesson is clearly integrated into the story so that readers understand it immediately. The animals have to meet the general requirement of what animals are like: Lions are brave; wolves are cruel, horses proud and foxes cunning.
Aesop fables are the inspiration of this genre, and they were handed down throughout centuries orally and not written down until the 16th century. Aesop was originally a slave, but worked his way upward as a talented teller in Phrygia, Greece.
‘The parable’ is slightly different from a fable in that it contains a secret meaning that is hidden in the language itself, and one which is not automatically understood in the story. ‘The Gentleman of the Jungle’ seems to be more advanced than a fable as it requires the reader to understand the intricacy of the language and its connotations in order to understand the moral lesson. The lesson was sometimes dangerous in fables as they addressed controversial social issues and conflicts. Aesop was probably killed in the end because of his talent to teach and make people think independently. ‘The Gentleman of the Jungle’ is also a political fable as it raises controversial issues in modern society. Kenyatta made a reference to this conflict when he said that ‘the relations between Kikuyu and the Europeans can be well illustrated by this Kikuyu story’
The title refers to the British ‘Gentleman’ who always plays fair and who is just and has moral integrity. The contrast between this and ‘the jungle’ is that of primitiveness and lack of social and political development. The implication is an imbalance between the terms where one is superior and the other inferior.