Man Cubs

In The Jungle Books, by Rudyard Kipling, Mowgli, the man cub, has to leave his forest home, where he has been raised by wolves, and join the Man Village. As with all such tales, wacky high jinks ensue...pythons are angered, apes want fire, and general mayhem seems to be the potential result.



Mowgli...public domain image by J Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard's Dad.

The Walt Disney Productions version of Mowgli's story concentrates on the wackiness (what in literary terms might be called "picaresque qualities") and omits the more sublime elements of Kipling's tale. But maybe in the United States man cubs just have that effect on people.

Personally, I think the average man cub does potentially cause mayhem and other shenanigans, but then again, they can be rather cute.