Miyazaki's masterpiece Princess Mononoke and Disney's Jungle Book are seemingly similar narratives; both San and Mowgli are raised by wolves and belong neither to the human world nor the animal world. They both have anthropomorphic animal compatriots; however, these animals act quite differently in the respective films. The interests and ideals of the animal characters are where the two narratives separate in message and meaning at a very structural level. Apart from their similar upbringings' San and Mowgli's identities are very different. One problematic part of comparing these two films is understanding the conflicting conceptions of nature. At first these narratives seem very similar but in fact The Jungle Book is a Colonial narrative and Princess Mononoke is Post-colonial which making a juxtaposition of the two useful. This difference in ideology between the two narratives can be seen in man's understanding of nature, the use of technology, how gender roles are portrayed and how the animals react to the invading force of humans. Both The Jungle Book and Princess Mononoke explore these themes through similar narratives with different scopes.
In order to explore the differences in these narratives first we need working definitions of colonialism and post-colonialism. Colonialism is the military and economic domination of people and lands for the purpose of exploiting natural resources. Colonial narratives are those, which legitimize the use of force in large-scale political and military seizures of land. Colonialism is driven by greed but justified through altruism; for example, Britain claimed that they were selflessly instructing the natives in good governance, completely ignoring the fact that the people they had conquered were historically, more than capable of self-rule. Colonial narratives also generally support a patriarchal structure, in which the empire is a father who tutors his male children (the indigenous people), and women are largely ignored and treated as second-class citizens. Colonial narratives generally show the "positive" outcomes or the ways in which the indigenous people need the empire's goods or way of life, which is not the case. Colonial narratives are tasked with making sure the indigenous people seem naive so that that the general public in the Empire's home country understands that colonialism is not only justified but good for the indigenous people of their new colony. The Jungle Book is based on a book written by a British officer in colonial India and the Disney narrative, as told through film maintains these colonial values. Not only is The Jungle Book written in the late 19th century, at the height of colonial literature, but it is strikingly clear that numerous of Kipling's novels explicate the colonial system as a necessity (Sullivan, 55-56). In The Jungle Book the animals are the indigenous Indians and the humans are the imperial power.
Post-colonialism is a reaction to the discourse of colonialism; in fact it finds an identity between the imperial world ideology and a more native one. Post-colonial narratives, in contrast to colonial narratives question the validity of established power relationships and insist that there is something that the natives have or had that cannot be fully understood by modern culture. These narratives hope to understand what has been lost in the process of conquest. They problematize the patriarchal understandings of the world. While in colonialist narratives war is generally seen as a necessary evil, it is shown in a more human context in post-colonial narratives. , Princess Mononoke is not set in a post-colonial time period, but it is set in way that emphasizes the destructive forces of humans, imperial aggression. The narrative pushes against the traditional colonial one by questioning traditional roles.
The Indigenous in The Jungle Book and Princess Mononoke
The animals and animal gods in both films are representative of the ancient ancestry of the forest, which extends long before humans came to disturb the equilibrium of the natural world. The animals in each narrative react differently to the influx of humans into their lives, and this establishes how they are characterized; thus how we can classify their reactions as colonial or post-colonial. In colonial narratives, the natives do not understand the wealth they possess and are not upset by having to leave it; this justifies the movement of indigenous people wherever the imperial power so desires.
Animals in the Jungle Book do not acknowledge the resources that lie beneath and around them. Instead humans are the only ones who are capable of managing the resources. The animals then can be compared to the "ignorant natives" who do not know how to exploit the land for it’s supposedly correct uses. Buloo's song about the bear necessities of life is a good example of the British thought the people of India lived; in utter darkness as to the monetary value of what they took for granted, their "sweet home." They are illustrated to be simplistic when they do not question Mowgli's presence or the political implications of accepting a human into their midst but instead protect a member of the species that oppresses them.
Miyazaki's animals in Princess Mononoke are aware and understand the importance of the forest to their survival. The apes in Princess Mononoke say, "the forest goes we die." The animals' recognition that their habitat is key to their survival implicates Princess Mononoke as a post-colonial narrative. The bores fight valiantly against the humans who intrude upon the natural order of the forest and aim to rip the heart, the deer god's head, from the forest. Instead of seeing animals goofing around as in The Jungle Book we see the animal gods contemplating new ways of coping with the influx of humans. In contrast to The Jungle Book, the indigenous animals do their best to deal with the intrusion of a more technologically advanced society upon their own.
Both sets of apes want to be like humans and have the powers that humans possess. While King Louie presents his desire in a light-hearted song "I want to walk, like you talk like you" the tribe of the apes in Miyazaki's movie forebodingly appear upon a rock and ask for Ashitaka's crippled body. They express their wish to "eat human [man] and gain their strength." Apes are the closest genetic relatives of humans but in these fantasy stories the apes are not the characters' most intimate companions. San is most comfortable with the wolves, while Mowgli loves Bagheera, a cougar, and Buloo, a bear. Both sets of apes recognize the power of humans and desire the power of technology; they cannot do anything to better their situation but their knowledge torments them. Mowgli does not realize what he is, a human, he is just happy that King Louie likes him. At the end of the "walk like you talk like you " scene Louie asks him for the secret that makes him human, fire. Mowgli responds that he does not have fire.
Whereas apes are the most simplistic characters in Princess Mononoke, King Louie's tribe is the most advanced in The Jungle Book. While The Jungle Book presents our closest ancestors as being desirous of human knowledge and incapable of reaching it, Miyazaki displays them as the least effective in getting what they want and instead shows the wolves, and the boars, attempts to stop human intrusion into their way of life as the most productive avenues. A post-colonialist narrative, like Miyazaki's, shows that the most intelligent animals realize that they don't need man's technology and in fact they would be better with out it.
The most blatantly colonial section of The Jungle Book is the scene with Colonel Hathi, the elephant, who is an example of an indigenous creature who has internalized his colonial oppressors and believes in the military institution that has indoctrinated him. Military technology is instrumental in colonial politics. Within The Jungle Book, the elephants, and Colonel Hathi, represent the farce of the British-trained, native military. They march like and talk like the military. It embodies the integration of colonial morals into the subjects of oppression. The elephants do not understand the reasons they are marching, in fact their song goes, "oh the aim of our patrol/ is a question rather droll/for to march and drill over field and hill/ is a military goal." This scene is a parody of military custom, but moreover a social commentary on the uselessness of the native armies. Instead of fighting the enemy they let him join their ranks without noticing for a long period of time.
Princess Mononoke's focus on destruction and war, when the boars attack the humans who are provoking their anger (1:36:27), problematizes the destructive aspects of the larger political spectrum that the characters live within. By acknowledging the surrounding political establishments, Miyazaki sets the world within Princess Mononoke apart from The Jungle Book, which does not address the political establishment that allows elephants to kill and be killed in war. War is addressed in Princess Mononoke in, the context that it affects San, Ashitaka, and Moro instead of the ramblings of Colonel Hahti who has been awarded some sort of medal for his service in the army.
The nature of nature in the context of colonialism
Post-colonial man and nature must find a way to live in equilibrium; instead of being capable of adopting a simple narrative about how man should conquer nature, as a colonialist would argue, instead man and nature must coexist. This is complicated by the fact that the concept of nature in modern parlance is understood as meaning the natural world without man. Princess Mononoke especially grapples with whether or not to subtract man from the natural world in order to afford the natural world a degree of purity. Is man (or woman) a contaminate of the purity of nature? Is this purity merely a construction of man because of his desire to reconnect or become a part of nature? This question of man's connection to nature is part of the theoretical struggle to understand where his place in the world lies. Colonialists and post-colonialists have very different views about this subject, and this argument is apparent in both films.
In the colonialist Jungle Book, it is clear that man belongs in the village. Mowgli does not wish to return to the "man village" and the animals insist that he must because of the danger of Shere Khan. Mowgli is not allowed to reconnect with his animal nature and must be removed from the jungle. In fact, the plot is driven by his deep desire to stay in the jungle with his animal friends, Bagheera and Buloo. This separation between the native and the civilized is a large part of the colonial agenda and the separation is clearly seen in this film.
In contrast Princess Mononoke stylistically and conceptually blends nature and humanity. Changing geographies, economic and technological innovation, complicates the post-colonialist narrative about the relationship between nature and woman. These new pressures lead to new needs from the human population, which the forest cannot endure. San's relationship to the natural world is deep; the audience knows this when she takes Ashitaka to the heart of the forest, where the deer god can heal him. Another way Miyazaki demonstrates that San is a wild phenomena is by her violent hate for most humans. Eboshi and others try to separate her from the natural world but she resists violently.
While in The Jungle Book there seems to be a simplistic answer to how man and nature should be separated, Princess Mononoke shows the complex interaction between the two. This is demonstrative of the change from an imperial viewpoint that dominates The Jungle Book's narrative to a more democratic one in for Princess Mononoke.
The nature of identity (How does identity reflect the post-colonial narrative)
We assume that the identities of our fictional main characters, Mowgli and San, have been shaped, like our own, through the combination of environment and genetics. Mowgli and San are both genetically humans who have been raised in the wild by wolf families. This similarity is the first of many that leads us to explore The Jungle Book and Princess Mononoke's narrative structures. In fact it is the differences we find between the two characters that help us explore the colonial and the post-colonial tensions within the two films. Identity is at the core of the colonialist agenda for if you can conquer someone from the inside then you can indeed rule them outside. Even though San comes from a world that is vastly varied from the colonial jungle of India these two films still make for an enlightening comparison.
Mowgli is much more simplistic in comparison to the more psychologically complex San. After all, The Jungle Book is targeted almost exclusively towards children and Princess Mononoke is directed towards a more diverse and mature audience. Mowgli is mainly concerned with trying to find his place among the animals and staying in the jungle. San has established and accepts her place in the forest. She is as close to an animal as any human in either of the narratives.
However, her character shows the tensions of post-colonialism. For example, in the end she rejects Ashitaka and insists on going back to the forest. Her rejection is heartbreaking for the viewer, but it is meant to signify her break with a history of internalizing colonial understandings. The way the animals of the jungle decide that Mowgli must go back to this different class, the colonizers, because they the natives have already internalized the colonialism and see Mowgli as not only a threat to Shere Khan but as something greater and different from themselves.
The way in which the characters relate to their wolf families is similar. They both see the wolves as kin and take them as their own, but there is a fundamental difference between Mowgli and San. Whereas San is satisfied with her place among the wolves Mowgli, although happy with his wolf family, is forced to seek a new place of belonging and quickly drops his identity as a wolf and is willing to substitute it for that of any other animal identity that will allow him to stay in the jungle. This is a testament to Mowgli's simplicity as a character. San's ideological views of nature are enough to tie her to her wolf family. Their connection to their families is representational of their connections to nature.
Both The Jungle Book and Princess Mononoke use the development of character identity to establish how humans fit into nature. San wears skins and masks to hide her human face and form when she goes into battle. There is a strong paradox within her character, because the only reason she can break the humans, defenses, the fort, is because she is human. Her greatest asset, her form, which makes her capable of invading the fort, is what she hates most about herself. While she has accepted her identity, we are directed to question it because we want the love story between Ashitaka and San to work out. Essentially we question San's true "animal" nature because Ashitaka finds her beautiful. Ashitaka falls into the same trap as Mowgli; they both identify with other humans because of their form not because of their ideologies though. Mowgli's identity is based on something more that common physical species similarity.
Mowgli is on a quest to find his place in the animal kingdom. He does not detest his own form, like San. Mowgli's search for identity is complicated by his vulnerability; he is unable to defend himself so his animal friends constantly have to save him. Mowgli must base his identity on what all the animals see in him; the man in him will someday be able to create fire, and none of the animals can forget it. Mowgli's weakness and vulnerability make us perceive nature as expansive, and pervasive. The harm that humanity does to nature is divorced from the story; there is no ambition to conquer nature in The Jungle Book. The fact that the story is told from Mowgli's, a child's, perspective creates an understanding that nature is omnipresent. San cannot create her identity through dependence on others like Mowgli can; she feels responsible for the fate of the forest. Mowgli in opposition seems barely able to survive in the forest.
San and Mowgli are the vessels through which we understand the natural world. They provide us with an in depth look at how "nature really is," but in Princess Mononoke this view point is complicated by other humans interacting with the forest. In The Jungle Book the humans are afraid to venture into the forest but in Princess Mononoke we get Lady Eboshi's experiences and understandings of what the forest is and how it operates through it's utilitarian uses for humanity.
Shere Kahn is the animal that is most like the animal gods in Princess Mononoke. He understands the dangers that the humans' technology represents, as his paw was burned by fire and now he hates man. For both Shere Kahn and the gods in Princess Mononoke humans are physically weaker, but it is their knack for innovation that makes them a force to be reckoned with. In both narratives the human's intellect is praised. While Princess Mononoke shows that it is the duty of the humans to find understanding of the natural world instead of destroying it, technology in The Jungle Book is desired for identity but it's consequences are never contemplated.
The representation of human ingenuity is strong in both pieces. It is how the technology is used and explained that is different in the two narratives. While the simplistic technology of fire is the symbol of human greatness in The Jungle Book, Iron represents Lady Eboshi's ingenuity and mastery of the industrial system. Fire is a threat and desirable in The Jungle Book. In Princess Mononoke the animal gods are convinced that humans cannot share their knowledge and technology and the animals see technology as threat to their way of life. Miyazaki makes his animals much less anthropomorphic than those in The Jungle Book. The only solution for the animals in Princess Mononoke is the destruction of Lady Eboshi’s settlement.
Through a postcolonial lens we say that the curse of living that Ashitaka suffers from is in fact the curse of progress that humans seem to need constant change no matter the consequences. The questioning of progress in Princess Mononoke is a theme that makes the film Post-colonial. This constant need for humans to push their limits also pushes other natural creatures out of existence. In Princess Mononoke the emperor wants the Deer God’s head because it is something that is challenging to attain.
Lady Eboshi's system of technology allows for greater social freedom. The women in her town are no longer prostitutes; they have been freed from sexual servitude but are still economically dependent on Eboshi's flawed system, which injures the environment around the fort. The post-colonial film creates tension between our desire for the forest god's to continue their lives and our identification with the humans who need resources too. This industrialization however has its flaw insofar as it destroys the surrounding forest and creates for the villager’s enemies among the natural forces in the forest.
Gender Roles
Gender identity in Princess Mononoke is untraditional. San fights for her ideals violently and believes that the only way for nature, her to win is for her to kill Eboshi. This warlike passion that San demonstrates is far different from the sole female character in The Jungle Book, Shanti, the girl who seduces Mowgli into the village. Post-colonial narratives focus not only upon identity but also upon gender identity and the kinds of social roles are that formerly marginalized citizens adopt. Colonial narratives use male characters as main characters and use women as minor roles and seductresses.
The way in which Miyazaki develops San's character is truly post-colonial. San's character contains numerous classically defined, masculine attributes such as the need to test courage through challenge, being unemotional, having extreme control and physical prowess, and her impatience with limitations of conventions. This pushes the boundaries of how the audience defines "femaleness." This new conception of women questions the traditional political order in which colonialism thrived and this is a tenant of post-colonial narrative.
Where San is the title character of Princess Mononoke and a huge part of the film Shanti is the idealized and quiet prototypical example of femininity.
Start watching at minute 5:50- (sorry no video editor)
This clip shows Shanti singing and seducing Mowgli into the village. This is the traditional stereotype of woman luring man into something that he originally does not want to do. The Judeo-Christian concept of woman is also a colonial touch; one of the first ways to legitimize one's mission is through use of indoctrination into a belief system, and this is certainly an example of a character acting like they "should" for a western understanding of the film. The role that women take in the colonial narrative is as caregivers and seductresses; this is exactly the role that Shanti plays in The Jungle Book.
The Jungle Book and Princess Mononoke allow us to see how much our visions of political power, gender roles, conceptions of nature and ideas of identity have shifted between the late 1960's when The Jungle Book was released and the mid-1990's when Princess Mononoke came out. We see that colonial thought is still very much in today's media as The Jungle Book is still popular with kids but we also see signs of hope in the popularity of Miyazaki's films.
Bibliography
Chrisman, Laura. Parry, Benita. Postcolonial Theory and Criticism Essays and Studies. D.S.Brewer, 2000. a Print.
Orel, Harold. Critical Essays on Rudyard Kipling. G.K Hall & Co. Massachusetts. 1989. Print.
Slavin, David H. Colonial Cinema and Imperial France 1919-1939: white spots, male fantasies, settler myth. Baltimore. John Hopkins University Press. 2001. Print
Sullivan, Zohreh T. Narratives of Empire: The Fictions of Rudyard Kipling. Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, New York. 1993. Print
