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Akela (Jungle Book)
Encyclopedia
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
's stories, The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book is a collection of stories by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893–4. The original publications contain illustrations, some by Rudyard's father, John Lockwood Kipling. Kipling was born in India and spent the first six...
and The Second Jungle Book
The Second Jungle Book
The Second Jungle Book is a sequel to The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. First published in 1895, it features five stories about Mowgli and three unrelated stories, all but one set in India, most of which Kipling wrote while living in Vermont...
. He is the leader of the Seeonee pack of Indian wolves
Indian Wolf
Indian wolf and Iranian Wolf are two common names for Canis lupus pallipes, a subspecies of grey wolf which inhabits western India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and southern Israel. Some experts have suggested at least some C. lupus pallipes populations be re-classified a canid species...
and presides over the pack's council meetings. It is at such a meeting that the pack adopts the lost child
Feral child
A feral child is a human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age, and has no experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and, crucially, of human language...
Mowgli and Akela becomes one of Mowgli's mentor
Mentor
In Greek mythology, Mentor was the son of Alcimus or Anchialus. In his old age Mentor was a friend of Odysseus who placed Mentor and Odysseus' foster-brother Eumaeus in charge of his son Telemachus, and of Odysseus' palace, when Odysseus left for the Trojan War.When Athena visited Telemachus she...
s.
Akela means "single or solitary" in Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
, Kipling also calls him the Lone Wolf
Lone wolf (trait)
-Animal:A lone wolf is a wolf that lives independently rather than with others as a member of a pack. The term is also used in reference to people who exhibit characteristics of introversion or a strong preference for independence....
:
Kipling portrays Akela with the character of an English gentleman
Gentleman
The term gentleman , in its original and strict signification, denoted a well-educated man of good family and distinction, analogous to the Latin generosus...
. This is shown by his recurring references to the honour
Honour
Honour or honor is an abstract concept entailing a perceived quality of worthiness and respectability that affects both the social standing and the self-evaluation of an individual or corporate body such as a family, school, regiment or nation...
of the pack. He is large and grey and leads the pack by virtue of his strength
Strength
- Physical ability :*Physical strength, as in people or animals*Superhuman strength, as in fictional characters*A common character attribute in role-playing gamesConflict between persons or groups:*Virtue and moral uprightness...
and cunning
Cunning
Cunning can also mean slip past or sneaky.Cunning can refer to the following:*A Japanese comedy group known as Cunning *The Cunning folk, a type of folk magic user...
.
The leader of a group of the boys' scouting organisation, the Cubs, is called Akela after this character. The cubs usually chant in ritual meetings, "Akela, we'll do our best".
Deposition
Nine or ten years after Mowgli's adoption, his enemy Shere KhanShere Khan
Shere Khan is a fictional tiger of the Indian jungle. He is the chief antagonist in two of Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book stories featuring Mowgli. Shere Khan is named after an Afghan Prince Kipling encountered on his trips to Afghanistan...
the tiger
Tiger
The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...
, with the aid of some young wolves he has persuaded to support him, plans to depose
Deposition (politics)
Deposition by political means concerns the removal of a politician or monarch. It may be done by coup, impeachment, invasion or forced abdication...
Akela so that he will no longer be able to defend Mowgli. A wolf who becomes too old to hunt is traditionally driven out or killed by his pack. Akela is far from decrepit, but the young wolves deliberately drive a young, healthy buck deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
toward him, knowing that he will not be able to catch it. When the council meets to depose Akela, Mowgli defends him with a blazing branch and drives Shere Khan and his allies away.
Some years later, when Mowgli has been rejected by humanity and the pack is threatened with extinction by a rampaging pack of dhole
Dhole
The dhole is a species of canid native to South and Southeast Asia. It is the only extant member of the genus Cuon, which differs from Canis by the reduced number of molars and greater number of teats...
, Akela joins the battle and fights to the death, finally dying in Mowgli's company ("Red Dog", in The Second Jungle Book
The Second Jungle Book
The Second Jungle Book is a sequel to The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. First published in 1895, it features five stories about Mowgli and three unrelated stories, all but one set in India, most of which Kipling wrote while living in Vermont...
). Mowgli did this for the love of Akela and his death is a major factor in Mowgli's decision to finally return to human society at the age of 17.
Disney
In the Disney adaptation of The Jungle BookThe Jungle Book (1967 film)
The Jungle Book is a 1967 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Released on October 18, 1967, it is the 19th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It was inspired by the stories about the feral child Mowgli from the book of the same name by...
, Akela only has a brief role at the beginning of the film, when the council of wolves meet after Shere Khan's return to the jungle to decide what to do about Mowgli's future. Acknowledging that the pack is not strong enough to stand up to Shere Khan on their own, they decide to send Mowgli away, with Bagheera
Bagheera
Bagheera the black-toned Indian Leopard is an animal fictional character in Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli stories in The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book...
volunteering to take Mowgli back to the man-village.
A younger Akela also appeared with his mate, Leia, in an episode of the prequel cartoon Jungle Cubs
Jungle Cubs
Jungle Cubs is an animated series produced by Disney for ABC in 1996. It was based on their 1967 feature film The Jungle Book, but set in the youth of the animal characters. The show was a hit, running for two seasons in syndication before moving its re-runs to the Disney Channel...
, looking at the animal characters in their youth. In this episode, Akela and Leia run away from their old wolf pack as the pack leader wants Leia for himself, forcing the two younger wolves to escape and retreat to the old temple that serves as the groups Cubhouse. Although Shere Khan
Shere Khan
Shere Khan is a fictional tiger of the Indian jungle. He is the chief antagonist in two of Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book stories featuring Mowgli. Shere Khan is named after an Afghan Prince Kipling encountered on his trips to Afghanistan...
initially objects to their presence, when the rest of the pack arrives, the young cubs agree to help Akela and Leia, driving the rest of the pack away. At the conclusion of the episode, Akela and Leia become the parents of a group of wolf cubs, with the other animals being appointed the cubs' godfathers. Despite their evident closeness to the other cubs in this episode, Akela and Leia never appeared again in the series.
Akela plays a bigger role in the live action Disney movie Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story
Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story
The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story is a direct-to-video release from Walt Disney Home Entertainment. The film follows the adventures of Mowgli from the time he was 5 living among humans to when he was 12 and rediscovering humans again.-Plot:Mowgli's village is attacked by Shere Khan the tiger and he...
. In this adaptation, he is also the father of Mowgli's adopted family and mate of Raksha. He was voiced by Clancy Brown
Clancy Brown
Clarence J. "Clancy" Brown III is an American actor and voice actor. He is known for his roles in live action as The Kurgan in the cult classic film Highlander, Byron Hadley in the award-winning The Shawshank Redemption, Brother Justin Crowe in HBO's critically acclaimed Carnivàle, and Career...
.