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Rikki-tikki-tavi, the story’s protagonist, is a courageous young mongoose who is “eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity.” When the story opens, Rikki-tikki is swept away in a thunderstorm and deposited in the garden of a bungalow that is owned by a British military man and his family. The rest of the tale is dedicated to Rikki-tikki’s adventure in his new home as he defends the bungalow owners from a pair of vicious cobras.
Rikki-tikki is defined by his chivalric heroism. He may be a simple mongoose living in the jungle, but Kipling characterizes his young protagonist as more akin to a gallant knight straight from King Arthur’s court. He is brave in the face of danger, he keeps a level head during times of distress, he is eager to venture out into the unknown, and, perhaps most importantly, he has a strict moral code, fiercely loyal to the people that he has sworn to protect. For example, he knows that Nagaina is going to seek revenge on him as well as Teddy’s family for killing her husband. Instead of fleeing to save himself, Rikki-tikki charges outside and comes up with a plan to rid the garden of Nagaina and her eggs so that Teddy, his family, and the rest of the creatures who live in the bungalow garden will be safe. Kipling likely characterized Rikki-tikki in such a way because “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi,” like the rest of the stories in The Jungle Book, applies famous literary archetypes traditionally associated with humans to animal protagonists. It is, however, worth examining the racism inherent in Kipling’s decision to have the story’s hero vanquish an Indian cobra on behalf of the British. Rikki-tikki is an Indian mongoose, and his adversaries are various snakes also native to India. This sets up a stark contrast; where Rikki-tikki is described as being “civilized” in his association with Teddy's family, “too well bred to bite or scratch,” the cobras, who resent the intrusion of Teddy’s family in a space that was once theirs, are written as evil and bloodthirsty, with “cold heart[s].”
