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Rikki Vi Theme

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Every fictional story has a theme. Theme is a central idea which can be morals, life-lessons, messages, etc. It is a debatable truth, and can be valid no matter what as-long-as you can back it up with evidence from the text. I am certain with my life the story “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” has the theme of “Look before you leap.” The author, Rudyard Kipling, gives evidence all throughout this short story that will back me up and help me prove to you, the reader, I am right. I know my theme is correct because all of the snakes jumped into trying to attack everyone and only thinking about themselves. They had not thought of any consequences. Even though I know this is the theme, other people have their own opinions on the central idea. Other people could …show more content…

For instance, in the rising action, Karait had came out of the bushes saying “I am death.” He did this without knowing what Rikki-Tikki’s strengths were. In fact, all of the snake, at different time throughout the story, had done this. They all tried to attack Rikki-Tikki without knowing what he was capable of doing. Another example of how the snakes had not thought of any consequences was when Nagaina had sent Nag into the Bungalow during the rising action. She was only thinking of how she wanted the people and Rikki-Tikki gone. To emphasize the point of how the snakes had only been thinking of themselves, here’s another example. Nagaina at one point was only thinking of killing the family as “revenge” for Nag and she had forgotten the main reason why Nag was gone. Nag would not have been dead if it wasn’t for Nagaina telling him to kill the people for the eggs, but mostly for herself. Given these points, you can see both the minor antagonists and the major antagonists should have thought through their …show more content…

One example would have been how Chuchundra, in the rising action, had thought through decisions when he thought about the snakes. He was thinking about the slight chance the snake would hear Rikki-Tikki and himself talking. This was really smart thinking considering how Chuchundra was constantly in fear. He had made a decision that could have meant life or death. Some of my stronger points would have been when Darzee had been thinking when he said, “Rikki-Tikki, you are not going to eat her eggs are you?” This showed that the character Darzee was thinking about the protagonist. He was thinking about how if Rikki went and tried eat those eggs, the antagonist, Nagaina, could be anywhere in the garden. She could be there, and in a flash of a second, kill Rikki. Then there would have been no end to the story. It would have ended quickly right there. In addition to the points above, Rikki-Tikki had made some very well thought out decisions of his own. To start off, Rikki had made the decision to not follow Nag and Nagaina into the bushes after Nagaina had just tried to attack him. If he had made the decision to follow them, he would have have probably gotten killed. Yet again, ending the story short. Another key point would be when the main character, Rikki-Tikki, had used the words, “Now, if I kill him here, Nagaina will know.” He had clearly been thinking about

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