Law of the Jungle

The image of the two stags fighting over a doe on page 34 is very interesting. Punchi Menika seems to forget the first rule of the jungle: fear. The doe has not forgotten it, and even as two stags fight for the right to posses her she is aware of the danger in the jungle. Punchi Menika, on the other hand, distracted and dreamlike from the momentary "stirring of life around her" (35), for, perhaps the first time in her life, feels safe in the jungle. It is almost immediately after that that Babun "pounces" on her and leads her deeper into the jungle. Babun is then characterized as a "devil," as Jillian keenly pointed out.

What is intersting to me is that Babun's possession of Punchi Menika is neither attacked nor defended by the text. It is as if the novelist, or narrator, himself lives by the law of the jungle. The weak, or those unafraid of the danger lurking in the shadows of the jungle, are free game. It is both unforgiving and fair. It is not, however, evil. The first chapter of this novel disagrees with me, saying, "All jungles are evil, but no jungle is more evil than that which lay about the village of Beddagama" (10). Perhaps the wording is misleading, though. The natural world of the jungle is one which is later described as a place driven by fear, hunger, and thirst. Those creatures that fear the jungle must still face it to survive, and all creatures fear the jungle, even the leopard. Punchi Menika makes the mistake of forgetting her fear, and though she is wild and strong, she becomes vulnerable.

Silindu's later refusal of forfeiting his daughter is in vain. She has already given herself to Babun and it is no longer her, or her father's, place to refuse what Babun has claimed by natural law. Human desire and morality, then, are secondary to the law of the jungle.

I'm not sure this makes sense to anyone else, but you might be able to make something out of it.