Excerpt

Excerpt from The Son of Tarzan, by Edgar Rice Burroughs

The boy was in the lead, excitement and anticipation carrying him ahead
of his companion to whom the attainment of their goal meant only
sorrow. And it was the boy who first saw the rear guard of the caravan
and the white men he had been so anxious to overtake.

Stumbling along the tangled trail of those ahead a dozen heavily laden
blacks who, from fatigue or sickness, had dropped behind were being
prodded by the black soldiers of the rear guard, kicked when they fell,
and then roughly jerked to their feet and hustled onward. On either
side walked a giant white man, heavy blonde beards almost obliterating
their countenances. The boy’s lips formed a glad cry of salutation as
his eyes first discovered the whites—a cry that was never uttered, for
almost immediately he witnessed that which turned his happiness to
anger as he saw that both the white men were wielding heavy whips
brutally upon the naked backs of the poor devils staggering along
beneath loads that would have overtaxed the strength and endurance of
strong men at the beginning of a new day.

Every now and then the rear guard and the white men cast apprehensive
glances rearward as though momentarily expecting the materialization of
some long expected danger from that quarter. The boy had paused after
his first sight of the caravan, and now was following slowly in the
wake of the sordid, brutal spectacle. Presently Akut came up with him.
To the beast there was less of horror in the sight than to the lad, yet
even the great ape growled beneath his breath at useless torture being
inflicted upon the helpless slaves. He looked at the boy. Now that he
had caught up with the creatures of his own kind, why was it that he
did not rush forward and greet them? He put the question to his
companion.

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Explanation

Detailed Explanation of the Excerpt from The Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Context of the Source

The Son of Tarzan (1915) is the fourth book in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan series, following Tarzan of the Apes (1912). The novel continues the adventures of Tarzan’s son, Jack Clayton (later called "Korak"), who, after being kidnapped and raised in the jungle, must reconcile his dual identity as both a civilized Englishman and a wild man of the jungle. The excerpt depicts a pivotal moment where Jack, accompanied by Akut (a great ape), encounters a brutal slave caravan led by white men—an event that challenges his perceptions of "civilized" humanity.

Burroughs’ Tarzan series is rooted in adventure fiction, colonial-era racial dynamics, and the "noble savage" trope, where the jungle represents both freedom and brutality, while "civilization" is often hypocritical or corrupt. This passage reflects Burroughs’ recurring themes of moral contrast between "savage" and "civilized" behavior, as well as his critique of European colonial exploitation in Africa.

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Themes in the Excerpt

1. The Hypocrisy of "Civilization" vs. "Savagery"

   • The boy (Jack) initially expects the white men to be figures of salvation or kinship, reflecting his inherited cultural bias toward Europeans as "superior." However, their brutal treatment of the enslaved Africans shatters this illusion.
   • The whips, kicks, and forced labor inflicted by the white men contrast sharply with the boy’s own upbringing among apes, where strength is used for survival, not sadistic domination. This undermines the colonial idea that Europeans are inherently more "civilized."
   • Akut’s confusion—why doesn’t the boy greet his own kind?—highlights the irony that the "savage" ape is more morally outraged than the "civilized" whites.

2. Exploitation and Slavery

   • The caravan is a microcosm of colonial exploitation: Black Africans are treated as disposable labor, overburdened and abused, while the white men (likely ivory or slave traders) profit from their suffering.
   • The apprehensive glances rearward suggest the caravan is being pursued (possibly by Tarzan or another force), reinforcing the idea that oppression breeds resistance.

3. Moral Awakening and Identity Crisis

   • Jack’s shift from "glad cry" to "anger" marks a turning point in his understanding of humanity. His expectation of kinship with the white men is replaced by disgust and alienation.
   • This moment foreshadows his rejection of European hypocrisy and his eventual embrace of a hybrid identity—neither fully "civilized" nor fully "savage," but something in between.

4. Power and Brutality

   • The physical dominance of the white men (described as "giant" with "heavy blonde beards") symbolizes colonial power, but their cowardly cruelty (whipping already exhausted slaves) exposes their moral weakness.
   • The slaves’ suffering—staggering under impossible loads, naked and bleeding—is a visceral indictment of slavery, though Burroughs’ portrayal is still filtered through a Western adventure lens (the slaves are passive victims rather than active resistors in this scene).

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Literary Devices

1. Juxtaposition & Irony

   • The boy’s initial excitement ("glad cry of salutation") vs. the horror of the whips creates dramatic irony—his expectations are subverted by reality.
   • The white men’s beards "obliterating their countenances" symbolizes their hidden cruelty—their faces (and thus their humanity) are obscured by their brutality.

2. Imagery & Sensory Detail

   • Visual: The "naked backs" of the slaves, the "heavy whips," and the "staggering" figures create a vivid, grotesque picture of suffering.
   • Auditory: The unspoken "glad cry" (silenced by shock) and Akut’s growling emphasize the unnaturalness of the scene—even the ape recognizes injustice.
   • Tactile: The kicks, jerks, and whips make the violence physically palpable to the reader.

3. Symbolism

   • The caravan = the machine of colonialism, moving forward through violence, always looking back in fear (guilt?).
   • The boy’s pause = his moral hesitation, the moment he questions his place in the world.
   • Akut’s growl = the voice of natural justice, contrasting with the silent complicity of the slaves.

4. Foreshadowing

   • The apprehensive glances rearward hint at impending confrontation (likely Tarzan’s intervention).
   • The boy’s anger suggests he will act against the slavers, aligning with his father’s role as a protector of the weak.

5. Point of View & Perspective

   • The third-person limited perspective focuses on the boy’s shifting emotions, making the reader experience his disillusionment firsthand.
   • Akut’s question ("why does he not greet them?") forces the reader to see the scene through the ape’s eyes, reinforcing the absurdity of human cruelty.

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Significance of the Passage

1. Challenging Colonial Narratives

   • Burroughs, while not entirely free from racial stereotypes (the slaves are passive; the white men are the primary agents of evil), still critiques the brutality of European colonialism.
   • The scene undermines the "white man’s burden" myth by showing that so-called "civilized" men are often the most barbaric.

2. Jack’s Character Development

   • This moment is crucial in Jack’s arc—he must decide whether to embrace his human heritage (flawed as it is) or reject it entirely.
   • His anger suggests he will side with the oppressed, much like his father, Tarzan, who often acts as a jungle avenger against exploiters.

3. Moral Ambiguity in Adventure Fiction

   • Unlike simpler pulp adventure tales where heroes and villains are clear-cut, this scene complicates morality.
   • The white men are the villains, but the slaves are not yet agents of their own liberation (a limitation of Burroughs’ time). The true moral compass comes from Jack and Akut, who exist outside traditional power structures.

4. Reflection of Early 20th-Century Attitudes

   • The passage reflects progressive ideas for its time (condemning slavery, questioning colonialism) but also problematic elements (the slaves are not individualized; the white protagonists are the primary moral actors).
   • Burroughs’ romanticization of the jungle as a place of purity (compared to corrupt civilization) is a recurring theme in his work, influenced by Rousseau’s "noble savage" concept.

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Close Reading of Key Lines

1. "The boy was in the lead, excitement and anticipation carrying him ahead of his companion to whom the attainment of their goal meant only sorrow."

   • Contrast: The boy’s hope vs. Akut’s instinctive dread (apes, in Burroughs’ world, often sense danger before humans).
   • Foreshadowing: Akut’s sorrow hints that meeting humans will not be a happy reunion.

2. "Stumbling along the tangled trail... a dozen heavily laden blacks who, from fatigue or sickness, had dropped behind were being prodded by the black soldiers of the rear guard..."

   • "Tangled trail" = the chaotic, oppressive path of colonialism.
   • "Prodded... kicked... jerked" = dehumanizing verbs, reducing people to cattle.
   • The black soldiers enforcing white rule adds complexity—collaboration under duress, a common dynamic in colonial systems.

3. "The boy’s lips formed a glad cry of salutation... a cry that was never uttered..."

   • The silenced cry = the death of innocence, the moment he sees humanity’s darkness.
   • Dramatic pause—the reader feels the weight of his realization.

4. "Even the great ape growled beneath his breath at useless torture..."

   • "Useless torture" = the senselessness of cruelty, distinguishing it from the jungle’s necessary violence (hunting for survival).
   • Akut’s moral clarity shames the humans.

5. "He looked at the boy. Now that he had caught up with the creatures of his own kind, why was it that he did not rush forward and greet them?"

   • Akut’s confusion = the reader’s confusion.
   • "Creatures of his own kind"—ironic, since the white men behave less humanely than the ape.

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Conclusion: Why This Passage Matters

This excerpt is more than just an action setup—it’s a moral crossroads for Jack and a critique of colonial hypocrisy. Burroughs uses vivid imagery, juxtaposition, and perspective shifts to force the reader to question who the real "savages" are. While the novel is a product of its time (and Burroughs’ views on race are dated), this scene challenges the reader to see exploitation through the eyes of both a human and an ape, making its message about injustice timeless.

The passage also sets up the novel’s central conflict: Will Jack reclaim his human identity despite its corruption, or will he fully embrace the jungle’s law? His anger suggests he will forge a new path—one that rejects blind cruelty, whether from "civilization" or "savagery."

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Questions

Question 1

The passage’s depiction of the boy’s unspoken "glad cry of salutation" serves primarily to:

A. underscore the cognitive dissonance between his inherited cultural expectations and the observed reality of human brutality.
B. illustrate the naivety of youth in assuming kinship with strangers based solely on racial similarity.
C. emphasize the boy’s latent savagery, which is momentarily suppressed by his civilized upbringing.
D. foreshadow his eventual rejection of all human society in favor of a feral existence.
E. highlight the universal human desire for connection, even in the face of evident cruelty.

Question 2

Akut’s growl in response to the slaves’ treatment functions most significantly as:

A. a narrative device to humanize the ape and position him as a moral superior to the white men.
B. an ironic counterpoint that exposes the hypocrisy of "civilized" violence by framing it through a non-human perspective.
C. a subtle critique of the boy’s passivity, as the ape’s vocal disapproval contrasts with the boy’s silence.
D. a reminder of the jungle’s inherent brutality, which is no less cruel than the caravan’s actions.
E. a symbolic rejection of the boy’s human identity, signaling Akut’s jealousy over the boy’s attention to the whites.

Question 3

The "apprehensive glances rearward" cast by the caravan’s rear guard most plausibly suggest that the narrative is:

A. reinforcing the slaves’ complicity in their own oppression by implying they pose a latent threat.
B. critiquing the psychological toll of colonial guilt, as the white men fear retribution for their actions.
C. establishing a supernatural element, where the caravan is haunted by the spirits of past victims.
D. undermining the boy’s potential heroism by suggesting any intervention would be futile.
E. constructing a tension between perceived safety and impending confrontation, mirroring the boy’s internal conflict.

Question 4

The passage’s description of the white men’s beards "almost obliterating their countenances" is best interpreted as:

A. a literal observation about their physical appearance, emphasizing their foreignness in the African landscape.
B. a metaphor for the way colonialism erases individual identity, reducing perpetrators to faceless agents of systemic violence.
C. an allusion to biblical or mythological figures (e.g., Viking raiders), framing them as archetypal villains.
D. a subtle indication of their cowardice, as the beards mask expressions of fear or weakness.
E. a visual representation of the moral obscurity of "civilization," where outward markers of humanity conceal inner barbarism.

Question 5

The boy’s shift from excitement to anger is structurally analogous to which of the following literary techniques?

A. Anagnorisis, wherein a character’s sudden recognition of truth precipitates a reversal of their emotional or psychological state.
B. Bathos, as the narrative descends from idealized expectations to a scene of grotesque suffering.
C. Chiasmus, with the boy’s emotional arc mirroring the inverted expectations of "civilized" versus "savage" behavior.
D. Ekphrasis, where the vivid description of the caravan’s brutality overwhelm the boy’s initial optimism.
E. Pathetic fallacy, as the boy’s internal turmoil is reflected in the chaotic, oppressive environment of the caravan.

Solutions and Explanations

1) Correct answer: A

Why A is most correct: The boy’s unspoken cry embodies the collision between his conditioned expectations (white men as kin) and the observed reality (their brutality). This cognitive dissonance is central to the passage’s critique of colonial hypocrisy. His silence marks the moment of disillusionment, where inherited assumptions (civilization = morality) are violently undermined. The passage hinges on this contradiction, making A the most defensible choice.

Why the distractors are less supported:

• B: While the boy’s naivety is evident, the focus is less on his assumption of racial kinship and more on the systemic betrayal of "civilized" ideals. The passage critiques institutional hypocrisy, not just youthful gullibility.
• C: There’s no evidence of "latent savagery" here; the boy’s anger stems from moral outrage, not repressed primal instincts. This misreads his arc as regressing rather than re-evaluating.
• D: The passage doesn’t foreshadow a total rejection of humanity, only a rejection of this specific brutality. His anger suggests selective condemnation, not wholesale abandonment.
• E: While the desire for connection is present, the primary function of the unspoken cry is to highlight disillusionment, not universalize human longing. The passage is specific, not thematic in this broad sense.

2) Correct answer: B

Why B is most correct: Akut’s growl is ironic because it positions the ape as the moral arbiter, while the "civilized" white men are the perpetrators of senseless violence. The non-human perspective exposes the absurdity of human cruelty—a creature often deemed "savage" recognizes injustice where humans do not. This role reversal is the passage’s sharpest critique.

Why the distractors are less supported:

• A: While Akut is humanized, the primary effect isn’t to elevate him as morally superior but to use his reaction as a lens to indict human hypocrisy. The focus is on systemic critique, not character development.
• C: The boy isn’t passive—his anger is a form of response. Akut’s growl doesn’t reproach the boy but parallels his own unspoken outrage, reinforcing the shared moral stance.
• D: The jungle’s brutality is necessary for survival; the caravan’s is sadistic and systemic. The passage contrasts these, not equates them.
• E: There’s no textual basis for Akut’s "jealousy." His confusion is genuine moral inquiry, not possessive resentment. This misreads the ape’s role as antagonistic rather than sympathetic.

3) Correct answer: E

Why E is most correct: The "apprehensive glances" create narrative tension between the caravan’s false security (they’re moving forward) and the looming threat (something pursues them). This external tension mirrors the boy’s internal conflict: he too is caught between advancing toward his human identity and recoiling from its brutality. The structural parallel reinforces the thematic duality of the passage.

Why the distractors are less supported:

• A: The slaves aren’t framed as a threat; the glances suggest external pursuit (likely Tarzan or another force), not internal rebellion. The passage doesn’t blame the oppressed.
• B: While colonial guilt is a possible reading, the text emphasizes fear of consequences, not psychological guilt. The glances are practical, not metaphysical.
• C: There’s no supernatural element introduced. The tension is grounded in realistic danger, not spectral haunting.
• D: The boy’s potential heroism isn’t undermined; the glances heighten stakes, making his eventual intervention (implied) more urgent. This misreads the tension as futile rather than dramatic.

4) Correct answer: E

Why E is most correct: The beards physically obscure the men’s faces, symbolizing how outward markers of "civilization" (white skin, European features) mask their inner barbarism. This aligns with the passage’s central irony: the "civilized" men are morally unrecognizable. The imagery critiques the hollow performativity of humaneness in colonial contexts.

Why the distractors are less supported:

• A: The description isn’t merely literal; it’s symbolically loaded. The beards aren’t just a physical trait but a metaphor for deception.
• B: While systemic violence is a theme, the beards don’t erase individual identity so much as conceal moral corruption. The focus is on hypocrisy, not anonymity.
• C: Though Viking allusions are possible, the passage lacks explicit mythological framing. The beards’ function is thematic, not archetypal.
• D: Cowardice isn’t the primary implication. The beards obscure humanity, not just fear. The men’s brutality is open, not hidden—what’s hidden is their capacity for morality.

5) Correct answer: A

Why A is most correct: The boy’s shift is a classic anagnorisis: a sudden recognition (of human cruelty) that reverses his emotional state (from joy to anger). This moment of clarity drives the narrative’s moral pivot, making it structurally analogous to tragic or heroic recognitions in Greek drama or modern literature.

Why the distractors are less supported:

• B: Bathos involves a ridiculous or trivial descent, but the boy’s shift is thematically serious, not comedic or anti-climactic.
• C: Chiasmus is a rhetorical structure (ABBA), not a narrative arc. The boy’s change is linear and psychological, not a linguistic inversion.
• D: Ekphrasis is detailed description of visual art, not a character’s emotional transformation. The passage is dramatic, not static.
• E: Pathetic fallacy projects emotion onto setting, but the boy’s turmoil isn’t reflected in the environment—it’s internally driven by his observations. The caravan’s brutality is causal, not symbolic of his state.