Rikki Tiki Character Traits

A young mongoose named Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is the main character of a short story by Rudyard Kipling. Of course the name of the story is “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.” This young mongoose is found by a family in India, and he uses his bravery and skills to protect them. In this story it shows how brave, athletic, and kind Rikki-Tikki is.

Rikki showed how brave he was when he was in the garden talking to a friendly bird named Darzee. The garden bully, Nag, came from behind Rikki with his hood spread. ¨He was afraid for the minute; but it is impossible for a mongoose to stay frightened for any length of time.¨(18) Instead, Rikki told and reminded himself that older mongoose kill cobras. Not long after that, ¨Rikki-Tikki's eyes grew red as he danced up to Karait…”(20) Karait was a snakeling who was as poisonous as a cobra, but Rikki had bravery and didn’t stand down. Later in the story, while Nagaina was about to bite Teddy, Rikki was brave enough to kill all her eggs, but one, and tell her that he himself had killed her husband, Nag.

Mongooses have to be fast and incredibly skilled to eat and fight snakes. Even though Rikki is a young mongoose, he has those qualities. When Rikki was fighting Karait, “Karait had lunged out once too far, and Rikki-Tikki had sprung, jumped on the snake's back, dropped his head far between his forelegs, bitten as high up the back as he could get hold, and rolled away.”(20) Killing Karait took fast thinking, speed, and strength. In the bathroom, Rikki would not let go of Nag until he was dead. It may not seem like much but you have to be strong to hold on that long and that