Tarzan of the Apes / Edgar Rice Burroughs

 

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars?

Tarzan has become an iconic figure in our popular culture, but how many of us have read the original story? Until now I sure hadn't. My exposure to the ape man was through comic books and television. I have hazy memories of going to the cinema to see the movie Greystoke back in the 80s when I was in university. Burroughs created a story that we can pick and choose from to explore whatever issue we're currently worried about.

Now, I have attended lectures by one of heroes, Jane Goodall, who likes to share her relationship to Tarzan. She was quite adamant that she was far superior to Burroughs’ Jane! I was quite surprised in the first chapter when the author introduces us to the apes. Footnotes inform me that Burroughs invented this particular species, but they display some very authentic chimpanzee behaviours. The power structure of the group, survival of the toughest, for example. The way they travel through their territory depending on where food is accessible. The scattering of the group as they forage. Their search for ants and opportunistic consumption of flesh when available, though it is rare, just as Burroughs depicts it. And all this before Jane Goodall’s research began! Mind you, he also makes them monogamous (can't offend the readers' mothers after all) and gives them rudimentary language, so it's not a perfect thing.

I can't say strongly enough, if you have African heritage you should leave this book on the shelf. You will find it really offensive. It was a colonial viewpoint of the time to see Africans as superstitious cannibals, so that is what we get here. Contrasts are made between the “civilized” and the “primitive" through telling what Tarzan's cousin in the House of Lords is doing while he brawls and eats raw meat. (As if there isn't plenty of chimp-like poo flinging that happens in the House!) When Jane arrives on the scene, his aristocratic heritage, however, surges within him, and he behaves like a perfect gentleman.

I also see why Jane Goodall was scornful of Jane Porter! JP is a fluttering female with zero survival skills. She is completely ruled by convention, so despite her insta-love for her jungle rescuer, she can't imagine introducing him to polite society. She would rather be given out as a prize by her useless father. I don't think you'll find many 21st century women who want to be Jane Porter.

In the end, Tarzan gives us an interesting window into the mindset of 1912. Burroughs was an American and seems to have had a rather romantic view of European aristocracy, a paternalistic attitude toward women, and an interest in denigrating those of African heritage (as it seems too many still do).


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