Tarzan of the Apes Literary Elements

Adventure, Travels, Fantasy

The story begins in 1888 when Viscount and Lady Greystoke are abandoned in the Western Coastal jungles of equatorial Africa. It is here that the main events of the story happen. Later on, the setting shifts to America following the progress of Jane Porter and her father.

The story is narrated from the third person omniscient view point. The narrator has access to the characters’ emotions and thoughts.

The tone of the story is often hopeful and optimistic. The mood is adventurous.

The main protagonist of the story is Tarzan. There is no main antagonist. Instead the antagonistic powers in the book are fragmented into different entities varying between the man-eating beasts in the jungle, the mischievous apes, and the multiple evil sea men that abandoned the Greystokes and the Porters at different times.

The story’s major conflict concerns its central character, Tarzan, and whether he would find his way back to his people and civilization, or spend the remaining of his life among apes and wild beasts.

The story reaches its climax when Jane Porter departs towards her home in America leaving Tarzan behind. At this point of the tale, the reader is all expectations about Tarzan’s next step, and whether he would find his way back to his people or live like an ape-man for the rest of his days.

Tarzan’s ability to teach himself as a child foreshadows his great mental abilities and his future outstanding among his peers as someone superior both in physical and mental capacities.

“He is only a beast of the jungle, Miss Porter.” This declaration of Mr. Clayton is an understatement, for Tarzan is not a mere beast of the jungle. He is a strong and intelligent man, who has proven himself at every occasion as superior to Mr. Clayton himself.

The text alludes to the practice of cannibalism in some African tribes during the late 18th and beginning of the 19th century.

“The dripping leaves and branches, and the moist petals of gorgeous flowers glistened in the splendor of the returning day. And, so—as Nature forgot, her children forgot also. Busy life went on as it had been before the darkness and the fright.”

This is an example of the prevailing imagery in the text. It is used extensively by the author with the design of portraying the African jungle in its entire splendor.

Jane Porter professed her love for Tarzan to be so strong and faithful, and yet she had given him up even when she was free to marry for the superfluous reason of not being compatible with societal norms and conventions.

Tarzan’s life is repeatedly paralleled in the book with that of his cousin. The two men are constantly compared to one another in order to show how did Tarzan make the best of his situation in spite of his isolation in an African jungle.

Metonymy: “The second member of the party to land was a tall young man in white ducks”
The word ‘party’ here is a metonymy for a group of people.

Synecdoche: “Two keen eyes had watched every move of the party from the foliage of a nearby tree.”
The word ‘eyes’ is a synecdoche for Tarzan. It is Tarzan who had watched every move of the party and not just his eyes.

“The fierce jungle would make easy prey of this unprotected stranger in a very short time if he were not guided quickly to the beach.”
This is a personification, for the jungle is given, here, the characteristics of a human beings who would attack and kill.