I had this story from one who had no business to tell it to me, or to any other. I may credit the seductive influence of an old vintage upon the narrator for the beginning of it, and my own skeptical incredulity during the days that followed for the balance of the strange tale.
The opening line of the story divulges that this novel is going to be a very traditional early 20th century in terms of structure. Like so many novels published then, it relies on the convention of “framing” in which the actual narrative is posed as a story-within-a-story. The Modernist revolution which was about to explode around the time Burroughs was writing his book would not forever put an end to “framing” but it would definitely become a staple by which one can determine the literary influence. As a result, it is easy to see that Burroughs was far more influenced by the 19th century literary tradition than his early 20th-century peers.
And then Tublat went to Kerchak to urge him to use his authority with Kala, and force her to give up little Tarzan, which was the name they had given to the tiny Lord Greystoke, and which meant `White-Skin."
The first mention of the name “Tarzan” occurs in Chapter V: The White Ape. Kerhak and Kala are actual apes. Up to this point, even though for much of the narrative the apes have been raising the foundling, the narrator has continued to refer to him as little Lord Greystoke or the son.
When Tarzan killed he more often smiled than scowled, and smiles are the foundation of beauty.
This descriptive information about the character of Tarzan occurs in coincidence with his abduction of Jane. Jane is also described as looking up into a face of “extraordinary beauty.” The effect of this section and this quote is to situate Tarzan as the embodiment of masculinity, especially as opposed to Clayton. Tarzan the protector. It is particularly Darwinian in its implication.
I am Tarzan of the Apes. I want you. I am yours. You are mine.
Tarzan is described as being almost incapable of thinking about anything other than the “beautiful white girl.” He has made up his mind: she will be his. What is interesting about this assertion of possession, however, is that it is not verbalized, but written down in a letter. And yet the diction and syntax remain indistinguishable from spoken expression.
"My mother was an Ape, and of course she couldn't tell me much about it. I never knew who my father was."
Aside from consistently exhibiting the gift of writing exciting action scenes in pure descriptive prose recognized by no less a literary lion than Gore Vidal as worth of the envy of far more talented authors, Tarzan of the Apes has never been used to identify Edgar Rice Burroughs as one of the great novelists of American fiction. Be that as it may, few closing lines in the long, rich tradition of that history can equal the jaw-dropping power of this line on which Tarzan exits stage left. Weirdly, it would be every bit as equally effective as the opening line.
It was the hallmark of his aristocratic birth, the natural outcropping of many generations of fine breeding, an hereditary instinct of graciousness which a lifetime of uncouth and savage training and environment could not eradicate.
Despite being raised by apes and exhibiting a powerful primitive instinct for survival, the novel argues that deep down inside it is the aristocratic genes of his bloodline which guide and shape Tarzan’s nature. Nature, in fact, can be said to trump nurture; though brought up among the primal beings of the jungle, somehow Tarzan knows instinctively to bow to Jane despite not being exposed to the gesture. Ultimately, the novel comes down hard on the side of the corruption of Darwinian evolution with its suggestion that some genes are just naturally better than others.
