Escapism
The overriding intended theme by the author is one escapism. Edgar Rice Burroughs consistently declared that his intention in writing his Tarzan stories was nothing more complicated than to provide a means of temporary escape from the bleak realities of the world around each reader. Of course, intent is often overridden by outside analysis and some of the themes attributed to the novel by outside sources indicate a content that provided anything but escape for certain readers.
The Adopted Foundling
Clark Kent. Moses. Tom Jones. All given up by their real parents and all adopted as foundlings and raised in a strange and wondrous world to which they were not really born. And, of course, all with a desire to know their real parents and understand their roots. Tarzan is the Superman of the jungle and the Moses of the wild, but just like Kal-El and Moses, he would have been just another guy if raised in that world to which he was born.
Gent of the Jungle
Burroughs was highly influenced by the Victorian idealized gentleman who was always chivalric even under the most pressing of colonial circumstances. It is within this theme of the “white man’s burden” that the darker outside attributions of racism and imperialism begin to come into play as thematic underpinnings of Tarzan stories. Tarzan is a white lord of the jungle among not just animals, but also, by definition, the darker-hued human natives. Situating Tarzan as being inherently born with Victorian values comes into play with this thematic critique; how is it that Tarzan expresses so many “white character traits” in the absence of white society to teach them?
