Biography of Famous Fictional Characters Tarzan of the Apes Part 2

About the biography of famous fictional character Tarzan of the Apes, history of King of the Jungle and his lady Jane.

TARZAN OF THE APES (b. 1888- )

In his teen-age years, a tribe of cannibals did settle nearby. However, they earned Tarzan's eternal enmity, for it was a cannibal who killed Tarzan's mother Kala with a poisoned arrow. He, in turn, killed the assassin and, hungry, almost ate a piece of the dead warrior. Something stopped him. (Burroughs says it was a hereditary repulsion toward cannibalism; however, Burroughs maintained a somewhat romantic Victorian view toward Tarzan, attributing to him feelings he could not possibly have had. For instance, Burroughs claimed Tarzan's love for Kala was that of a young English schoolboy.)

In 1908, Tarzan met Jane Porter, who by sheer coincidence was marooned on that same shore. She was 19, with long yellow hair and blue-gray eyes, a fit match for the bronzed, gray-eyed young god. Jane was accompanied by her addlepated old father, his companion (equally eccentric), her maid, and, believe it or not, Tarzan's 2nd cousin, Lord Greystoke (who unwittingly was holding the title that rightfully belonged to Tarzan).

Tarzan and Jane fell in love, of course, pledging that love in a woodland bower where Tarzan did "what no red-blooded man needs lessons in doing. He took his woman in his arms and smothered her upturned panting lips with kisses." He did no more. In spite of the fact he had been brought up by animals, he had somehow, through a kind of hereditary understanding, developed a full-blown sense of Victorian sexual morality.

Through a series of misadventures involving the cannibals, some pirates, buried gold, and abductions, Tarzan and Jane were separated. She sailed back to her native U.S. He, with a new-found friend, a Frenchman, followed her there.

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