Question

Anna wrote a thesis stating that both the mongoose character in "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and the young author of "Snakes Alive!" demonstrate a special knowledge of snakes that each gains as a result on unusual curiosity. What textual evidence would support Anna's claim?

The motto of all the mongoose family is "Run and find out"; and Rikki-tikki was a true mongoose.

"Good gracious," said Teddy's mother, "and that's a wild creature! I suppose he's so tame because we've been kind to him."

Every well-brought-up mongoose always hopes to be a house-mongoose some day and have rooms to run about in.

Then inch by inch out of the grass rose up the head and spread hood of Nag, the big black cobra, and he was five feet long from tongue to tail.

Answer 1

You can use the lines you quoted as direct support for Anna’s thesis by showing (a) that Rikki-tikki’s curiosity is explicit and drives him to “find out,” and (b) that the child/young narrator in “Snakes Alive!” learns about animals through close, unusual attention and interaction.

Short, focused readings of each passage:

- “The motto of all the mongoose family is ‘Run and find out’; and Rikki-tikki was a true mongoose.”
- This sentence names curiosity as the mongoose’s defining impulse. It supports the claim that Rikki’s knowledge comes from active investigation: he does not wait for information to come to him; he seeks it out, which is how he learns cobra behavior, lairs, and fighting tactics.

- “Every well-brought-up mongoose always hopes to be a house-mongoose some day and have rooms to run about in.”
- This line shows Rikki’s desire to enter and explore the human household — an unusual setting for a wild animal. That placement gives him opportunities to observe cobras in a domestic garden, learn their movements and plans, and thus gain the “special knowledge” he uses to protect the family.

- “Then inch by inch out of the grass rose up the head and spread hood of Nag, the big black cobra, and he was five feet long from tongue to tail.”
- The detailed, precise description of the cobra’s appearance and movement shows the narrator’s (and by extension Rikki’s and the story’s) careful observation of snakes. Such specific, close-up noticing is the kind of knowledge that curiosity produces: not mere fear, but measured attention to form and behavior.

- “ ‘Good gracious,’ said Teddy’s mother, ‘and that's a wild creature! I suppose he's so tame because we've been kind to him.’ ”
- In “Snakes Alive!” this exchange highlights that the child (and narrator) gains understanding of animals through close contact and curiosity rather than simple instinct. The mother’s remark points to the tame creature being the product of human attention and interaction; the child’s unusual interest in and study of animals explains the special knowledge shown in the piece.

Putting those together: Kipling’s lines establish curiosity as Rikki’s motivating principle and show how being in the household lets him learn snake behavior; the “Snakes Alive!” line shows that the child’s attention and kindness toward animals produces knowledge about them. Both texts therefore depict special, practically useful knowledge of snakes that arises from an unusual, investigative curiosity rather than ordinary fear or ignorance.