59 pages • 1 hour read
Edgar Rice BurroughsTarzan of the Apes
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1912A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Language
Language is a significant motif throughout Tarzan of the Apes. By portraying the different languages that Tarzan learns and the impact that understanding language has upon the characters, Burroughs suggests that language is an important technology for humans, but that it is not entirely unique to humans. Learning to read English provides Tarzan with a sense of identity and joy as he discovers more advanced intellectual concepts. While the English language is more advanced and therefore capable of expressing more nuanced and reasonable ideas, animal language allows Tarzan to understand and learn from the beasts of the jungle. While reading language allows Tarzan’s journey to become more human, spoken human language is the ultimate key to allowing him to access the greater complexities of human society.
The language spoken by the group of anthropoid apes who raise Tarzan denotes, contrary to popular belief, that language is not a phenomenon that separates humans from animals. The ape language is described as being limited in vocabulary, thus preventing Tarzan from learning the truth about his heritage. The ape language allows Tarzan to express his dominance over the group and to convey simple commands about how to rule once he decides to leave his kingship behind. When D’Arnot, the Frenchman who first teaches Tarzan to speak, first asks Tarzan about language, Tarzan refers to animal languages in the same way that one might describe various human dialects. He tells D’Arnot in writing:
I speak only the language of my tribe—the great apes who were Kerchak’s; and a little of the languages of Tantor, the elephant, and Numa, the lion, and of the other folks of the jungle I understand. With a human being I have never spoken, except once with Jane Porter, by signs. This is the first time I have spoken with another of my kind through written words (131).
This description breaks down the barriers between humans and various animal species, indicating that they all have means of communicating with each other, just with varying degrees of complexity.
Tarzan’s inability to speak human language causes numerous misunderstandings and conflicts between him and the other humans who are marooned on the beach. Although his actions indicate his friendliness toward him, William Cecil Clayton remains suspicious that Tarzan might be a member of the cannibal village because Tarzan cannot tell him otherwise. Similarly, Jane does not understand that the written messages from Tarzan of the Apes are coming from the same man who rescued her from the gorilla, causing Tarzan to think she has rejected his love. Language barriers create conflict and denote difference. Notably, the French soldiers struggle to speak with the African village, indicating division and hostility between the two groups. The narrative states:
They questioned the prisoners by signs, and finally one of the sailors who had served in the French Congo found that he could make them understand the bastard tongue that passes for language between the whites and the more degraded tribes of the coast, but even then they could learn nothing definite regarding the fate of D’Arnot (126).
This “bastard tongue” is not entirely like a language, suggesting in Burrough’s white supremacist logic that the gap between the “advanced” French and the “degraded” ethnic group is as significant as the gap between ape language and human language.
Rope
Tarzan’s rope is his signature weapon and is his first use of technology in order to conquer animals more physically powerful than him. The rope symbolizes the idea that reason is stronger than muscle when properly applied. However, Tarzan’s rope nooses are also evocative of punishment, and his use of the rope to specifically torment a village of African people has parallels with the history of lynching and racial violence in the United States. Lynching refers to publicly killing an individual who has not been sentenced to death by the justice system. The method was historically used by white mobs to terrorize and intimidate the Black population. Lynching was a form of vigilante justice and racially motivated intimidation that white supremacist organizations portrayed as being necessary to protect white women from the aggression of Black men. Tarzan’s use of a noose to hang Kulonga and many other members of the village visually parallels the lynching of Black Americans and conveys a similar mindset: that violence is warranted as revenge for Tarzan’s adopted ape mother Kala and as a way to punish the village for practicing cannibalism.
Burroughs employs language that associates rope with Tarzan’s intelligence and subtlety, implying that the rope is a weapon that depends on reason rather than strength. Tarzan first develops the rope as a young child to escape the violence of adult male apes and eventually of larger predators. As the narrative states, “If he could catch his fellow apes with his long arm of many grasses, why not Sabor, the lioness?” (26). By referring to the rope as a “long arm,” Burroughs implies that the rope is like an extension of Tarzan’s body, allowing him to exceed his physical limitations by merging his own form with technology. Later, Tarzan’s rope becomes a symbol of stealth, clever planning, and tactical knowledge. When Tarzan kills the African hunter Kulonga with his rope, Burroughs describes how “a slender coil of rope sped sinuously above [Kulonga] from the lowest branch of a mighty tree […] and ere the king’s son had taken a half dozen steps into the clearing a quick noose tightened about his neck” (47). The “slender” and “sinuous” rope evokes the imagery of a snake, indicating Tarzan’s deadly craftiness and his danger to even a strong, young hunter. Tarzan’s rope also allows him to remain unseen by the village, causing them to believe that he is an angry god or spirit of the forest. They begin to leave him offerings in order to placate him. Thus, Tarzan’s rope becomes a literal tool for white supremacy, placing him in the position of a deity over the village because of his ability to enact violence upon them.
Tarzan’s Scar
Tarzan’s facial scar is a recurring image in Tarzan of the Apes that symbolizes Tarzan’s wild and instinctive side. He acquires the facial scar during a fight with the ape Terkoz, one of the first battles against a stronger animal that he is able to win without a weapon. Instead, Tarzan uses reason to develop wrestling techniques that allow him to nullify Terkoz’s advantages in strength and reach. After the fight, Tarzan recovers, with the exception of “a terrible, half-healed scar, which, starting above his left eye ran across the top of his head, ending at the right ear. It was the mark left by Terkoz when he had torn the scalp away” (65). While Tarzan seems unbothered by this wound, the scar lingers on as a reminder of his fearsome combat abilities even without the aid of technology. While the rope and knife allow Tarzan to kill other animals with devious strategies, the scar indicates his ability to use his own body as a weapon.
During moments of extreme anger that precipitate violence, Tarzan’s scar glows red, a color affiliated with rage, fire, and blood. When Tarzan notices that his cabin has been ransacked by the sailors of the Arrow, “a great wave of anger surged through him, and the new made scar upon his forehead stood suddenly out, a bar of inflamed crimson against his tawny hide” (68). While Tarzan was previously excited by the presence of other humans and eager to greet them as his kin, the manifestation of this red scar indicates his shift into considering the sailors as enemies to be destroyed in the same way that he bested Terkoz. The scar also glows red when he rescues Jane from Terkoz again and finally kills the ape. In these episodes, the scar symbolizes Tarzan’s propensity to use violence against his enemies.
Even after Tarzan has learned to live in civilization with the French officer D’Arnot, his scar continues to appear during moments of rage, suggesting that he has not overcome his wild instincts. When Jane is being threatened with a forced marriage to Robert Canler in order to settle her father’s debts, Tarzan becomes so infuriated that he grabs Canler by the throat and begins to strangle him. Jane observes “the crimson band upon his forehead that she had seen that other day in far distant Africa, when Tarzan of the Apes had closed in mortal combat with the great anthropoid—Terkoz” (166). Thus, even though Tarzan has left the jungle, his “wild” instincts remain, and he reacts to a rival suitor in the same way that he once did to a rival ape. However, this indicates to Jane that Tarzan will never be able to fully integrate into her society. His scar remains as a physical reminder that he will be drawn to dominating his enemies through combat, rather than to settling disputes in the manner of “civilized” American society.
