Tarzan of the Apes

Tarzan is the protagonist and hero of Tarzan of the Apes. He is the son of a British Viscount named John Clayton, Lord Greystroke, and his real name is technically the same as his father’s. However, he is given the name of Tarzan by the group of anthropoid apes who adopt him when he is a baby. Tarzan’s name means “White-Skin” (22) in the language of the apes, drawing attention to his physiological difference from both the apes and the ethnic groups in Africa he encounters. Burroughs uses Tarzan’s whiteness and European ancestry to explain his physical and mental “superiority” to both the human and animal inhabitants of the jungle. The story describes Tarzan’s strength as a result of his upbringing, relating that when Tarzan was only 10 years old, “he was fully as strong as the average man of thirty, and far more agile than the most practiced athlete ever becomes. And day by day his strength was increasing” (23). Additionally, even as a child “his superior intelligence and cunning” (25) allows him to trick the adult apes and keep himself safe from his mother’s mate, Tublat. Tarzan is able to teach himself to read and write as well as to intuitively develop forms of simple technology such as a