Tarzan

Tarzan is the orphaned son of aristocratic English parents marooned in Africa in the late 1800s. Upon their deaths, he is adopted and raised by a band of apes which Burroughs calls "mangani", a species not otherwise known to science, but with characteristics of gorillas, chimpanzees, and early hominids, including a primitive form of speech. "Tarzan" is "White Skin" in the mangani language. His "real" English name is John Clayton III, Lord Greystoke.

Tarzan's upbringing gives him physical skills considerably superior to those of the finest "civilized" athletes, but he also inherits a high level of mental prowess. He teaches himself to read by examining basic English primers left by his parents, and unlike the inarticulate barbarian version of him later popularized in films, eventually learns to speak several languages fluently.

Tarzan only makes contact with humans again when fully grown. At this stage, he learns to speak French and English and visits the civilised world, but then rejects this and returns to the jungle.

Later stories recount many further adventures, often featuring the discovery of lost civilizations.

Tarzan is a modern incarnation of the ancient literary tradition of "the hero raised by animals" (Feral children). Other examples are Mowgli from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book, and the legendary founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus (raised by wolves).

The Tarzan story is informed by nonscientific ideas of evolution and "social darwinism" explored in much popular literature of this period, such as that of Jack London and Robert E. Howard. How much of our success or failure in life is due to our inheritance and how much to our own efforts? Are the conquests of some individuals and groups over others the result of a "natural" superiority, training, or sheer luck?

Tarzan has been called the best-known literary character in the world. He has appeared in films, comic books, and television programs. The Internet Movie Database lists 88 movies with Tarzan in the title between 1918 and 1999. Many of the Hollywood Tarzan films from the 1930s on featured Tarzan's chimpanzee companion Cheeta.

Science fiction author Philip Jose Farmer wrote Tarzan Alive!, a biography of Tarzan utilizing the frame device that he was a real person. See also Wold Newton family.

Tarzan appears briefly as a character in the book Lust, by Geoff Ryman.

Even though the copyright on Tarzan of the Apes has expired in the United States of America, all of Burroughs's works will remain under copyright in the European Union until 2021, and the name TARZAN is a trademark.

Tarzana, California, where Burroughs made his home, was renamed in honor of Tarzan in 1927.

External link

• Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Actors potraying Tarzan

Movies

• Gordon Griffith (young Tarzan) 1918
• Elmo Lincoln 1918, 1918, 1921 (called the "first" Tarzan, but Gordon Griffith appears first in the film as his younger self.)
• Gene Pollar 1920
• P. Dempsey Tabler 1920
• James Pierce 1927
• Frank Merrill 1928, 1929
• Johnny Weissmuller 1932, 1934, 1936, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1943, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948
• Buster Crabbe 1933
• Herman Brix later billed as Bruce Bennett 1935, 1938
• Glen Morris 1938
• Lex Barker 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953
• Clint Walker 1954 (uncredited, in Jungle Gents, a Bowery Boys movie)
• Gordon Scott 1955, 1957, 1958, 1958, 1959, 1960
• Denny Miller 1959
• Jock Mahoney 1962, 1963
• Ron Ely 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970
• Mike Henry 1966, 1967, 1968
• Miles O'Keeffe 1981
• Christopher Lambert 1984
• Casper Van Dien 1998
• Tony Goldwyn 1999 (voice of animated Tarzan)
• Alex D. Linz 1999 (voice of young animated Tarzan)

TV

• Gordon Scott 1958
• Ron Ely 1966
• Joe Lara 1989
• Wolf Larson 1991
• Travis Fimmel 2003

See Also: Feral children in mythology and fiction

Tarzan is also the name of a 4WD from VAZ.

Referenced By