Tarzan of the Apes

Theme:

Tarzan of the Apes by E R Burroughs, explores the theme about the impact of heredity on behavior; racial superiority; civilization, especially as his struggles with his identity as a human; sexuality; and escapism.

Summary:

Tarzan/John Clayton is very intelligent and articulate, and does not speak in broken English as the classic movies of the 1930s depict him. He can communicate with many species of jungle animals, and has been shown to be a skilled impressionist, able to mimic the sound of a gunshot perfectly.

Famous Quotes:

• Experience is merely the name men give to their mistakes.
• Man is least himself when he speaks in his own personality. Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth.
• Life begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.
• There is something about a supreme old family that expresses all the powers and aspirations of the child who results from it.
• The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.
• The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
• Human nature will never change. Involuntarily my fingers closed upon the fabulous stone in my pocket.
• Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.
• It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.
• The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.
• The more I see of the world, the more I am dissatisfied with it.
• I can resist everything except temptation.
• The very essence of romance is uncertainty.
• Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
• Believe in yourself and eventually others will too.
• Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.
• How can I be expected to write a poem on a morning like this?
• To define is to limit.
• The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.