I watched the Jungle book 2016, a week ago I watched again and the last scene stuck with me. The scene where Mowgli, (played by Neel Sethi) the little boy who has been living in the Jungle since he was a toddler. In the scene, he ran into the burning forest after being told by the Jaguar (Bagheera, played by Ben Kingsley) that he is not a wolf. Although Raksha who is a wolf raised him like her cub, (played by Lupita Nyong'o), however, the little boy can not fight like wolves, he needed to fight like a man.
The Tiger (Shere Khan, voice by Idris Elba) wanted the boy dead because he saw him as a threat, this made the Tiger the villain in the movie. Shere Khan's hatred was on display throughout the film. However, it came to an explosive end in this last scene. Shere Khan (the Tiger) felt so much anger for the boy that he ran following him into the fire, knowing fully well how dangerous fire can be, while the child seemed naïve to its danger. The fire (also called the red flower) had burnt him before and stole one of his eyes when last he came into contact with it. Shere Khan saw the forest lit with fire and knew that it might cause his death, but the anger blocked his senses to care. The Tiger allowed his rage to overcome him, just before his death, he completely forgot he was standing on a thin, weak little branch. All he saw in the last seconds was the boy, his target, and his target was letting him know he is not scared of him. Shere Khan was arrogant, being confronted like that turned his anger to hazardous, letting his anger control his behaviour and action.
We all get angry, however, when they control us, instead of us controlling our emotions, that is how Shere Khan died.
If the Tiger left the boy in the fire, the boy would probably have died, if he thought about how to set Mowgli (man-cub) up, he might have killed the boy, but his anger was not allowing him to think. Heated anger does not allow the brain to process information accurately. All logic are always out of the window; they do not see and do not hear, not correctly. The Tiger was not thinking of his safety, he no longer noticed the danger right in front of him, underneath him and around him, he was no longer thinking about his future. He had thrown caution to the wind, and anger had replaced all reasoning.
I am sure has he fell to his death he must have wished he just let the man-cub be. The boy will continue living, while he is no more, no one cared for the Tiger, no one will miss him, no one will grieve him. His constant anger and arrogance with the pursuit of the boy and destruction he left behind, will make the whole jungle happy he is dead. It was too late for him to change the past, to change his actions and behaviour. Once we do or say something, sorry does not fix it. It is like shattering a glass then saying sorry to the glass. Sorry does not put the glass back together.
Remember: Anger is an healthy emotion, destruction is not, destruction solve nothing, anger can be useful in a constructive manner, it can be used to motivate people in the right way, however not in a hasty, heated way.
The fact is anger is always masking something else, something some have thought is an unacceptable emotion, something some have been taught that to be a sign of weaknesses - sadness. Anger is sadness in so many situations and people. The vulnerability of anger is sadness or another emotion. The person is not angry, but deep down they are feeling something else. This Tiger felt threatened, he thought the boy would grow and destroy his home, his anger had nothing to do with the boy or what the kid has done. His fears turned into anger.
The reason anger can be seen as a destructive tool is that it is often a secondary emotion, and until the individual finds out what the primary cause is, the anger will keep getting fuelled; it will stay unresolved, it will continue to be temperamental.
We all get angry, we all feel a variety of emotions, however, what do we do with emotions like anger?
What we need to do is learn what the underlining feeling/s are, the root of the anger.
If we are sad, we need to educate ourselves on ways to communicate that to the person instead of showing anger in a destructive way and making things worse. Let them know: "I feel disrespected; I feel unloved, I feel lonely, I feel unconnected to you". Communication is key to building and maintaining our relationships.
Remember: Loving others is the way to be, this is not easy, especially if they have hurt us or we disagree with their actions, behaviour or beliefs, but let us learn to love. Let us think before we make a decision, to ensure we do not end up consumed by fire like the burnt Tiger.