What are some examples of figurative language in The Jungle Book?

Figurative language is any phrase or sentence that is not meant to be taken literally. Similes and metaphors are subcategories of figurative language. Like most works of fiction, The Jungle Book is filled with examples of figurative language used to describe characters and their inner states of being, settings, and even action as it happens. Here are a few examples of author Rudyard Kipling's use of figurative language.

From "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi":

"It is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a mongoose, because he is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity."

The mongoose Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is not literally eaten up (by curiosity or anything else). It's a metaphor for how fundamental the trait of curiosity is to a mongoose's personality.

From "The Song of Mowgli":

"These two things fight together in me as the snakes fight in the spring."

Mowgli is referring to the fact that he feels both joy at Shere Khan's defeat and a sorrowful feeling that he belongs neither to the jungle nor the village any more; he uses the simile of two snakes fighting to explain his inner state. Later he will refer to these two parts of himself as "two Mowglis," another example of figurative language, as there are not literally two Mowgli twins but only one Mowgli experiencing two divergent emotions.

Elsewhere in The Jungle Book, Kipling writes that "Bagheera's eyes were as hard as jade stones." He does not mean that the panther's eyes were literally as dense as gemstone; he means the look that Bagheera gives Mowgli is stern, and he uses a simile to express this.

In "The Law of the Jungle," Kipling says that "as the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back." This simile compares The Law of the Jungle to a vine that runs back and forth along a tree's trunk as it climbs and grows. The implication is that balance is found in the middle of the two extremes, "forward" and "back," and that is what the Law of the Jungle aims for in its rules.

The Jungle Book is filled with other examples of figurative language, such as "The tiger's roar filled the cave with thunder" (a metaphor) and "Her eyes, like two green moons in the darkness" (a simile). Look for it especially but not exclusively in Kipling's poetic verse, as figurative language is a particularly powerful tool in composing effective and moving poetry.