The Son of Tarzan · Chapter
III explained
Jack Clayton, having learned of his father's jungle past, secretly visits Alexis Paulvitch and the ape Akut.
What happens
Jack Clayton, having learned of his father's jungle past, secretly visits Alexis Paulvitch and the ape Akut. Paulvitch, recognizing an opportunity for revenge against Tarzan, encourages the boy's fascination with the jungle. Tarzan arranges to buy Akut and send him back to Africa, but Jack overhears and plans to accompany the ape to Dover. Paulvitch, intending to use the boy for his revenge, agrees to the plan. Jack boards the train for school but instead goes to Paulvitch's room, where the Russian prepares to bind him.
Themes in this chapter
Revenge and Redemption
Paulvitch's desire for revenge against Tarzan drives his manipulation of Jack.
Freedom vs. Confinement
Jack's craving for the jungle contrasts with his parents' attempts to confine him to civilized life.
Characters to notice
- Jack Clayton
Secretly visits Paulvitch and Akut, defying his parents; plans to accompany Akut to Dover.
- Alexis Paulvitch
Plots revenge against Tarzan through Jack; encourages the boy's jungle fascination; prepares to bind Jack.
- Akut
The ape Jack visits; refuses to perform after finding Tarzan; tied up by Paulvitch.
- Tarzan
Arranges to buy Akut and send him to Africa; unaware of Jack's secret visits.
- Lady Greystoke
Horrified at the thought of keeping Akut; insists the ape be returned to Africa.
Key passages
“Tarzan visited Akut the following day, but though Jack begged to be allowed to accompany him he was refused.”
Tarzan went to see Akut the next day, but he would not let Jack come along.
Jack's desire to see Akut is denied by his father.
“He had the address, however, which the trainer had given his father, and two days later he found the opportunity to elude his new tutor—who had replaced the terrified Mr. Moore—and after a considerable search through a section of London which he had never before visited, he found the smelly little quarters of the pockmarked old man.”
Jack had the trainer's address, and two days later he escaped his tutor and searched through an unfamiliar part of London to find Paulvitch's dirty apartment.
Jack sneaks away to visit Paulvitch and Akut.
“Since he had first seen Tarzan again from the wings of the theater there had been forming in his deadened brain the beginnings of a desire for revenge.”
From the moment Paulvitch saw Tarzan at the theater, he started to feel a growing urge for revenge.
Paulvitch's revenge plot begins.
“He left him alone with Akut much, and it was not long until he was surprised to learn that the boy could make the great beast understand him—that he had actually learned many of the words of the primitive language of the anthropoids.”
Paulvitch often left Jack alone with Akut, and soon discovered that the boy could communicate with the ape using the language of the great apes.
Jack learns to speak with Akut.
“The plan fitted perfectly with that which Paulvitch had in mind.”
Jack's plan matched exactly what Paulvitch was hoping to do.
Paulvitch sees Jack's scheme as an opportunity for his own revenge.