One theme from Rikki Tikki Tavi would be courage. In Rudyard Kipling's story, Rikki has to fight two cobras, Nag and Nagaina, to protect his garden and Teddy. He is frightened of them because they are stronger and bigger than he is, but, knowing that he is a mongoose and meant to fight snakes, he overcomes his fear and fights them anyway. One line in the story to support this is "though Rikki-Tikki had never met a live cobra before, his mother had fed him on dead ones, and he knew that all a grown mongoose's business in life was to fight and eat snakes."
