Most modern renditions of his story depict Tarzan as a feral child, "jungle-wise" but not very well versed in the matters of the modern world, it's not the way his creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs, has imagined him. In his stories, Tarzan is the child of a British noble couple stranded in the jungle of Africa. Tarzan's parents both die in the jungle and the orphaned child is adopted by a tribe of big apes known as the Mangani. Tarzan – John Clayton, Viscount of Greystoke – acquires the necessary skills and knowledge to survive the jungle, but he learns a lot about the human world from his parents' books. He grows up to be a noble, handsome male, intelligent, loyal, steadfast, and extremely ethical. Although he is able to pass within society, Tarzan always prefers to "strip off the thin veneer of civilization", and return to nature.
