# The Whale — Just So Stories character guide

> The Whale in Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Whale

**First appearance:** 0000-how-the-whale-got-his-throat

## Snapshot

A ravenous cetacean who devours every fish in the sea, then swallows a shipwrecked Mariner whose dancing and suspenders teach him a permanent lesson.

## Who they are

The Whale rules the ocean by appetite alone, eating starfish, garfish, and the really truly twirly-whirly eel until only one small 'Stute Fish remains. When that clever fish suggests he try Man, the Whale gulps down a Mariner of infinite-resource-and-sagacity, raft, breeches, suspenders, and all. What follows inside his warm dark cupboards is a contest of wills between a hungry giant and a stubborn castaway, and its outcome reshapes the Whale's throat forever.

## In the story

### [How the Whale Got His Throat](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/chapters/how-the-whale-got-his-throat)

The hungry whale who swallows the Mariner and later gets a grating stuck in his throat.

### [List of Illustrations](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/chapters/list-of-illustrations)

Depicted swallowing the Mariner and looking for the little 'Stute Fish.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/the_whale
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters