Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo

TOM: Atta boy. Get angry. Eat something.

TIGER: (To audience.) This is what I’m talking about. Pure stupidity. I’m a fucking Tiger. (Tom hits Tiger with the Slim Jim.)

TOM: EAT! (The Tiger bites Tom’s hand off.) My hand!

TIGER: Yeah your hand! (Kev shoots the Tiger repeatedly with the gold gun.)

TOM: Oh God, my hand!

KEV: Tommy! Tommy, you okay? (Beat.) I shot him, Tommy! I shot him! (Tom collapses and passes out. The Tiger, now a ghost, stands outside the cage and can watch as Kev walks over to the cage, pointing the gun at the Tiger’s dead body.) 

This moment takes place at the end of the first scene at the Baghdad Zoo. The events of the Tiger biting off Tom’s hand, Kev shooting the Tiger, and the Tiger stepping out as a ghost will ultimately be the catalyst for the rest of the play, determining the characters’ fates and altering how they see the world. “It’s like we fell through a prism that night at the zoo and each part of ourselves just separated,” Kev later says (52). 

“I guess I was always going to die here. I guess that was my fate, from the start. But I would have thought maybe I’d have one good day. A day like the Leos had. A brief foray into the great wide open. And I’m bigger than them. I am bigger than those motherfuckers. (Beat; he looks at his body.) So that’s what I look like. You go your whole life never knowing how you look. And then there you are. You get hungry, you get stupid, you get shot and die. And you get this quick glimpse at how you look, to those around you, to the world. It’s never what you thought. And then it’s over. Curtains. Ka-boom.” 

The Tiger delivers this monologue when he first becomes a ghost after being shot. It serves as a contrast to his ultimate fate and suggests his initial atheism, as he believes his life is now “over. Curtains. Ka-boom” and laments never getting to see the “great wide open”—both of which will soon be proven wrong.

“He bit off my friend’s hand! This Tiger, he attacked him, this guy Tommy, he’s like my best friend over here. And so I shot the bastard in the gut. The Tiger, I mean. And he died. I saved Tommy’s life, you know? But now he’s back in America and everyone’s all like…eh…stupid fucking retard, killin’ Tigers and shit. Like I did something wrong. I wanted to get the Tiger and skin him […] but they wouldn’t let me. Can you believe that?” 

Kev tells this to Musa after bragging that he’s “seen action” in the war (15). It demonstrates Kev’s initial braggadocio and inflated macho behavior, and it suggests that Kev thinks he and Tom are good friends (something Tom will later deny). Kev’s statement that people are treating him killing the Tiger “like I did something wrong” also foreshadows the intense and ultimately fatal guilt he will soon feel about his actions. 

KEV: Hey! What’s in this chest here? Hey you speaka Englisha?

MUSA: They don’t speak English! Stop yelling! You don’t need to yell.

KEV: That’s what you gotta do, man, or these towelheads will fuck you, man. No offense, but that’s like the rules. 

Kev and Musa have this exchange as they raid an Iraqi home with a man and woman inside. It demonstrates Kevin’s racism toward Muslims through how he harasses them, demands they speak English, and derides them as “towelheads.” Kev telling Musa that his behavior is “like the rules” suggests this is something meant to be indicative of American soldiers’ behavior more broadly.

(Kev goes to the man and woman and stands above them in a threatening manner.) WE ARE HERE TO HELP YOU!

Kev says this to the Iraqi man and woman as he raids their house and harasses them. The contrast between Kev’s words and his “threatening” behavior displays a sense of irony that suggests Joseph is criticizing the Iraq War and America’s destructive behavior in the guise of being “helpful.” 

“I’m sorry…I’m sorry…I’m just gonna stand here…I’m just gonna stand here standing guard. Sir, yes sir…Sir, yes…sir…I’M SORRY! Man down! Man down! Man attacked by…Man attacked by…Man attacked. I shot him, Tommy. I shot him. I fucking shot him. He’s dead, Tommy, I killed him. I’m okay…I’m okay…I’M okay!” 

Kev says this to himself as he breaks down sobbing upon seeing the Tiger’s ghost in the Iraqi home. It depicts his guilt over killing the Tiger and the trauma he now faces as a result. His breakdown is also a pivotal moment for his character, as it puts him in the hospital, where he ultimately commits suicide.

“I don’t know why I’m so scared. You figure getting killed might be the last bad thing that can happen. The worst thing. I’ll tell you right now: It’s not the worst thing. See, all my life, I’ve been plagued, as most Tigers are, by this existential quandary: Why am I here? But now…I’m dead…I’m a ghost…and it’s: Why aren’t I gone? […] It’s alarming, this life after death. The fact is, Tigers are atheists. All of us. Unabashed. Heaven and hell? Those are just metaphorical constructs that represent ‘hungry’ and ‘not hungry.’ Which is to say, why am I still kicking around? Why me? Why here? It doesn’t seem fair. A dead cat consigned to this burning city doesn’t seem just. But here I am. Dante in Hades. A Bengal Tiger in Baghdad. (Beat.) You didn’t think I knew Dante, did you? Now that I’m dead, I’m having all sorts of revelations about the world and existence […] No matter how much I learn, I’m still trapped. I just thought I’d be gone by now. Why aren’t I gone? Will someone please tell me why I’m not gone from here!? (Far off in the distance, the Muslim call to prayer is heard. The Tiger listens to it.) […] When an atheist suddenly finds himself walking around after death, he has got some serious reevaluating to do. (The call to prayer continues.) Listen! Calling out to God in this mess. God. Can you believe it?” 

The Tiger says this in a monologue to the audience from the topiary garden. It depicts many of the central themes of the piece and the questions the Tiger will wrestle with for the rest of the play, as the Tiger considers the afterlife and existence of God, both for him in the afterlife and the Muslims who still pray to God “in this mess.” It also introduces the Tiger’s increased knowledge in the afterlife, as well as the limits of that knowledge when it comes to God. 

TOM: I am not your friend.

KEV: Yes, you are. You are, man. And I need you, okay? I’m so scared. He’s everywhere, you know? Everywhere I look is that stupid fucking Tiger.

TOM: Well, that’s your psycho problem, Kev. Not mine. Now, I have some gold left that I have to get before I leave here, and if I don’t get the gun back from you, I’m gonna kill you. Understand? 

Tom and Kev have this exchange when Tom comes to see Kev in the hospital. For Kev, this exchange demonstrates the vulnerability beneath the macho act he initially puts on, as well as shows the trauma he faces from killing the Tiger. Tom, in contrast, is much tougher, showing no empathy for Kev and being driven only by his desire for the gold gun and the wealth it brings. After Kev dies, Tom will later admit regretting this, telling Kev he is “fucked up with guilt” (51).

TIGER: I caused untold misery to the parents of those children. But what could I do? I’m a Tiger.

KEV: Get out of my head!

TIGER: It wasn’t cruel. It was lunch! A basic primordial impulse isn’t cruel! But what if it is? What if my every meal has been an act of cruelty? What if my very nature is in direct conflict with the moral code of the universe […]

KEV: You want my hand? You want to eat my hand, just like you did Tommy? Maybe then you’ll leave me alone, just like you left Tommy alone! (Kev starts cutting his wrist. Trying not so much to slit his wrists, as to actually cut his hand off.) […]

TIGER: I’m guilty! That’s why I’m stuck here. I’m being punished. […] Assuming God exists, and assuming this punishment has a reason, I have to atone. I need you to tell me: How do I do it?

KEV: Eat it, take it. Eat my fucking hand, I don’t want it!

TIGER: I don’t want your hand. I want your help.

KEV: I’ll get a new one like Tommy. Fucking RoboCop and everything. See? I can still do what I want. I can do whatever…whatever I want, and no faggot ass Tiger is gonna…is gonna…Yeah. (Kev dies, and crumples in a heap on the bed. Tiger goes to Kev, looks him over.)

TIGER: (Realizing.) Shit. I bite off the one kid’s hand. And then I drive this one to suicide. (Tiger shakes his head. To audience.) I am digging myself into one hell of a fucking hole. 

Kev and the Tiger have this exchange at the hospital after Tom leaves. It is a pivotal scene, as Kev’s death will then drive his ultimate transcendence in the afterlife and the following scenes. The Tiger’s lines also illustrate one of the essential questions he wrestles with throughout the play, as he considers whether he sinned by only acting on his own natural, God-given impulses as a predator, and whether his existence in the afterlife is meant to reflect his sins and inspire him to atone.

“But people don’t like me. They say I am a bad man. Evil. A torturer. They say I tortured people. (Beat.) Of course I fucking tortured people. When you have people who have wronged you, who have attempted to kill you or your father or your brother, or you have people who look lasciviously upon your sisters and your wife and your girlfriend, and these men have felt it in their hearts that they would kill you and would wipe everything that has become you off the face of the earth, let me tell you, my friend, you would torture them. (Uday speaks with great relish, as if it were a great joke, or as if describing a delicious and wonderful recipe.) You would…tie them up…and you would beat the soles of their feet with wet bamboo until they couldn’t walk.” 

Uday (as a ghost) says this as he visits Musa’s house. It demonstrates how Uday, unlike the other characters who feel guilt over their past sins, is completely unrepentant for his past, embracing his past sins and feeling no remorse in the afterlife.

“What are you going to do with your life? Where are you going to get work as a gardener? There’s nothing left to garden here, my man. And you think the Americans are going to employ you forever? They’re already retreating. And they’re going to leave you here with nothing green and nothing to work with except a big pile of shit. All you have is me and my gun.” 

Uday says this to Musa as he tells him to take his gold gun and use it as “leverage” with the Americans. Uday’s assertion that Musa has no future will drive Musa’s actions throughout the rest of the play, as he does decide to use the gun as leverage with Tom in order to sell weapons in the future—and ultimately uses the gun to shoot him in the stomach.

“She tells me she’s afraid. I tell her I am too […] Well, the girl starts to cry, you know? Her one eye, cries. And I say, don’t cry. But she cries harder. And so I say to her: Hey, do you want to see something? And she stops crying for a second. And she’s like, what? And I say it’s a…I tell her it’s a garden […] And I don’t know why I say this, but I say, it’s God’s garden. I tell her it’s God’s garden. He likes gardens, see. He tests us in them, he tempts us in them, he builds them up and tears them apart. It’s like his fucking hobby. And she’s skeptical, I can see that, but I bring her here and she sees these plants, these animals, and she’s never seen anything like them. And I nailed it, because she’s not crying anymore […] And I mean, this whole time, I’m talking out of my ass, this business about God’s garden, etcetera. Maybe she knows I’m bullshitting, too. The girl is no dummy, even if she does only have half a brain. But for a second we both look up at these ruined shrubs and think, okay, Man: You work in Mysterious Ways. We get it. And I feel this swell of hope. And then she turns to me and she’s like: When will He get here? What? She says, When will God get here? If this is his garden, then he has to come to it, he has to tend to it. Look! The green is all burned. This animal has lost his hand. Well?! What am I supposed to tell her? I’m asking You to tell me. Because if You don’t, I’m going to have to watch her cry again […] And this moment, this fucking moment when she appraises a ruined piece of beauty with her one good eye, this moment will become extinct. Just like fucking You. Is that what you WANT? Say something! THIS ANIMAL HAS LOST HER HEAD! Speak through me, or through her, or through someone, but speak, God, speak! 

The Tiger delivers this monologue to the audience at the start of Act 2. The story of the little girl shows the human cost of the war, as she dies and half her face is blown off, as well as suggest the more compassionate side to the Tiger, who has largely been painted so far as a gruff predator. Most importantly, it introduces the idea of the topiary garden as a Garden of Eden-like space that the Tiger sees as a hopeful place, perhaps even suggesting the existence of God, an idea the Tiger will carry with him throughout the rest of the play until he meets Musa at the end. It also furthers his obsession and impatience with God’s nonpresence, which is a theme throughout the piece.

KEV: I’m just saying, Tommy, think about the physiology of the wrist! We are put together so well! And that Tiger tore off your hand in about two seconds! With just his mouth! How strong his jaws must be! How hungry he must have been! He just took it off and ate it. It’s amazing how quickly you can lose a part of yourself. I am glad I met you because you are a true friend. Your friend, Kev.

TOM: (Jumping up, shouting.) I’M NOT YOUR FRIEND! LEAVE ME ALONE! 

Kev and Tom have this exchange when Kev, now a ghost, visits Tommy at the office building, where he is soliciting a prostitute. It shows the start of Kev haunting Tom and, in Tom’s response, the guilt and anger he feels over Kev’s death and his actions that caused it. Kev’s statement about Tom’s hand and “los[ing] a part of yourself” also suggests the later conversation they have about how Tom, too, is “refracted” like Kev and the Tiger as a result of the events at the zoo, even though he, at this time, is still alive.

“You feel incomplete without your hand. You feel like you’re never going to be you again. And so you think, ‘Oh, okay, I’ll come back to Iraq and find my gold, and then I’ll be able to whack off again.’ But things don’t work out like that. Look at me: I thought I’d be in heaven by now, but I’m not. I don’t know where I am. I’m just a reverberation of what I used to be […] We all have a psycho problem now, Tommy. Me and the Tiger and you. And I’m gonna figure it out […] We’re broken, man. You, me, the Tiger. It’s like we fell through a prism that night at the zoo and each part of ourselves just separated.” 

Kev says this to Tom, when he and the Tiger visit Tom as ghosts after the Iraqi prostitute leaves. In a play mostly consisting of existential questions that go unanswered, Kev offers a sort of analysis of the two men and Tiger’s plights that unites them in their three, separate struggles, bringing together the multiple psychological storylines, even though Tom, unlike Kev and the Tiger, is still alive.

“You don’t know what is serious. You have no investment in this gun, it does not mean anything to you outside of the fact that it is gold. This gun has a history. But you, you’re looting so you have something, something to take home. Well, I don’t care about what you have to take home, Johnny.” 

Musa says this to Tom after Tom discovers Musa has his gold gun and Musa says he will only give it back if he receives weapons in return. It suggests a broader critique of the Americans’ selfish investment in the war, caring more about what they can get out of it than the history of the place and people they are destroying. On a more specific level, it also highlights Tom’s selfishness and obsession with wealth as a character. 

MUSA: What do you think I have to my name? A stupid job with the U.S. military? And what about when you all leave? What will I have then? I’ll have guns and bullets I can sell because that is the only thing worth anything. Is that so crazy?

TOM: Yeah, it’s crazy.

MUSA: I am tired, do you understand?! I am tired of making the same mistake OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. I always work for the wrong people. I always serve the tyrants. Not anymore. I am tired of being made a fool. 

Musa and Tom have this exchange as they continue to argue over the gold gun. It shows Musa’s shift as a character, as he finally snaps and acts in his own interests, rather than those of Uday and the Americans that he has worked for in the past. His statement that guns and bullets are “the only thing worth anything” also suggests the broader shifts that the Americans have caused in Iraq, in which Musa’s former livelihood of gardening has been upended by the war that now defines Iraq.

KEV: I know how it works, Man: You’re not gonna come down and explain everything to me. But I figure You’re out there, somewhere. I never expected to know so much. I never knew there was so much to know. And the very fact that I’m around? The very fact that I’m learning all these things? I gotta figure there’s something out there a little more important than just haunting Tommy. So what happens now, God? […]

TIGER: I’ll tell you what happens: God leans down just close enough and whispers into your ear: Go fuck yourself. And then he’s gone. (The Tiger holds some small, indistinguishable bloody carcass, his face is covered in blood.)

KEV: I thought you gave up killing animals.

TIGER: What? I was hungry. What’s He gonna do? Punish me more? I dare him. I dare him to come down and tell me what a bad Tiger I am? Please do it. Look, I tried. For a good two to three hours I was a vegetarian. But guess what? Vegetables taste like shit. We’re just stuck here, son. Mastodons in the tar pit of life-after-death. And I’m tired, and I’m not a saint, I’m just the biggest predatory cat in the entire fucking world. So I’m gonna kill something, and I’m gonna eat it and I’m gonna wave this bloody carcass in God’s face and tell him, You knew I was a Tiger when You made Me, motherfucker. 

Kev and the Tiger have this exchange as Kev starts praying to God, only to be interrupted by the Tiger. It illustrates the play’s themes about the limits of knowledge and religion, as both men question God and his intentions and expectations for them. It also shows how the two men differ: Kev still remains hopeful and ready to better himself for God, thinking that still being around must mean he has some sort of purpose and embracing the smarter man he’s become. The Tiger, meanwhile, has given up on trying to better himself and is once again resigned to his old ways, killing animals for food and openly daring God to challenge his predatory and perhaps sinful ways.

MUSA: (Points [the gun] at Tom.) You want the gun, but you lie to me. You want the gun, I want to leave.

TOM: DON’T YOU POINT THAT AT ME!

MUSA: (Stops pointing.) OR WHAT! WHAT WILL YOU DO NOW? WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO TO ME NOW?

TOM: I said we can leave when I get my— (Musa shoots Tom in the stomach.)

MUSA: Your toilet seat! You need a toilet seat! And you need your gold gun! And fuck you and your gold and your goddamn bullshit all the time! […]

TOM: Stop it…Stop it, please God, stop it…(Musa stands over Tom and puts the gun to Tom’s head.)

MUSA: Don’t pray to God. Don’t you pray to any God, you piece of shit, man. No God is going to hear you. Not out here. Not anymore…no God is going to…no God is…(Musa takes the gun away. He stars at Tom.) 

Musa and Tom have this exchange in the bombed-out building, after Tom reveals he is there for the gold toilet seat and not to give Musa the weapons he’s been demanding. It is a pivotal moment, as Tom gets shot and Musa is ultimately driven to the brink. This is the climax of Musa’s escalating anger, which will soon lead to guilt and shame about his actions, and also shows Tom having to finally answer for the selfish behavior he’s displayed throughout the play. It also furthers the play’s consideration of God by presenting two competing views of how the still-living consider religion in Iraq: To Tom, it is still a source of comfort and something to turn to in a moment of trauma, while Musa has given up on religion, believing that God has no presence in war-torn Iraq.

“No…no no no…I can’t believe I’m going to die. I can’t believe I’m going to die here. Out here in the middle of nowhere. I’m from Michigan. It’s shaped like a mitten. I was never supposed to die here.” 

Tom says to Kev as he realizes he is about to die after Musa shoots him. It is a rare moment of vulnerability for Tom, breaking down his confidence and swagger as he realizes he is fallible and mortal. It also shows the cost of the war even on the American soldiers, bursting Tom’s belief that, as a young, strong American, he was “never supposed to die here.” 

UDAY: Oh, Mansour! Uday is so PROUD! Stupid kid American. Ha! He suffered, Mansour. He died slowly in the desert all alone. And you know what the best thing? He called out for you! Begging you to come back and save him! He begged you! Ha! Fuck me, man, you’re good! That’s advanced: getting a man to beg you to come back to him after you’ve shot him!? And shot him why? Because he was annoying you! Because he wouldn’t shut up. I agree. Annoying people should all be shot and left to die. Because fuck them! Mansour. Oh, Mansour. Uday is so proud.

MUSA: You don’t know anything. It wasn’t supposed to happen. I didn’t want to kill him.

Uday and Musa have this exchange as Uday visits Musa in the topiary garden after Tom’s death. As Tom’s death happens offstage, it is important plot-wise for confirming his death, as well as once again highlighting how unrepentant Uday is for his sins. In contrast, the quote also shows how Musa is now feeling guilt and shame for his actions, which will consume him throughout the rest of the play.

“Your problem is this: The best thing you’ve ever done, in your entire life, was only possible because of me. Without Uday, you’re just a petty gardener. With Uday, on another hand, you’re the artist, building topiary, doing these great things. Because I wanted them. Because I employed you. Because I provided you with thousands of gallons of water in the middle of the fucking desert.” 

Uday says this to Musa after Musa attempts to give the gun back to Uday and protests he doesn’t want to kill anymore. It points out Musa’s central struggle as a character, as he fights for autonomy—only to commit terrible actions when he finally achieves it—while remaining haunted by the tyrants that, up until this point, have entirely enabled his existence and career.

UDAY: You could stay in this garden forever, man. Watching me and her, me and her, me and her…Is this what you want to see? Okay, man. Watch. I’m going to take her back there and make her into a topiary. This time, I’m going to wear a bib. Oh, one more thing…That boy you killed…He was the boy who killed me. Thank you, Mansour. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. (Uday exits with Hadia.)

MUSA: (To Uday, but to himself.) I will live with your voice, okay? I will live with it. It doesn’t matter, because my hands belong to me. And my hands have their own memory. And when I put them on a plant, they create something. They will create something.

Uday and Musa have this exchange after Hadia’s ghost appears and they start reenacting the memory of her death. It shows how Musa, like Kev and Tom, is being haunted by his past sins and actions; unlike them, Musa is now resolved to live with his guilt and move forward, creating something and becoming an artist once again. After struggling with how he’s beholden to his tyrannical employers, Musa asserts his autonomy and independence, though this time in a nobler way.

MUSA: Tell her I’m sorry. Tell her I’m not who she thought I was. Tell her I’ve done horrible things, and I…I don’t know what I’m going to do next. Tell her to forget about me. I’ve become a different man. (Musa puts the gun in his pants.)

TIGER: You’re not a man. You’re God.

MUSA: No, I am not.

TIGER: Yes, You are! I’ve been waiting for You. I’ve been waiting for You to speak.

MUSA: God has spoken. This world. This is what He’s said. 

Musa and the Tiger have this exchange after the Tiger comes upon Musa in the garden and mistakes him for God. It shows Musa’s guilt for his actions and the change he’s undergone, while also providing a somber and pessimistic final note to the Tiger’s quest for God, as the topiary garden (which the Tiger termed “God’s garden) remained his only source of hope for finding God and hearing him speak. It also offers a final alternate view of the many ideas of God that are presented throughout the play, suggesting that God is present in Iraq—he has just created the destruction, rather than being the savior everyone had hoped for.