The Tiger Rising

In this section, we learn more about Sistine. She presents a tough exterior, walking with her “head held high” (19) and ready to fight on her first day of school. Sistine tells Rob to “[g]o away” (20) when he intervenes, suggesting she likes to fight her own battles. She also prefers to confront conflict directly rather than running away from it, which she advises Rob he should never do (23). Sistine is intelligent: She knows about artwork in the Sistine Chapel and the definition of the word contagious, but she also has a superior attitude toward everyone—the kids at school, the teachers, the whole town, and the entire South. Even though she initiates the conversation on the bus with Rob, she is combative: Sistine “sneers” at Rob and tells him to “shut up” (23, 24). Nonetheless, the two are on the way to becoming friends. Already they have two things in common: They are both new to Lister, and they both dislike the school. Friendship will become a major theme in The Tiger Rising.

Rob finds himself opening up to Sistine despite his “policy” of not talking and her prickly nature (23). He not only verbally defends Sistine from the other children at school but can’t seem to stop talking to her: “He opened his mouth and the words fell out, one on top of the other, like gold coins” (23). Sistine’s hand on Rob’s leg prompts a memory of his mother’s hand, and Rob is relieved when the Threemonger brothers painfully interrupt Rob before he can spill “important things” that are too personal to talk about (25). Rob’s unwillingness to confront issues head-on is evident again in this avoidance of talking to Sistine about his mother and the tiger, his relief at being excused from school, and even in the fact that he must stay inside during the rain and cannot go look for the tiger. If the tiger were gone, Rob would have to face another loss. Similarly, Rob denies himself hope and wishes, which he keeps in his “suitcase” (31). He feels like the neon Kentucky Star sign is like a shooting star, but he doesn’t dare wish on it, because wishes raise false hopes.

We get to know more about Rob’s father in these chapters, and the theme of familial love begins to emerge. We learn that Rob and his father don’t have a lot of money. Rob tells Sistine that he and his father are only staying at Kentucky Star “until we get back on our feet” (23), inferring that they’re having financial trouble. Rob’s father comments that he doesn’t want to waste Rob’s medicine because “it cost too much” (28). Rob contrasts their situation with Beauchamp, who he believes must be the “richest man in the world” (28). Rob doesn’t complain about their living conditions, or about the mediocre macaroni his father cooks for dinner. Rather, Rob lies and says the food is good, and his father lies and says he is not hungry, even though his stomach rumbles “as if he was the hungriest man in the world” (29). These lies reveal Rob’s and his father’s love for each other: Rob pretends in order to not hurt his father’s feelings, and his father sacrifices to let Rob have more of the meager dinner. These lies also show that both father and son are accustomed to repressing the truth and their emotions.

Like Rob, Rob’s father also denies his grief about the loss of his wife. When he begins to whistle a song that both he and his wife used to sing together, he stops halfway through with a curse. His voice when he speaks to Rob is “hard” (34). Rob’s father finds the memory too painful to think about. Willie May believes that Rob’s rash is a result of this same denial, of keeping his grief “down low” (37), instead of letting it rise to his heart. The power of words, like art, to convey emotion is evident in Rob’s admiration of the rhythm of Willie May’s advice, which he likens to a poem (38). The constant rain and cloudy grayness help keep Rob and his father’s grief and memories locked away. Rain, and its opposite, sunshine, form an ongoing motif supporting the theme of confined emotions and their eventual release.