The Tiger Rising

Opinionated Sistine has a loud, “gravelly and deep voice” (8) and “defiant stance” (45). Sistine is blonde, with a pointy nose and chin, “black, black eyes” (9), and “skinny legs” (29). Like Rob, Sistine is an outsider, new to the town of Lister. She announces in school that she is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and hates the South and all the uneducated people in it. Her superior attitude, unusual outfits, and her readiness to fight quickly alienate her in school. Sistine wishes to be with her estranged father, who she asserts will rescue her from Lister and life with her “liar” mother (61). Sistine is proud, and unlike Rob, has no problem standing up for herself. She holds her head high (19), enunciates loudly and clearly, and marches with her arms swinging rather than walking (55).

Sistine’s assertive personality is motivated partially by feelings of loss and anger. She has a chip on her shoulder: She admits that she wants to fight and sometimes initiates fights (94). Her fighting and scorn are ways Sistine releases her emotions. Like Rob, Sistine is also dealing with a loss in her family: Her parents, after having been in love for so long, are no longer together. Her father’s affair was a betrayal of love, trust, and family. Deep down, Sistine knows that her father is not coming to get her, but she denies this truth. Yet Sistine doesn’t like dishonesty, or injustice. Sistine dislikes Rob telling her to be quiet. She wants Rob to verbalize and share his feelings with her. She doesn’t like secrets (48). Sistine has a direct but short-term approach to problems. She is determined to release the tiger without giving significant thought to long-term consequences.

Like Rob, Sistine has a deep appreciation for beauty and art. She surprises Rob when she admires the carving he made of her: Instead of being angry at how he portrayed her, Sistine appreciates the likeness, showing she is grounded and confident. Rob appreciates how Sistine’s voice softens when she observes beauty, like the tiger and Rob’s carvings.

Like his son, Robert buries his grief deep down inside himself. Robert misses Caroline as much as Rob. The two loved each other deeply, evidenced by the joy they took in singing together, and the happiness Rob felt when the three were together. Robert is protective of Caroline when she is ill in bed, and finally admits to Rob, “I wouldn’t never have believed that I could miss somebody the way I miss her” (119). When both Robert and Rob cry at Caroline’s funeral, this prompts Robert to slap Rob, as much to suppress his own tears as Rob’s (3).

Caroline’s death changes Robert. His happiness changes to anger and silence. Rob tells Sistine that he and Robert left Jacksonville to “get on with things” (59), and that they are staying at the Kentucky Star “until we get back on our feet” (23), but Robert and Rob really left Jacksonville to get away from their now-painful memories of Caroline. Neither Rob nor Robert talk about Caroline: Robert tells Rob that it won’t bring Caroline back, and Rob shouldn’t speak of her. This approach leads to their unresolved, repressed grief.

On the surface, Robert’s personality seems to be the opposite of Rob’s. While they both share silence and bury their emotions, Robert is gruff and not deeply empathetic: He doesn’t see a problem with needlessly shooting the little bird. He believes that the only solution to Rob’s problems with the bullies is to fight them (27). DiCamillo uses strong adjectives to describe Robert: He has “big” fingers (26), “heavy” hands (88), “big feet” (29), and when angry, the “cords in his neck” stand out (86). Robert does not have Caroline’s bird-like delicacy. He values his manliness: Robert is a hard worker and a provider, both qualities he feels Beauchamp disrespects. We can infer that Robert does not have a lot of education: He must concentrate to read the letter from Mr. Phelmer, does not use the word contagious to describe Rob’s rash—a word both Rob and Sistine know—and is working a blue collar job as a maintenance man.

Despite their differences, Robert loves Rob: He sacrifices to provide for him, going without dinner even though he is hungry. He shoots the tiger to protect his son. His large hands are gentle when he applies Rob’s medicine. Out of love for Rob, Robert vows to let the memories of Caroline back into their lives, and the sun comes out.

Tall, fierce, loving, and wise, Willie May is Rob’s only friend until he meets Sistine. Rob admires Willie May. She is beautiful to him, with her glasses and smooth dark face, “like a beautiful piece of wood,” and her “long nose and high cheekbones and slanted eyes” (35). Willie May smells comfortingly of licorice gum and cigarette smoke (38). Although she can be prickly, Rob sees that Willie May’s hand “is big enough to hold the entire world” (64), and her heart is equally as large. She comforts Sistine like a baby when the tiger is shot and betrays their secret about the tiger for their safety.

Willie May dislikes her job as the Kentucky Star’s housekeeper. She doesn’t enjoy cleaning up after people who show her no respect. When she tells Rob he must stay in school, she infers that she dropped out and now is trapped in a job nobody wants. She confides that she has been angry much of her life, and we gather that her life has been hard: that she speaks from experience when she tells Sistine, “Sometimes right don’t count” (99). Willie May believes in God. She sees God’s power in the fierceness of the tiger—reflecting the theme of Blake’s “The Tyger” (98). Willie May also sees God at work in the funny and fitting way He brought Sistine and Rob together (83).

Sistine calls Willie May a prophetess because she so accurately assesses Sistine’s angry personality and gives her advice to rescue herself—advice that Sistine knows is appropriate. Because she tells the truth and knows more about life and people than even Mr. Phelmer with all his certificates, Rob believes that Willie May is the perfect mouthpiece for God. Willie May scoffs at Mr. Phelmer for thinking that Rob’s rash is contagious, saying, “I bet he ain’t got no certificate for sense though” (37-38). Down-to-earth sense and life experience give Willie May her wisdom.

Beauchamp, the owner of the Kentucky Star Motel, is the novel’s antagonist. He has “orange hair and an orange beard and a permanent toothpick in the side of his mouth” (67). He flamboyantly displays his apparent wealth, like his bright jeep and gold chains. He swaggers and shouts. All these actions reveal Beauchamp’s immaturity and inflated ego. Beauchamp divulges that he is still tied to his mother’s apron strings. Rob initially thinks that Beauchamp must be incredibly rich, but Rob’s father scoffs: He knows Beauchamp owns nothing but “one itty-bitty motel now. And the woods. He just likes to pretend he’s rich is all” (28). Beauchamp boasts hollowly about upcoming “deals” (68) and has vague “big plans” (69). We infer that he no longer has much money: He pays Willie May and Rob’s father a pittance for all the work he expects from them.

Beauchamp’s view of manhood differs from that of Rob’s father. Rob’s father shows his manliness by providing and sacrificing for his family. To Beauchamp, manliness is something you flaunt through status and possessions. Beauchamp tries to make Rob feel important and “manly” about keeping his secret about the tiger (104), even though it is cowardly of Beauchamp, rather than manly, to give a young boy a job he is afraid to do. Beauchamp also has a condescending view of women. When he meets Sistine, Beauchamp assumes she is Rob’s girlfriend, and that Rob was out “chasing girls”—something Beauchamp approves of. Sistine senses his chauvinistic attitude when she “sweetly” (104) tells him her name is Sissy, a name she dislikes and does not answer to.