Introduction
At times an author’s work might actually snatch up the interest of a reader with only its first few words and then drag such a reader forward without any mercy. One book that fulfills this is “The Tiger’s Wife” by Tea Obreht. The starting paragraph of this award winning novel hooks a reader. Every reader is in a position to be consumed and conflicted at the same time struggling to make a decision on whether to sit through to its end or just relax and savor it. The author’s style can be described as most interesting since it encourages us to continue reading this novel rather than put it aside to sleep or for a break. Obreht through her writing skills narrates the story in this novel so simply and naturally, that no barriers exist between the character’s humanity and the reader. At the same time, the structure of this book is intricate and plenty of meandering, interconnected content is present. Obreht in a knowledgeable way brings out various themes in the novel fear being one of them. Fearing is something that is normal to every human being and together with pain, they are immediate.
The protagonist in the novel is Natalia. She is one of the characters who the author utilizes in bringing out this theme. Natalia’s search to know the truth concerning her grandfather’s death is essentially interwoven with memories of him and colorful stories that he told her, specifically the stories about his WWII era when the tiger from Belgrade Zoo runaway and visited Galina, his village. We are told that fear and roaming tiger rumor spread among the residents in the village. The other instance of fear in this novel is when Natalia’s grandfather tells her a story about a deathless man. This man underwent a curse, which prevented him from dying. We recognize that this deathless man shared various encounters with this grandfather throughout their lives. For that reason, the presence of curse indicates fear in the village.
The village has fear of the unknown as it is proved by superstition and mythology. The following quote from the book proves this “We're all entitled to our superstitions.” Tiger’s wife comes as a symbol of the fear that these villagers have about the unknown. The only reaction, which they have for this situation is to destroy her. In addition, the author essentially takes an approach that is light in bending vulnerable myth of cursed man with the immorality to her purposes. For one, this is through giving deathless man supporting instead of leading role. As mentioned, Natalia learns from the interactions of her grandfather the lesson of optimism in death. Additionally, the main problem with the death, in the author telling is that individuals are always worried that they missed a thing that would in fact have prolonged their lives. This deathless man actually proves that there is no need for death to be feared. The quote that proves this is “death should be celebratedwhen you put something in the ground you always know where it is” Thus, this presents another instance of fear in the novel and shows that there was no need to fear death.
However, the fear that is experienced in the village is not perpetuated in the present-day village. We observe that this fear is mainly contributed by mythology and superstition. In the contemporary village, people do not believe in these traditional beliefs hence the fear that results from them is not essentially perpetuated. Fear is an inborn part of the humanity. This is because every normal human being can get scared. Fear is therefore a characteristic that we are born with. The character who is removed from the fear is the grandfather. We are told that he shares various encounters with a deathless man who is feared by the other villagers.
