44 pages • 1 hour read
Tea ObrehtThe Tiger's Wife
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Natalia’s grandfather seems to be a completely unsuperstitious, irreligious man. Yet he bequeaths two powerful, mythical folktales to her: stories that have shaped the man he is. He chooses to relate his biography, his inheritance to her, in the form of folktales, rather than as straight autobiography. Why does he do this? What is Obreht saying about the power of such stories? How do they transcend or explain the human condition?
The Balkan wars of the 1990s are a backdrop of the entire novel, and the tiger’s wife story occurs as the Germans advance through Eastern Europe during World War II. What is Obreht saying about war and ethnic conflict?
Natalia does not learn the tiger’s wife story until after her grandfather’s death. What is the significance in his leaving the story of the tiger’s wife for her to find? What does he want her to learn about him? How does the tiger’s wife story change Natalia’s view of her grandfather?
A significant theme of this novel lies in the juxtaposition of science versus faith. What is the meaning of this opposition? Trace the development of this theme through the novel. Be sure to use examples from both Natalia’s present life and the grandfather’s past.
What is the significance of many major characters having no names? For example, the grandfather, the tiger’s wife, the blacksmith, the grandmother, and Natalia’s mother have no names or are referred to primarily through their relationship to others. What does it mean to have your name be chosen by another or by your role in life?
What is the significance of the grandfather being an orphan? Explain the similarities and differences between the novel’s orphans: the grandfather, the apothecary, and Dariša the Bear. How are their characters formed, or their views of the world shadowed, by their early life experience as orphans?
Choose a significant theme in the novel. How is your chosen theme demonstrated throughout the novel? What characters exemplify or explain your theme? How? Be sure to include at least three different characters, at least one from both Natalia’s present-day narrative and the grandfather’s past.
How are Natalia and her grandfather alike? How are they different? How do those differences cause conflict between them? What is Obreht saying about the nature of inheritance? Explain each character in terms of their relationship.
What do tigers symbolize in this novel? Be sure to include a substantial explanation of the grandfather’s relationship with tigers and what tigers symbolize in his life. Include at least two other views of tigers from among these characters: the tiger’s wife, Natalia, Galina’s villagers during the grandfather’s childhood, Galina’s villagers in the present, and the citizens of the city.
Consider this novel’s motif of secrets and lies. What is the primary role of secrets in this story? What are the results of lies and deception, or of secrets being revealed? How do both the story of the deathless man and the story of the tiger’s wife rely on secrets and deception?
