Tears of a Tiger

In the midst of Andy’s ongoing emotional struggles, Draper introduces a stand-alone chapter focusing on the views of his teachers as they discuss their various students. In this exchange, it soon becomes clear that systemic racism continues to impact the Hazelwood High School community, reflecting The Harm of Societal Racism at large. Most significantly, Andy’s teachers correlate his failing grades with his racial background, and by extension, the teachers must also apply this egregiously racist outlook to the entire Black population of Hazelwood High. Blinded by their own prejudices, the teachers refuse to consider the possibility that Andy’s academic difficulties stem from his ongoing internal crisis. Instead of trying to understand Andy, they accept his failure as inevitable and make no further effort to understand him.

This section of the novel details the apparent collapse of all of Andy’s remaining supports, both socially and scholastically. Despite his growing inner turmoil, Andy continues to pretend that he is adjusting well by portraying the version of himself that everyone expects to see, and nobody except Keisha recognizes his internal pain. However, although she can see beyond Andy’s mask because he discards it in her presence, she still fails at Recognizing a Mental Health Crisis to its fullest extent and does not know enough to take more direct action and intervene on his behalf. Instead, her understandable need to step away from the intensity of Andy’s grief and guilt only serves to accelerate his decline. Additionally, Andy’s mom also contributes to his growing sense of isolation and despair, for when he turns to her as an alternative to Keisha’s support and attempts to describe the gravity of his turmoil, she fails to fully grasp the implications of his drowning metaphor. Believing his emotions to be a normal expression of grief, she does not recognize his suicidal ideation for what it is, and in this way, Draper portrays yet another missed opportunity to halt the progression of Andy’s descent into isolation and despair. The author also emphasizes the deeply personal nature of Andy’s distress, for those who have not experienced this level of depression and guilt are simply unequipped to help him, no matter how much he wants them to. Likewise, Andy’s father focuses on his own pride in Andy’s academic success and refuses to see that Andy is failing at school not because he is being irresponsible, but because he no longer sees a reason to live. Father and son are irrevocably separated by two very different perspectives, and Andy’s father cannot help him despite having the best intentions.

However, even now Andy’s journey is not yet over. He still wants to live and reaches out to the last person he trusts: Dr. Carrothers. However, when he discovers that Dr. Carrothers is currently unavailable, the final pillar in Andy’s imperfect support system collapses, and he has no one to turn to. In this moment, Dr. Carrothers unavailability can be interpreted as being somewhat contrived on Draper’s part, for her ultimate goal is to portray the complete and utter lack of support that Andy is left with in this critical moment. However, although the circumstances of the narrative must necessarily contain an element of artificiality, it is not unreasonable to assume that a real-life crisis of this type could play out in a similar fashion. Deprived of the help he so desperately needs, Andy ultimately succumbs to his darkest impulses and takes his own life, seeing no other way out of his predicament.