67 pages • 2 hours read
Kate DiCamilloThe Tiger Rising
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
One foggy, gray morning before school, Rob walks through the woods behind the Kentucky Star Motel where he lives. To his surprise, Rob discovers a tiger in a cage. The tiger is “orange and gold and so bright it was like staring at the sun itself” (2). Rob runs home. As Rob waits for the school bus under the blue and yellow Kentucky Star sign, he thinks about the tiger. Focusing on the tiger keeps Rob from thinking about unhappy things in his life, like the red rash on his legs, the two bullies on his school bus, and his mother, who died six months ago. At her funeral, Rob cried so hard he couldn’t stop, and his father slapped him: Rob hasn’t cried since. He and his father moved away from Jacksonville to Lister, Florida. Now, Rob keeps his feelings and “not-thoughts” (4) shut up tightly inside as if they’re crammed in a locked suitcase.
Chapter 2 Summary
Norton and Billy Threemonger begin to bully Rob the minute he gets on the school bus. They call him “Kentucky Star” (5), make fun of the rash on his legs, and shove him. Norton gives him a noogie, and Billy punches him in the arm. Rob offers no resistance. He stays quiet, hoping the boys will get bored and quit. Rob does not cry, even though the boys hurt him. Today, he feels especially empowered by the thought of the tiger. Mr. Nelson, the bus driver, ignores the bullying. He brings the bus to an unexpected stop, and a new girl “with yellow hair and a pink lacy dress” (7) gets onboard.
Chapter 3 Summary
Rob is surprised by the girl’s outfit, which is nothing like what the other kids wear to school. Norton and Billy make fun of her dress. The girl stands her ground and declares that her name is Sistine, after the Sistine Chapel in Italy. She has a “sharp nose and a sharp chin, and black, black eyes” (9). Rob watches her silently. She testily asks what he’s looking at. The brothers stop bothering Rob and move to sit behind Sistine. Rob thinks about pictures of the Sistine Chapel that he has seen in a book the school librarian lets him look at as a reward for being quiet in the library. On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is a picture of God tagging Adam as if they are playing a game and Adam is “it” (10). Rob thinks about God, Adam, the new girl, and the tiger instead of more painful things.
Chapter 4 Summary
Rob discovers that Sistine is in his homeroom class. He keeps his head down and starts to draw a picture of the tiger while his teacher, Mrs. Soames, asks Sistine to introduce herself. The rest of the class stares at Sistine like she is an alien. Sistine announces that her full name is Sistine Bailey, that she is from Philadelphia, that people in the South are “ignorant” (11), and that she’ll be gone in a week when her father comes to pick her up. Mrs. Soames drily suggests Sistine sit down before she embarrasses herself further. The class laughs, and Sistine sticks her tongue out at Rob even though he was the only one who didn’t laugh. Rob would like to make a carving of the tiger out of wood. He remembers his mother teaching him how to whittle when she was sick. Mrs. Soames tells Rob he is wanted in the principal’s office. On the way to the door, a boy trips Rob, and Sistine gives Rob an angry look.
Chapter 5 Summary
Mr. Phelmer is the school principal. His office is dark, small, and decorated with “certificates and diplomas and thank-you letters” (15). Mr. Phelmer tells Rob he is worried about him. From past visits, Rob knows Mr. Phelmer worries that Rob is not doing well in school and not relating to other students. Rob does not look at Mr. Phelmer. This time, Mr. Phelmer is worried about the rash on Rob’s legs. He asks if Rob is using the medicine from his Jacksonville doctor. Mr. Phelmer tells Rob that other parents are worried that Rob is contagious. Mr. Phelmer suggests that Rob stay home until the rash clears up. He writes a note for Rob’s father. Rob puts the note in his pocket next to his picture of the tiger. Rob is happy he will not have to go to school anymore because he knows a secret: “[H]is legs would never clear up” (17).
Chapters 1-5 Analysis
In these first five chapters, DiCamillo introduces the reader to Rob and begins to establish several of the novel’s important themes, including coping with grief and emotions. The death of Rob’s mother affects his personality. Forced by his father to hide his grief, Rob has become a “not-crier” (6). He keeps his emotions and sorrow, and any thoughts that may lead to those feelings, tightly compartmentalized. Rob recognizes this about himself and actively imagines and works at suppressing emotions. Rob believes that the tiger is something special and secret that he can use to mentally stave off other thoughts. Although, when Rob draws the tiger, it leads him to a memory of his mother teaching him to whittle.
Rob is a loner in school. He is withdrawn and does not communicate with others. He keeps his head down, drawing rather than actively listening in class. We know that others consider him strange when Rob realizes Sistine is “somebody even stranger than he was” (8). Rob’s silence and his rash contribute to his otherness and make him an object of derision: Classmates call him “disease boy” (9) and “retard” (13). Rob passively endures abuse, and the only emotion he publicly releases is a smile when he knows he is “free” from school and contact with his peers (17).
Adults don’t offer Rob much support either, responding to Rob with different ways of silencing him. Mr. Nelson consciously disregards Rob’s suffering on his bus, whistling tunelessly to block out the bullying. Mr. Phelmer thinks it better that Rob stay out of school; effectively further silencing Rob by removing his presence. All we know of Rob’s father so far is that he, too, tried to quiet Rob by stopping him from crying, which results in Rob hiding his emotions.
The power of art to affect and convey emotion is another theme that will develop over the course of the novel and is tied to the motif of color. Lister, Florida is gray, rainy, and colorless—mirroring Rob’s feelings. The only spots of color in Rob’s life come from the neon blue and yellow Kentucky Star Motel sign, the blazing golden tiger, and Sistine’s dramatically pink dress. Each of these elements will have a powerful emotional effect on Rob. Similarly, Rob is affected by the images in the library’s art book, which make him “feel cool and sweet inside, like a drink of water on a hot day” (10). Rob’s mother tells him that Rob’s “hands knew” how to whittle (13), suggesting Rob has an innate artistic talent.
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By Kate DiCamillo
