Tiger's Wife Book Term Paper

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Tiger Wife

The opening passage of Tea Obrecht's novel The Tiger's Wife is one of its most compelling, and draws the reader into the unique narrative. With the line, "the forty days of the soul begin on the morning after death," Obrecht could be resorting to a maudlin bit of poetic license. Instead, the author continues the existential description and thereby sets the stage for the tone and themes of the entire novel. By beginning with imagery of death, Obrecht welcomes the reader to ponder the meaning of life. A juxtaposition of life and death haunts the reader from the first paragraph. However, there are more juxtapositions that await the reader and which are foreshadowed in this early passage. The narrator states that the living "know that, at daybreak, the soul will leave them and make its way to the places of its past." In addition to the juxtaposition of life and death, soul and body, is added the juxtaposition of past, present, and future. Therefore, the opening passage signals one of the main themes of the novel, that continuity and change coexist in the human experience.

Binaries are key to understanding The Tiger's Wife, which is why the opening passage is filled with an exploration of how opposites characterize human perception. The node of juxtaposition hinges mainly on binaries like "difficulties and unbridled happiness," as well as "love and guilt." All human beings experience these types of polar opposites in their life, which is why the author is able to weave a story through multiple generations while retaining core themes.

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Historical situations change, social norms change, but human perception, cognition, joy and suffering do not change. Throughout multiple generations, such as the ones we meet as we read The Tiger's Wife, human beings all must die.

Therefore, the reader learns that multigenerational wisdom, continuity, and change permeates the pages of The Tiger's Wife, too. After the opening passage and its exploration of death, life, and binaries, the narrator grounds the narrative by referring to her grandparents. Grandparents symbolize a bygone generation. However, grandparents also represent wisdom and an understanding of history. Superstitions, such as those related to the proverbial forty days of the soul that offers the opening imagery for the novel, are also deeply rooted in the past. By exploring the past with grandparents, it becomes possible to understand the present and possibly transform the future. Throughout generations there is continuity of culture and core human values; but change is also inevitable. This is why the opening passage of The Tiger's Wife is remarkable. Obrecht is able to show that change and continuity occur simultaneously and that death is a counterpart of life and integral to it.

Given the setting of the novel, the author does want the reader to better understand Balkan culture and history….....

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