SANSKAAR INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

(Session 2022-2023)

A Tiger in the Zoo

Central Idea of A Tiger in the Zoo:

The poet shows his readers that a tiger is better suited to living in the wild rather than living in a zoo. In the wild, it
can roam freely and hunt as and when it requires food. It can approach human habitation and intimidate its
inhabitants, but will not harm them unless it is provoked. On the other hand, in the zoo, its radius of movement is
very small, it feels like a prisoner in a jail cell, it is fed by the zoo authorities and so it unlearns how to live by itself
and is made lazy. It does not appreciate humans coming to look at it. It cannot even sleep at night because it is angry
at being caged. All in all, the tiger lives an unnatural and unhappy life in the zoo.

Theme of A Tiger in the Zoo:

Tiger as a proud creature: In this poem, the poet shows how proud a creature the tiger is.In the wild, the tiger hunts
its own food all alone and without any help from others of its kind. The stealthy hunting of deer at the water hole
may seem cruel, but it is merely a survival strategy. Tigers hunt only when they need to eat. Moreover, this helps to
keep the food chain of the forest balanced and thus it keeps the ecosystem healthy as well.

Even when the tiger occasionally strays into human habitation, it only growls at the inhabitants but does not kill
them or harm them in any other way unless it is put under extreme provocation. In the zoo as well, the tiger’s pride
is noticeable to all. Hundreds of visitors flock to its cage every day, but it ignores them all, roaming about on its own.
However, in the reduced space of the cage, it cannot move freely. That is why the poet believes that all tigers should
live in the wild and none in the zoo. They are not really a danger to human life, and so they should not be confined.

Conservation of natural habitat: Zoos came up not only as a source of passing entertainment for man, but also
because forest lands are now hard to come by. Most of these lands have been cleared for agriculture or
industrialisation. As a result, many animals like the tiger have lost their natural habitat and have been forced to live
at zoos or travel as part of a circus. However, the poet shows that an animal is always more majestic when seen in its
natural habitat rather than in an artificial setting such as a zoo. In doing so, his message to readers is that we should
all strive to conserve the natural habitat of the earth’s animal life. We should plant trees and stop the activities of
hunters and poachers in order to make forests available and safe for the habitation of animals like the tiger.

Tone of the Poem A Tiger in the Zoo:

The tone of this poem is quite ambiguous. When the poet describes the setting of the zoo, his tone is one of regret
because he believes that this is not the kind of life that a tiger should be living. However, there is also a tone of
suppressed anger, of the same kind that the tiger feels at being caged. On the other hand, when the poet describes
the setting of the forest, the tone is one of admiration and awe at seeing the tiger in its natural habitat. In the last
stanza, the tone of regret returns as the poet describes how lack of effort and running ground in the day prevents
the tiger from sleeping at night. Only in the last two lines, the tiger’s defiance comes through and the poet makes it
seem that the tiger is issuing a challenge to all the worlds (symbolized by the stars in the sky) to produce something
as majestic as itself.

Poetic Devices:

Personification:Poet uses ‘He’ instead of ‘It’ for the tiger.

Metaphor: Metaphor in the 3rd line of the 1st stanza is used by poet when he compares the pads of the tiger’s feet
with velvet, since both are soft and smooth to the touch.

Metonymy: In this poem, the poet uses the device of metonymy in the 2nd line of the 4th stanza, he uses the word
“strength” to mean the body of the tiger.
Rhyme scheme:

Each of the five stanzas of “A tiger in the Zoo” follows the same simple rhyme scheme – ABCB.

Questions & Answers:

Q1. How does the tiger walk about in the cage? What are his emotions?

Ans. The tiger in the cage walks in a proud manner. He is in anger because he is shut in a small cell. He is helpless and
cannot come out.

Q2. Where should the tiger be?

Ans. The tiger should be in the jungle. He should be moving slowly in the log grass near a water hole to kill his prey.

Q3. How is the tiger in the cell? How does he react to the visitors?

Ans. The tiger is not comfortable in the cell. It is not his natural habitat. He is in anger also. He walks inside the cell
feeling uneasy and angry. He does not pay any attention to the visitor. He has no interest in them.

Q4. Where is the strength of the tiger and how does he treat the visitors?

Ans. The strength of the tiger is behind the bars. He is imprisoned in a cell. He takes no interest in the visitors.

Q5. How does the tiger feel in the cage?

Ans. The tiger is not comfortable in the cell. It is not his natural habitat. He is in anger also. He walks inside the cell
feeling uneasy and angry.

Q6. What message does the poem ‘A Tiger in the Zoo’ give? Or what is the central idea/theme of the poem?

Ans. The poem gives a message that we should not keep birds and animals in cages. We should not imprison them.
They should live in their natural habitats.

Q7. How does the tiger terrify the villagers?

Ans. If the tiger is in his natural habitat, he growls at the villagers who pass by that way. He also shows his fangs and
bright claws to the villagers to terrify them.

Q8. How does the poet contrast the tiger in the zoo with the tiger in the jungle?

Ans. The tiger in the zoo is not free. He feels uncomfortable in the limited space of the cell. The tiger in the zoo is
happy. He is free to move anywhere.

Q9. How does the tiger behave at night?

Ans. The patrolling cars create noise. The tiger in the cage just stares at the shining stars.

Q10. What should the tiger be doing if he were in the jungle?

Ans. He should be sitting near a water hole under long grass and waiting for some deer to come. He would jump to
kill the deer to make his food.

Q11. What should the tiger be doing if he were at the edge of the jungle?

Ans. He should be terrorising the villagers by roaring and showing his fangs.

Q12. Why does the tiger ignore the visitors?

Ans. The tiger is not happy. He is imprisoned in the cage. He feels uneasy, angry and uncomfortable in the café, he
needs freedom. So he has no interest in the visitors.
Q.13. Love for freedom is the natural instinct of every living being. Comment in the context of A Tiger in the
Zoo.

Ans. It is rightly said that the love for freedom is the natural instinct of every living being. Everyone loves
freedom and does not want to live in confinement (captivity). Similarly, the tiger also longs for freedom. He
wants to escape his captivity. He is so fed up of being caged that he even ignores the visitors. He takes to
and fro steps in the cage. It is his right to enjoy his natural habitat i.e. the forest and run freely in the wild.
So,he should not be caged. God has made all living beings equal and thus, the animals too have the right to
freedom. We should, thus, respect their freedom and should not put them in the zoo.