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Chapter 6
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Tiger Rising, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Freedom and Consequences
Emotion, Repression, and Healing
Friendship and Support
Good, Evil, and Balance
Religion, Beauty, and Wonder
Summary
Analysis
To Rob’s shock, Sistine sits down next to him on the bus home. She says she hates it here, where nobody knows about the Sistine Chapel. Rob insists he knows about the Sistine Chapel and describes the painting on its ceiling. Then, not sure why, he tells Sistine he doesn’t have to come back to school because people are concerned his rash is contagious. Sistine puts a hand on Rob’s leg, whispering that she hopes to catch it—ignoring Rob saying that the rash is “just me,” not an illness. Then, when Sistine learns that Rob lives in a motel, she offers to bring him his homework. He declines and is glad when Norton and Billy start beating him up. He doesn’t want to talk to Sistine about “important things, like his mother or the tiger.”
Rob doesn’t say so outright, but he seems to connect with Sistine in part because of the positive feelings he already has about the Sistine Chapel, her namesake. She clearly thinks it’s very important too, though she’s snobby about it. Then, while Rob’s rash has distanced him from most of his classmates, in a surprising—and somewhat humorous—turn of events, Sistine pays Rob positive attention exactly because of his rash. Though Rob finds himself somehow drawn to Sistine, he’s not used to opening up to another person right now. And so, he welcomes Norton and Billy’s abuse, as it allows him to stay isolated and keep his difficult, “important” thoughts and emotions inside.
Active
Themes
