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Beauchamp
Six months before the novel begins, Rob’s mother died of cancer, leaving behind Rob and Rob’s father. She was a kind, sensitive, and emotionally intelligent woman who encouraged Rob to feel his emotions and appreciate the beauty in the world, encouraging Rob to view pleasant and beautiful things through a religious lens. She had a way of interacting with her husband, who was occasionally prone to anger, and could almost always calm him down. Before her death, she taught Rob to whittle.
Rob’s Mother (Caroline) Quotes in The Tiger Rising
The The Tiger Rising quotes below are all either spoken by Rob’s Mother (Caroline) or refer to Rob’s Mother (Caroline) . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1 Quotes
Rob had a way of not-thinking about things. He imagined himself as a suitcase that was too full, like the one that he had packed when they left Jacksonville after the funeral. He made all his feelings go inside the suitcase; he stuffed them in tight and then sat on the suitcase and locked it shut. That was the way he not-thought about things. Sometimes it was hard to keep the suitcase shut. But now he had something to put on top of it. The tiger.
So as he waited for the bus under the Kentucky Star sign, and as the first drops of rain fell from the sullen sky, Rob imagined the tiger on top of his suitcase, blinking his golden eyes, sitting proud and strong, unaffected by all the not-thoughts inside straining to come out.
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Chapter 7 Quotes
“Please let me catch it,” she whispered.
“You won’t,” said Rob, surprised at her hand, how small it was and how warm. It made him think, for a minute, of his mother’s hand, tiny and soft. He stopped that thought. “It ain’t contagious,” he told her.
“Please let me catch it,” Sistine whispered again, ignoring him, keeping her hand on his leg. “Please let me catch it so I won’t have to go to school.”
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Chapter 10 Quotes
“I can tell you how to cure that,” said Willie May, pointing with her cigarette at his legs. “I can tell you right now. Don’t need to go to no doctor.”
“Huh?” said Rob. He stopped chewing his gum and held his breath. What if Willie May healed him and then he had to go back to school?
“Sadness,” said Willie May, closing her eyes and nodding her head. “You keeping all that sadness down low, in your legs. You not letting it get up to your heart, where it belongs. You got to let that sadness rise on up.”
“Oh,” said Rob. He let his breath out. He was relieved. Willie May was wrong. She couldn’t cure him.
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Chapter 14 Quotes
Then Rob remembered the name of the feeling that was pushing up inside him, filling him full to overflowing. It was happiness. That was what it was called.
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Chapter 16 Quotes
“Caroline,” Rob whispered into the darkness. “Caroline. Caroline. Caroline.” The word was as sweet as forbidden candy on his tongue.
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Chapter 22 Quotes
“Look, Rob, I have never in my life seen a prettier color of green. Ain’t it perfect?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, staring at the leaves. “It looks like the original green. The first one God ever thought up.”
His mother squeezed his hand hard. “That’s right,” she said. “The first one God ever thought up. The first-ever green. You and me, we see the world the same.”
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Chapter 29 Quotes
The whole way back to the Kentucky Star, Rob held on to Sistine’s hand. He marveled at what a small hand it was and how much comfort there was in holding on to it.
And he marveled, too, at how different he felt inside, how much lighter, as he had set something heavy down and walked away from it, without bothering to look back.
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Rob’s Mother (Caroline) Character Timeline in The Tiger Rising
The timeline below shows where the character Rob’s Mother (Caroline) appears in The Tiger Rising. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...the bus, thinking about the tiger instead of the itchy rash on his legs or his dead mother . Rob cried at her funeral and his father cried too—and then Rob’s father slapped...
(full context)
Chapter 4
...focuses on his drawing, but he wants to whittle the tiger instead of drawing it. His mother showed him how to whittle when she was sick, even though Rob’s father was afraid...
(full context)
Chapter 7
...start beating him up. He doesn’t want to talk to Sistine about “important things, like his mother or the tiger.”
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Chapter 8
...whittle. He intends to whittle the tiger, but instead, his hands and knife carve Sistine. His mother talked about how wood becomes what it wants to become, but Rob is still amazed....
(full context)
Chapter 9
...joins his father outside in the rain, which he doesn’t mind. (It was sunny at his mother ’s funeral, and now the sun just reminds Rob of trying not to cry that...
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Chapter 13
...the fancy clothes her mother forces her to wear. She tries to ask Rob about his mother , but he just shrugs at her and tells her to be quiet. They don’t...
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...care, but he remembers his dream and shouts for her to wait. He tells her his mother is dead, and with a nod, Sistine follows him back into the woods.
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Chapter 15
...suddenly unhappy—he knows the room will be dark. The world seemed light and bright when his mother was still alive, and he recalls the Christmas lights she hung up last year. Then,...
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Chapter 16
...then, a car pulls up. Sistine asks for Rob’s mother’s name, and he gives it: Caroline. She insists she’ll come back tomorrow so they can free the tiger.
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...mother lies. Rob watches mother and daughter drive away and stays sitting outside. He whispers his mother ’s name over and over, and it tastes “sweet” to him.
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Chapter 17
...resurface for Rob. He remembers his father standing in the yard with his gun, asking his mother if she thought he could hit a bird high up in the sky. Though she...
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Chapter 20
...head against the cage, and then, to Rob’s shock, she begins to sob. Remembering how his mother used to comfort him by putting a hand on the back of his neck and...
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Chapter 22
...to “teach [Beauchamp] a lesson.” Rob doesn’t know how to calm his father down, like his mother always did. So, Rob goes outside and sits under the Kentucky Star sign to whittle.
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...he’s too busy thinking about Sistine and his father. He remembers a time when he, his mother , and his father were lying outside under an oak tree. His mother remarked on...
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Chapter 23
...before opening them that she can tell exactly what Rob gave her. Rob explains that his mother taught him to whittle and says that his father told him to help Willie May...
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Chapter 28
...instead of his mother and demands his father say his mother’s name. Rob’s father whispers “Caroline,” and he repeats her name over and over. Rob hugs his father and says he...
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...he begins to cry. The tears feel like they’re coming from the place inside where his mother and the tiger used to be. He realizes his father is crying too, and Rob’s...
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Chapter 30
...puts medicine on Rob’s rash, he sings. When the song is done, he says that Caroline loved it. Then, he says that he’ll admit to shooting the tiger, but Rob has...
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