2012
the college of arts and science
new york university
Relationship and Responsibility
What is the College of Arts and Science
Freshman Dialogue?
The Freshman Dialogue is a chance to unify the class
around a common activity, and to introduce students to
the rich intellectual and cultural life of the College, the
University, and the city. Over the summer, all first-year
students read a text chosen to explore a particular theme;
when they arrive in August, they participate in discussion
groups, talk about the book in cohort meetings, and attend
lectures related to the common reading.
This Year’s Dialogue: Relationship and Responsibility
What do humans owe to one another? To animals? To
nations? What do men owe to women? Doctors to patients?
Parents to children, and children to parents? Téa Obreht’s
novel The Tiger’s Wife raises these questions by showing
us what happens when a young doctor named Natalia undertakes a humanitarian
aid project in a neighboring nation, while also trying to uncover the mysterious
circumstances surrounding her grandfather’s death. Her individual actions play out
against a backdrop of major historical shifts, violence, and family dramas. She also
interweaves stories of folklore and myth about the relationships between animals and
humans to illustrate how narrow the border is between civilization and chaos, and how
hard it is to tame the wild beasts of violence, war, and hatred. At the center of the novel is the relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter,
a mysterious and powerful friendship that transcends generational barriers and
energizes the life of the narrator. What cements their love and respect for each other is
storytelling: the grandfather shares with Natalia the two stories that seem to bookend
his life, and the stories themselves are about relationships. In one story, the grandfather
meets “the deathless man,” a person who claims to be the nephew of Death and
therefore can never die. His gift is to arrive at the moment of someone’s death to
announce it—but in Obreht’s novel, which draws on Eastern European folktales about
a deathless grim reaper, this messenger from the underworld decides not to let people
know of their imminent demise. The novel asks: why not tell people about their deaths?
Is there a human responsibility to know, or is ignorance what enriches our lives?
The other story the grandfather shares with Natalia is his childhood experience with
the tiger’s wife. When a tiger escapes from a zoo during World War II and makes its
way to his distant mountain village, the threat he poses makes the villagers crazy with
dread and anxiety, causing them to turn on any outsiders. One such victim of their
ignorance and violence is a young deaf-mute who had been forced into marriage to
the village butcher. The young woman seems to have a primal connection to this wild
beast, raising the question: is the tiger a symbol of the violence within or without? Do
we all possess the power to kill, and would we, without the veneer of civilization to
stop us? And what happens when humans cross the boundaries of civilization, like a
tiger escaped from a zoo—do families, and then nations, fall apart?
Readers also must walk with Natalia herself as she searches out remote towns across
the new border to look for clues to her grandfather’s mysterious death, and we follow
her nighttime wanderings as she looks for the deathless man. Her motives for following
him are rooted in her desire to help the roaming, impoverished villagers of a nearby
town, who are all sick with an unexplained illness. Is Natalia’s journey another form of
boundary-crossing? What are the costs or benefits to crossing a border to help people
who don’t want your assistance? And does one have a responsibility to people “not
one’s own”?
This wandering, elusive narrative, told in multiples voices and across eras, can be
magical and exhilarating, as well as obscure and confusing, a little like the folktales
upon which it is based. Never giving us details, always skirting the border of reality and
myth, the novel does not hope to educate us about the history of Obreht’s homeland—
the former Yugoslavia, a nation that no longer exists—as much as awaken in us a
curiosity to know more.
2012
Reader’s Guide
Whether you’ve already read the novel or are about to crack the spine, this reader’s
guide is intended to help you enjoy this novel, and to help you decode some of its
hidden meanings. Two things to keep in mind as you read: 1) This is a historical novel,
and it tests the limits of fiction and reality, even as its characters, places and events
bear resemblances to real people, places or events. “Sarobor,” for example, hints at
the Bosnian town of Mostar; 2) The particular historical context of this novel is recent,
and still being unearthed and wrestled with, by politicians, diplomats, historians, and
literary scholars.
One last thing: this guide does contain spoilers; if you want to read the novel first,
then the guide can enhance your understanding of it once you’ve finished.
1. You will encounter a cast of characters with complex interrelations.
For ease of reference, we list them here.
THE NARRATORS AND THEIR COMPANIONS
NATALIA STEFANOVIĆ — narrator; a physician who travels to Croatia to treat children
orphaned in the war
THE GRANDFATHER — raised in a village during World War II; also a physician, he loses
his position at a medical college in the 1990s because his loyalties to Serbia are suspect
THE GRANDMOTHER — a Bosnian Muslim
ZÓRA — Natalia’s childhood friend, also a physician, who makes the trip to Croatia with
her; at the end of novel, she is living in Zurich with her son
GAVRAN GAILÉ — the “deathless man,” Death’s nephew, who visits when Death is near;
Gailé and the grandfather meet for the first time in the 1950s during a tuberculosis
outbreak, again in the 1970s, and again in the 1990s, on the evening before the siege
of Sarobor
In BREJEVINA (2000s)
FRA ANTUN — Franciscan monk who runs the orphanage
BARBA IVAN and NADA — Fra Antun’s father (a fisherman) and Nada, his mother, who
give Natalia and Zóra a place to stay
THE DIGGERS — a Serbian family trying to locate the remains of a cousin hastily interred
in Ivan and Nada’s vineyard during the war; they believe that the man’s unsettled spirit
is causing illness in their children
ARLO — Fra Antun’s brother, killed in the war
In GALINA (1940s)
THE TIGER — flees Belgrade zoo in chaos of Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941
MOTHER VERA — Natalia’s grandfather’s grandmother, who raises him
LUKA — butcher, erstwhile folksinger, cheated into marrying his true love’s sister, a
deaf-mute, whom he beats savagely; mysteriously disappears
THE TIGER’S WIFE — Luka’s mistreated wife; she secretly feeds the tiger and the
villagers say that the child she is carrying belongs to it
THE APOTHECARY (real name KASIM SULEIMANOVIĆ) — as a child, survives Ottoman
assault on the monastery where he is being raised; after years of making a living by
fortune-telling, settles in Galina and becomes apothecary; murders the tiger’s wife
DARIŠA THE BEAR — a hunter and taxidermist who tries and fails to kill the tiger
2. Historical Background, in brief sketch:
WORLD WAR I, the GREAT WAR (1914–1914) — caused by multiple factors, including
rising nationalism. The Central Powers (the German Empire; the Ottoman Empire;
Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria) fought against the Allied Powers (France; Great Britain;
Italy; the Russian Empire, and the US). The Allies won; the German Empire, Ottoman
Empire and Austria-Hungary were dissolved and succeeded by numerous nationstates, including Yugoslavia, created out of former Ottoman and Austrian territories.
WORLD WAR II (1939–1945) — was, of course, caused by Nazi Germany’s bid for the
domination of Europe. Germany invaded Yugoslavia in 1941, having already defeated
France, and with most of central Europe under its control. Yugoslav partisans, led by
communist Tito (“the Marshall,” in The Tiger’s Wife), resisted; others collaborated with
the Nazis. A communist regime took power at war’s end.
continued
2012
YUGOSLAV WARS (1991–1995, 1998–2001) — caused by opposition of the central
government in Belgrade, which had come under the sway of Serbian nationalists over
the course of the 1980s, to the secession of Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina,
and the independence of Kosovo.
3. Questions of Literary Interpretation
You will all bring varying degrees of skill at interpreting literary forms to the reading of
this novel, but your time in the Dialogue and in the College will shape and test those
skills at close reading.
Close reading of novels should always begin with a set of questions:
a. Who is speaking? This novel is mostly narrated by Natalia Stefanović, the young
doctor. But there are three narrative threads that she brings together: the story of
her search for clues about her grandfather’s death; the story of the deathless man,
told to her by her grandfather; and the story of the tiger’s wife, also told to her by
her grandfather, but narrated in the story by a third person narrator.
b. Do we know where we are situated, or is the location/geography of the novel a
mystery? Téa Obreht has said in interviews that she deliberately obscured the exact locations in the novel—all we know is that we are in some fictionalized towns
and in what was once known as Yugoslavia. “The City” to which Natalia refers is a
stand-in for Belgrade, the former capital of Yugoslavia, now located in Serbia.
c. When is this taking place? Natalia’s narration of her grandfather’s death takes
place sometime after the crisis in the 1990s (see section on “Historical Background,”
above). Natalia lives through the Balkan War, just as her grandfather lived through
World War II. She has memories of war; so does he. His memories of war influence
her experience of the Balkan conflicts, and their aftermath.
4. Close reading also requires that we look at sources. Here, allegory
and folklore are key.
Definitions of allegory:
According to Webster’s dictionary, an allegory is “a story in which people, things,
and happenings have another meaning, as in a fable or parable; allegories are used
for teaching and explaining.” According to the literary critic Angus Fletcher, “in the
simplest terms, allegory says one thing and means another” (1964). Animals are often
characters in allegories, fables, or parables; think of Aesop’s fables, like “The Wolf in
Sheep’s Clothing,” or think about the old story about the Tortoise and the Hare. In
those stories, animals stand in for people in order to teach us lessons on morality and
behavior. We can read Obreht’s novel as an animal allegory or fable; it also can be read
as containing many allegories or fables. We can also read it as an extended folktale.
According to anthropologist William Bascom: “[Folklore] is an important mechanism
for maintaining the stability of culture. It is used to inculcate the customs and ethical
standards in the young, and as an adult to reward him with praise when he conforms,
to punish him with ridicule . . . when he deviates” (1954).
Téa Obreht has said that she based the stories in the novel on folktales she heard from
her Serbian family members; she also heard similar stories while growing up in Cyprus
and Egypt, which each has a rich storytelling culture. The story of the “deathless man”
comes from several Eastern European folk sources, but was widely known in Russia
and the Ukraine as the story “Koschei the Deathless,” a folktale collected in a book
called Russian National Fairy Tales, or The Red Fairy Book. The story of the tiger’s wife
is based loosely on a folktale from India called “The Tiger’s Bride.”
The other literary source mentioned in the novel quite frequently is The Jungle Book,
which the character of the grandfather carries with him wherever he goes. The Jungle
Book was written by an Englishman, Rudyard Kipling, who was born in Bombay (Mumbai)
in 1865, and brought to England as a child. The Jungle Book, published in 1894, is a
collection of short stories for children that showcase and highlight aspects of Indian
folkways and translates a few Indian folktales. Some of the most famous stories in the
collection (“Mowgli’s Brothers”; “The Hunting of Kaa”) feature a boy named Mowgli who
is raised by wolves in a jungle and eventually has to leave the animal kingdom to rejoin the
village and the world of men. (Disney made a famous animated movie out of the Mowgli
stories called The Jungle Book, which is how an entire generation of American children
got to know these stories). The Mowgli tales are about the relationships between men
and animals (and are also about orphanhood); the tiger bride folktales are also about
the transgressing of boundaries between humans and animals.
There is much more to consider as we enter this complex tale, but the touchstones
here should help all of us navigate the story. Whether you are an expert critic or a
novice, this novel poses questions none of us should ignore.
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2012
The Freshman Dialogue starts with informed discussion, and meditation and analysis
are necessary first steps. In that spirit, we ask that you prepare a page of thoughts
on about this novel, using one of the two prompts below as a springboard. They are
designed to help start conversations immediately after Convocation, when you’ll be
breaking up into small groups to discuss the novel. Each group will be led by a faculty
person or administrator. Please remember to bring a copy of your response to the
group meeting and to the first day of your Freshman Seminar.
This brief exercise should be a window into your thoughts about the Freshman Dialogue
common reading. Use this opportunity to share your interpretations; you don’t have
to answer every question or idea raised by the prompt. The best responses will make
reference to specific passages in the novel (please provide page numbers), and will
also be analytical rather than observational (for example, instead of saying, “I didn’t
like the way Obreht handled this theme”—which is an emotional response—you might
want to say something like, “Obreht handles the violence of humans against animals in
ways that raise one’s consciousness, while also making the reader feel queasy; perhaps
the queasiness is a necessary part of the consciousness-raising.” You can see how the
latter is more analytical, even as it also contains plenty of emotion!).
Prompt #1
In the part of The Tiger’s Wife set in the present day, Natalia and her friend Zóra,
both physicians, participate in a humanitarian mission to a country with which their
own had been at war. (In a way, Natalia is following in her grandfather’s footsteps:
recall that the grandfather first encounters Gavran Gailé when he goes to a village
affected by tuberculosis.) Write a 1–2 page response paper in which you address the
representation of humanitarian aid in the novel. Please choose between the following
two prompts.
1. Choose a scene in which Natalia is offering her help as a doctor (e.g. to the orphans, to the diggers). What are the possibilities and limitations of the situation?
What complexities (social, cultural, political), does Natalia run into?
OR
2. Situate the present-day scenes in the context of the novel as a whole. What do the
folkloric episodes suggest about Natalia and Zóra’s effort at reconciliation?
Prompt #2
In Obreht’s novel, the grandfather carries around an old copy of Rudyard Kipling’s The
Jungle Book, in which a boy, Mowgli, is abandoned in the jungle and raised by wolves.
As an orphan boy, the animals felt a responsibility to raise him, and later, as a village
dweller, he feels a responsibility to protect his animal family. This story, embedded in
Téa Obreht’s novel but not immediately obvious to the reader, raises questions about
responsibility. In a 1–2 page response, consider whether you think Obreht’s novel is
about humankind’s responsibility towards animals—and if so, why would she want
to explore this theme? Is she using that message of responsibility as a way to talk
about other forms of responsibility? And why do you think she brings The Jungle
Book—a story from India—together with a story about Eastern Europe? Is The Jungle
Book’s message one that could comment upon the situation of the war-torn nations
of Yugoslavia? If so, how?
please note:
The best response papers will focus on one of these questions, not on all of
them. To answer one of these focal questions, please refer to a passage from the novel
that you think illustrates the point you are trying to make. Find a passage, for example,
that illustrates Obreht’s wish for humans to act less like animals, and to achieve a level
of civilization that they might not possess innately (for instance, look at the sections
about the girl called the tiger’s wife and her husband, Luka).