3. Introduction to the story

The story "A Tiger in the House", by Ruskin Bond is narrated from a first-person point of view,  in the sense that the story is told from the narrator's point of view. The story relates to his own experiences or the way he sees other characters' experiences. It mostly uses the pronouns 'I', 'My', 'Mine', etc. Ruskin Bond similarly talks about his grandfather's experience with a wild animal. Like most of his other short stories, a dramatic twist is included towards the end of the story.

 

The story talks about a grandfather from a normal middle-class family who brings up a tiger as his own. It then deals with the hardships, the comic twists and turns, and the emotions of both the human and the animal. It touches upon concepts like love, hate, violence, loyalty etc.

 

Generally, animals are grouped into Wild and domestic. Wild animals are certain species of animals that adjust themselves to living in the forest and fend for themselves. On the contrary, pet animals adapt themselves to the human environment and act as companions to them. Although most wild animals are considered to be ferocious, many animals do not altogether fall under this classification. Animals like deer, monkeys, giraffes can be classified as wild animals, because they roam freely in the forests, and find their own food. They cannot be kept at home or controlled with a leash. Animals that can be controlled like that and kept at home are called pet animals. Some common pet animals are dogs, cats, love birds.