Tears of a Tiger

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The book that I would be doing my instructor's choice on is a novel called Tear of a tiger was written by Sharon M Draper and was published by the Atheneum in 1994. This Ninstructor'sovel was recommended to me to read by one of my Co-workers. Tears of a tiger are the first Hazelwood trilogies in African-American Hazelwood high school, a series of books combining students with graduation and prep. Tears of a tiger is a story of a seventeen-year-old African-American boy named Andrew ‘Andy’’ Jackson, who feels deeply guilty for inadvertently causing his best friend Robert ‘Rob’ Washington's death through drunk driving.

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The story is told through multiple different formats such as journal entries, newspaper articles, and first-person narratives which I love when authors do because it gives u a view of every character in the story and a feel of what emotions they are having. Seventeen-year-old Andy Jackson just won a basketball game at Hazelwood high school, and he and his friends Robbie Washington, Tyrone Mills, and BJ Carson decided to ride home in Andy’s jeep until Andy, Rob, and Tyrone decide that they were going to celebrate by drinking a few beers while Andy was behind the wheel.

However, Andy accidentally crashed his car into a wall, and rob was sitting in the passenger’s seat with his feet on the dashboard. So, when the car crashed, his feet went through the windshield, pinning him in between the wall and crashed jeep. Causing him to be trapped, Robert began to scream for his friends to get him out and help.

They then jumped on the roof of the car to get him out the car, but it explodes the gas tank had leaked, sending them flying off the car roof and leaving rob still inside alive burning to death while screaming for Andy, BJ and Tyrone to save him but it was nothing they could do as their friend burned and died right in front of them And now the traumatic event has haunted his friends as their lives have to continue without their friend. The characters in this novel are Andrew Jackson who is the main character that this author focuses on as he is the person that was driving the car that night that rob died. Andrew is an important character throughout the book as it is mainly about how he must return to reality after the death of his friend and he doesn’t understand how exactly how to do that. Andrew just like the rest of the characters in the novel hold a guilty conscience after the accident, but Andy holds the most as he feels like it is his fault for the death because he was drinking and driving. He takes captain on the basketball team which was Roberts's old position which takes a toll on him also, he starts to going to a psychologist to try to vent his emotions after he already tied to cry out for help from his friends and his girlfriend Keisha who is in love with him and tries everything to make him feel better but recommended he seek help after almost witnessing about to kill himself while they were together and later dumps him cause she couldn’t handle him holding that guilty conscience. But the guilt is just too much for Andrew and eventually, the depression causes him to commit suicide.

The Next character in the book is BJ Who wasn’t a part of the basketball team but was always tied to be a part of the team. He was invited to go out that night which was a huge moment for him but he doesn’t drink which his friends always tied to get him to do but that wasn’t like him and that night of the accident he was the only sober person. He then holds that against him as he holds his guilt for the cause of his friend's death and he wonders whether he should have stepped in. The night of the crash and felt if he would have told them not to be drinking and driving rob would still be alive.BJ decides to turn to god to become a better person after the accident and starts going to church with his mom every Sunday. The Next character of the book is Tyrone who was on the basketball team and dates Rhonda who is friends with Andrews's girlfriend Keshia. and was one of robs friends and he also rode in the backseat of Andy's car on the night of the accident. Then the last character I will be telling you about is the victim in this novel Robert Washington was the caption and center for his school’s basketball team the Tigers, he was the only one that didn’t survive the car crash. The thing that I found that I like the most about this book is that it is a novel and has numerous series. And that it tells you what happened at the beginning of the book so it makes the reader what to find out what to leadled up to that event, le This novel is also written with different dialogues from characters in the book which I like to get to see every character part in the book and see it from their view this book also included diary entries from Andy’s girlfriend Keisha, a report from the school paper, essays, character'sthroughoupoems, written letters, notes from students in class and each time the character changes the format of the writing changes also so when the reader turns and sees the font, it's possible to recognize who is “speaking’ ’before their name is shown. Which gave me that personal touch with the characters and this book is very emotional which I like to have in some books because it makes the reader feel the character's pain and emotions throughout the book. The cons of this book I would say would be some of the fonts in the novel wasthroughoutwerewhose quite small like writing from the girls whose handwriting is curly u would say and hard to make out sometimes.

Another thing I disliked about the book was the dialogue that didn’t address who is speaking when a speaker in the novel changes while they're having a conversation, so this made it hard to follow who is the speaker reading along. I thought the author could have done better by introducing who was talking to each other. But other than that, I enjoyed reading this novel. The author Sharon m Draper is a known author for her series Sassy series. She is also the writer of many books for adult teens, which she contributed significantly to the New York Times newspaper, Margaret A. Edwards award-winning writer and adolescent text. She won the “Coretta Scott king’’ award for “Copper sun’’ and “Forged by fire’, and recently won the starling Award for starling’s charlotte prize. Her novel “Out of my Mind ‘received numerous awards and was the best-selling New York Times newspaper for three years. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, which I felt she keeps in connects with as she writes as some places in the novel, I recognized as the hospital she names in the novel. Cincinnati, Ohio is also where she teaches English at a high school and is named a national teacher every year for twenty-five years, she also has her website with her books on it and her answering some questions that readers might have on whatever novel there reading visit this on sharonDraper.com.The Character that I felt I connected with the most from this novel tears of a tiger is bj.

His character was more of an outsider of the group and stayed to me mainly which I do sometimes when I’m with a crowd I’m not usually around. He also doesn’t get influenced easily as his friends Tyrone, Rob, and Andrew were all drinking he decides not to but still lets that stop him from hanging out with them I connect with this because I don’t follow others' habits just cause everyone else is doing it and know what I want to do and what I shouldn’t but just because I don’t do everything that the people I surround myself with doesn’t mean I have to stop hanging out with them. This character's resolution to getting past his friend's death was by going to church which I would of to if something was to happen to one of my friends I would ask God for forgives in the part I’ve taken if I was drinking and being in a car of a drunk driver knowing that nothing good could come from that. His character is also the one who was brave enough to try to save Roberts's life that night of the accident which I would have jumped to action cause I’m always the one willing to do anything for the ones I care most about.

Work cite

Accessed 24 Feb. 2019. Shmoop Editorial Team. “Tears of a Tiger Chapter 20 Summary.”
Shmoop, Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008, www.shmoop.com/tears-of-a-tiger/chapter-20-summary.html.