The Child by Tiger Themes

Violence, Darkness, and Growing Up

In “The Child by Tiger,” the young narrator and his friends are fascinated by the Sheppertons’ new hired man, Dick Prosser. They look up to him as someone powerful and skilled, able to split kindling and shoot a rifle with perfect precision. They also trust him because of his gentle, patient instruction, like when he teaches them how to box without hurting each other. And yet they’re often afraid of him, too: sometimes he suddenly…

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Violence, Darkness, and Growing Up Theme Icon

Evil and Innocence

Throughout “The Child by Tiger,” the narrator witnesses innocence and evil. He believes at first that Dick Prosser is an innocent person: Dick is nice to him and his friends, teaching them things an older brother would and being careful that they never hurt one another. The narrator’s opinion of Dick’s goodness changes when Dick kills several people in town, but not in a straightforward way. Rather, the narrator is now aware of something dark…

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Racism and Violence

Racial tension is present throughout “The Child by Tiger.” As a Black man, Dick Prosser is treated differently: Mr. Shepperton is especially impressed with him because he’s “the smartest darky that he’d ever known,” implying that Shepperton finds a Black person’s intelligence unusual or surprising. More explicitly, racial prejudice is shown when Lon Everett strikes Dick savagely without provocation. Though Dick himself doesn’t speak of racism directly, he sometimes drops enigmatic hints, such as when…

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