The Tiger Rising Essay
Broock
3-5-08
The two books The Tiger Rising and Shiloh have many things in common,
but the most common thing is that the two animals are locked up and being
locked up is a matter of a life and death situation for them.
In the book, Tiger Rising, there is a tiger locked up secretly in the misty
woods of Lister, Florida and a young boy and girl, Sistine, discovers the hidden
beast. They argue continually about letting the tiger go and not letting it go
because if they let it be it would have a miserable life and they let it go it would
die in the wilderness. So the motel owner, Beauchamp who secretly hid the tiger
gave Rob Horton the keys because somebody had to take care of it. They
thought they did the right thing and both of them let it go, but as it was heading
toward the motel a crack echoed in the air that sounded like a firework. Yes, the
tiger was dead, but they realized that the tiger was in a better place than he
was, heaven.
In the book, Shiloh, a young boy named Marty Preston stumbles across a
small, abused beagle, Shiloh, who ran away from his owner, the huntingobsessed, Judd Travers. So Marty tells numerous lies in order to get food for the
little dog, so in the meantime he builds Shiloh a pen where he thinks he is safe
from all danger, including Judd Travers. He was wrong. That the next night the
Baker’s German Shepherd runs away and comes across Shiloh’s pen. The
ferocious dog hops the fence and takes a few chunks out of Shiloh because the
poor beagle can’t jump over the pen fence. But fortunately Marty arrives with his
dad just in time and rushes Shiloh to a vet where he recovers. But in desperation
of keeping Shiloh safe, Marty just hurt Shiloh.
The Tiger Rising and Shiloh are similar because both characters tried to do
the thing that was right for the animal, but in the end they just hurt it. Like in
the book Tiger Rising, Rob and Sistine thought they were helping the tiger, but
the choice ended up killing it. In the book Shiloh, Marty thinks he is helping
Shiloh by building him a pen to keep him away from Judd Travers, but he too
ended up hurting Shiloh from the ferocious German Shepherd.
In conclusion, The Tiger Rising and Shiloh are similar because animals are
locked up, which some people think is right to keep them safe and wrong
because they think it deserves the wilderness. But in the end when they think
they are doing the right thing it just ends up hurting the animal. If this situation
comes along and someone thinks they are doing the right thing they have to
stop and tell themselves, what will happen to the animal after I do the right
thing, will it hurt the animal or make it life better?