Summary

This section of the guide focuses on pages 1-42. The novel begins with a tiger, who we will later learn is named Raja, pacing a small enclosure at the Malgudi zoo. Though he is comparatively happy at the zoo, he misses aspects of his former life, in which he was free to roam and hunt as he pleased. He also thinks of a man who he knows only as "Master" (11), and who had a transformative effect on the tiger. He begins to narrate the story of his life.

As a young tiger, Raja lived with his mother in Mempi Range, a wilderness of jungles and mountains. His mother disappears one day when he is still young, and he learns to fend for himself from an early age. This toughens him up, and as an adult he is a powerful and ferocious creature, feared by...