Importance of Zoos

Various zoos figure importantly in the narrative, starting with the prologue. Natalia's visits to the zoo in "The City" are an essential part of the emotional closeness she shares with her grandfather, while the fact that so many animals remain trapped there during the bombings of the civil war drive them to distraction, to madness, and to self-cannibalism. Finally, the so-called Galina tiger escapes from a similarly bombed zoo and strikes out on his own, fleeing to an approximation of the natural world he is used to.