Point of View

The story of A Tiger for Malgudi is told entirely in the first person, from the perspective of a tiger named Raja. The present tense of the novel is focused on the ageing Raja, now comfortably retiring in a zoo until he dies of old age, though missing the wild adventures and freedom of his past. The narrative of the novel comprises a set of Raja's recollections: from his youth, through his time in captivity in a circus and then on a movie set, and finally onto the events that led up to his time in the zoo.

Given this approach to perspective, the narrative usually sticks very close to Raja's point of view. Events that have happened outside of Raja's experience — such as the story of how Captain came to run a circus, or the personal history of the Master — are all stories that...