Andy Jackson's 'Tears Of A Tiger'

Tears of a Tiger The novel “Tears of a Tiger” tells a story about a close group of friends who end up suffering from an ill fate. The main character, Andy Jackson, and his friends decided to celebrate after a big win in their school basketball game, they acquired alcohol and drove around in Andy’s car while intoxicated. While Andy was driving drunk, he caused a fatal car accident that killed his best friend Robbie Washington who was riding in the front passenger seat. The other three passengers survived physically, but Andy went down into a spiralling depression. He later killed himself because of his guilt and depression. After Andy’s death, Andy’s school enlisted a grief council program among his classmates. The grief counselors advised
Gerald demonstrated this view in a very angry way when he was writing a letter to the deceased Andy. “Brave men face their problems. So what does that make you?” (Draper 173). In the letter Gerald was obviously very angry at Andy for ending his own life and thus causing him more pain. Gerald implied that Andy was a coward for ending his life instead of facing his problems by erasing the pain and guilt. In other words Gerald is saying that the better choice for Andy was to live and eventually overcome his depression in guilt. Gerald disagrees with Andy’s choice and he expresses it by showing anger towards him. Gerald compared Andy’s pain to his own by explaining how courageously he puts up with his stepfather's abuse, and how if he could put up with that kind of pain, Andy could also withstand his own pain,
Death doesn’t solve anything and it makes everything worse because now everyone has a great deal of grief. Tyrone says life is better than death because Andy had a chance to move on and live a great life later on. “Hey man, life ain’t perfect, but it’s life! Remember when we realized we wasn’t going to die? In spite of all that noise and fire and death we looked at eachother, and real quick like, we smiled... Cause we’re alive.” (Draper 171). Tyrone clearly explains how life is always better than taking your own life. Tyrone is also saying that Andy just should have been thankful and happy he survived. He has a reason to live because he survived. Tyrone is saying that Andy shouldn’t have killed himself because he had so much to live for, and that there are so many possibilities in life. Andy should have just been happy to be