The Tiger Who Came To Tea

[nigelslaterfan]

dd loves this book but am I being unreasonable to suggest that Sophie and her mother are massive pigs to sit at home and have such a massive tea of cake and buns and sandwiches? I mean it seems greedy to me.

[RedLentil]

[BelleDameSansMerci]

cory could you bang a 1200 word essay on "the usefulness of the concepts of tradition and dissent in understanding attitudes towards the built heritage of Ireland" then please? I've done 200 words and need to get the rest done by lunchtime on Friday but can't be arsed face it this evening...

Bloody foundation course for OU BA inEng Lang/Lit that I didn't have the opportunity to do when I was young.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy for you, I would think!

[nigelslaterfan]

But also, he never ever comes back does he, the Tyger?

[MrsSantosloves2010]

We are in Tiger-mode with the 2yo and I think some of the suggestions here are fantastic.

Sorry Judith Kerr, but being the author gives you no special rights or ownership. Once you have written the text then we have the right to read and interpret as we choose

Good thread!

[BelleDameSansMerci]

I can recite the whole book, word for word, which is handy in the car. When my DD is being hard to please I change the tiger for another animal (elephant, lemur, whatever). They then have to speak in different voices.

The tiger sounds like Leslie Phillips; the elephant is deeper (obviously); and the lemur speaks very quickly and excitedly.

I need to get out more.

[emskaboo]

Ok, I think you have to read TTWCTT in partnership with When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.

It is a young girl's attempt to understand the loss of her former life.

The tiger, Nazi's, invade the home, initally seeming threatening but being absorbed into the family and normalcy, this refers to those who failed to fully recognise the threat and remained in Germany and were killed, the family friend in WHSPR.

The tiger gradually removes everything good from the family, food, access to water (allegory for freedom of movement etc).

Father returns home, recognises true risk and has a good plan, to flee, that's why Sophie is in her nightie. Cafe represents Paris, where Judith Kerr and her family initally fled to; but as said previously fomesti cat and dark man in the background on the journey there represent the ongoing threat.

Purchase of tiger food indicates, we must never forget.

I think it is significant that the Tiger looks so much like the Nazi 'cats' in Maus and think there is some shared artistic view there...

[emskaboo]

Sorry, domestic cat

[nigelslaterfan]

emskaboo! the book will never be the same to me now!
Lordy, I may have to lie down and think about that.

[RedLentil]

Emskaboo - I didn't know all that about Judith Kerr and I hadn't read pink rabbit. Really fascinating and it does put the dad in a better light.

The tiger is both frightening and hugely attractive though. And he represents a kind of freedom from inhibition at the same time as the threat you describle.

Kerr's other cat, Mog, the hapless domesticated toddler/cat, pines for the kind of wild freedom he has. She dreams about being a bird all the time, tries to escape cages, jumps out of windows, forgets her cat flap ...

NigelSlaterFan - toddlers, like Sophie do see him again though because they invite him back into their lives each time they open the book.

And the Bakhtin idea of the carnival is that there is a time-limited reversal of roles in society that lets the powerless have power for a moment so that they can release their resentments (largely through laughter) before the status quo is restored. So the tiger going is part of that kind of plot.

[beeny]

The mother is depressed or having an affair thats why there is no food.

[emskaboo]

RedLentil, oh I agree with you about the sense of freedom the tiger represents, but for me that chimes with some of the stuff I've read about the rise of the Nazi party, the impulsiveness of the followers the violence and the pleasure in it, the terrible allure which pulled people in.

I'm glad it put the dad in a better light though, even when I was little he seemed so worried and weary to me.

I should also say I have no great attachment to my theory, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar!

Also when I read it as an adult I was shocked by how sexist it seemed, my mum and dad had always changed it to say, mummy and daddy's beer, and the mother was worried about their being no supper for her and daddy, not just daddy.

[RedLentil]

Emskaboo-have you read Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood? Totally brilliant on the decadence of Berlin in the '30s.

That perspective does make it possible to see the tiger as a Berliner who is at home with the family but represents a terrible threat too.

It would be a shame if reading this put anyone off the book though. When I eventually look back on the time I have spent reading to my three children, a lot of those happy memories will be of sitting on the floor reading about Sophie and the tiger.

[emskaboo]

I haven't, but I will, thank you.

I know what you mean about putting people off, and I did mean to say sorry to NigelSlaterFan. Please come back, I didn't mean be unsettling

I love this book, loved it as a child, was the first thing I bought my dsd, would have bought for my sister's three but she beat me to it, think she may have bought it when pregnant the first time and read it over and over to my ds. It is a lovely exciting, safely scary book.

[MeAndMyMonkey]

Such a fabulous book - I love Sophie's lovely cafe nosh. Still faintly peeved I never read it as a little girl.
Re the Mog books, in 'Mog and the baby' (as I think it's called - can't check as in dd's bedroom), did anyone else notice the slightly suspicious ending when the mother of the baby (who has just been rescued from a near fatal accident by Mog) is driven home by the Mog family dad.
She was meant to be at work...in other words, is she having an affair?
Perhaps I am over analysing. As you were!

[RedLentil]

I've just been digging about for my copy of the Isherwood book now to start it again, so thanks for prompting me to think of it.

Just to throw in one last happier theory.

I've just remembered the excitement my three have about going outside after dark-we hardly ever do.

Anyway, when Sophie gets to wander outside in her nightie and eat sausage and chips, it lets her fulfil the fantasy of joining in when mummy and daddy go out at night for a meal ...



Cory, are you ok under there?
Good luck for tomorrow.

When the young man near the back with a very high opinion of himself tries to make out that he knows more than you and is in fact Derrida, give him a Paddington stare and move on. All will be well, and all manner of things will be well...

[RedLentil]

Covering my ears about the idea that Mr Mog could be having an affair.

[nigelslaterfan]

lolredlentil

interview here with Judith Kerr

[MeAndMyMonkey]

I'm sorry, was only an idle speculation!
Mr Mog is a fine upstanding chap, I am sure .
Liking the Paddington/Dracula analogy btw.

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

Just saw this thread in the newsletter - love it!

DD got Tiger who came to tea with a little tea set for christmas, love the tea set - hate the book!

[BettyButterknife]

Ooh, I was told it was a feminist tale - that Sophie's mummy was so pissed off with having to cook and clean and keep house, that she invented a tiger as an excuse not to have to do it anymore. Then daddy had to sort it out himself by taking them to a cafe.

Have you noticed how tiny Sophie's mummy is compared to Sophie's daddy? Much as I love the book, I find that element quite disturbing.

[bobdog]

Excellent thread, I gave up English lit but never stopped reading, the dcs don't have too many books just not enough shelves.

As an engineer specialising in steam if anyone wants a technical thread on Thomas and the Fat Controller I have a lot to say about the engines running with their drains open all the time. My dc 4&2 have certainly learnt the difference between steam and smoke and shout they've left the blower on at tv interpretation.

Today, the house is a tip, I can't be arsed to cook and I certainly feel like telling Dp the tiger came to tea - sometimes a cafe would just be a cafe.

[LoveImmigrantYankee]

Fabulous! love the literary analysis! Brings back my post-grad days...
I think I'll hide under the table with Cory!

Not being a native, I thought I was not feeding my child enough when I saw Sophie's tea! Wondered about the water as well. '70s cutback?

[roundwindow]

Just want to say how much fun it's been reading this thread, thank you all for spilling the contents of your brilliant minds Nothing to add though. Except that when the word 'carnivalesque' came up I immediately thought of Sophie's tights.

[MaggieTaSeFuar]

can we analyse six dinner sid now. by inga moore. ?