Tears of a Tiger Choices Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

College scouts? And I missed 'em? My dad makes me sick. It's all his fault. I'll never get a scholarship now. When they see my low grades, all my absences , and my police record, they'll break their necks runnin' away… I don't care. I don't care. (36.22)

Here, Andy begins to question his choices in life. He realizes that he doesn't have many options left because of the choices he's made to skip school and not study for months. He's gotten himself into a situation that he doesn't know the way out of.

Quote #8

It's not that I want to die—it's just that I can't stand the pain of livin' anymore. I just want the hurt and pain inside to go away. It's like a monster in my gut—eatin' me up from the inside out. Actually, I feel like the only thing that's keepin' me from going crazy is this terrible, terrible pain. (39.5)

Whether or not Andy wants to die almost doesn't matter as much as the choices he makes to get himself into this situation. He feels lost and hopeless because he no longer has a happy future or options for college. But what would happen if he made different choices since the accident? Or what if he just decided to start making better decisions right now?

Quote #9

Robbie's death was an accident. Somehow I can deal with that, but what you did—it just don't make no sense to me. You're making everything so rough for the rest of us. (44.3)

Tyrone's letter makes it clear just how rough Andy's suicide is. He explains that he can't get over the fact that Andy chose to do this—this was no accident, which makes it much worse in his mind.