Fear is one of the strongest emotions experienced by humans, so much so that it plays a radical role in influencing the actions of men and women. women. This concept appears frequently in Téa Obreht's The Tiger's Wife, a gripping tale of the many strange events surrounding what is considered the Balkan War. Fear cultivates superstition and manifests itself in Obreht's novel through the fear of the unknown and the death of the many characters. Throughout The Tiger's Wife, superstition plays different roles for each individual, stemming from strong emotional reactions usually rooted in fear. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essaySuperstition arises from a combination of ignorance and fear, and this fusion often invokes a powerful certainty in people regarding things they could not know. Obreht illustrates the ease with which people come to frequently rely on superstition throughout the novel: "When disconcerted by the extremes of life – whether good or bad – people turn to first towards superstition to find meaning, to put unrelated events together in order to understand. what was happening” (Obreht 312). This phenomenon appears regularly throughout Obreht's story through parables such as that of the immortal man, the rumors of the tiger's wife and the solution that Barba Ivan's vineyard family uses to try to cure their disease. Each of these stories is a direct result of the characters' strong emotional reactions to their respective situations, which are primarily driven by fear. One of the most striking mysteries of The Tiger's Wife that fuels the discomfort and gossip of the inhabitants of Galina is the relationship between the tiger and the deaf-mute girl, Luka's widow. The girl is already presented to the locals as a kind of enigma when she arrives at Galina's house as Luka's new wife: as a young Muslim girl who suddenly appears with the butcher after his disappearance from the village for several years, she is a source of intrigue for the audience, especially since she cannot offer any further information about herself due to her lack of communication skills. This trait immediately gives people reason to speculate, and as her time there continues, the strange events that follow her only increase their intrigue and suspicion. They reach the height of their suspicions due to the arrival of the tiger in the nearby woods of Galina and the inexplicable death of her husband: “Isn't it obvious? She made a deal with this tiger, didn't she? She probably made Luka herself, probably cut off his head during the night, left the body outside for the tiger to eat… This devil gave her the strength to do it, and now she is his wife” ( 218). The inhabitants of the village, already disturbed by the young deaf-mute girl and frightened by the presence of the strange creature with fiery hair, are further alarmed by the tiger's affinity for the smoking room near which the young girl lives, they therefore place the blame entirely on him. about the tiger's wife. Although the inferences made about him are based almost entirely on assumptions, most of their conclusions are taken as fact: "People saw him...The tiger is her husband." He comes to her house every night and takes off her skin” (259). The definitive nature of such suppositions results from the desire of people to clarify the unknown; as they may not get answers to questions related to topics such as Luka's death and the relationship betweenthe tiger and his wife, they create their own facts rather than waiting in vain for the truth to be discovered. The superstitions the villagers have about the tiger and his wife are a direct result of the intense fear they have of the big, runaway cat and their desire for answers about the enigmatic and increasingly dangerous deaf-mute girl. Superstition has arisen in communities for centuries.from the psychological need to elucidate things that cannot be explained. However, within each community, facets of superstition are practiced in unique ways. Since the qualms upon which these irrationalities reflect differ for each person, superstition in The Tiger's Wife plays varying roles for each of the characters highlighted. Elements of superstition sometimes offer definitive solutions to circumstances that may not be resolved, or provide a sense of security when no protection is truly there. The family who work as slaves in Barba Ivan's vineyard, digging and searching for the bones of a relative who had not been properly laid to rest, illustrate how boldly some cling to their superstitions in times of despair. The patriarch of the ailing family states with certainty that the cause of their illness is because their loved one was buried improperly: "I have a body somewhere here that needs to come up so my children can get better" ( 91). It is likely, however, that the long days of hard work under the scorching sun probably only worsened their conditions, especially those of the children. The family carries sachets of herbs with supposed medicinal properties while they dig, but despite these precautions, the family's health continues to deteriorate. At one point, Natalia even sees two of the younger boys sharing a cigarette. The family seems to use the idea that they can heal themselves with the remains of their loved ones instead of actually knowing how to take care of their own health, telling Natalia that "work has nothing to do with [the illness of the children]” (89). . This superstition offers the family false comfort, an absolute means to remedy their current situation when in reality their idea of ​​cause and effect is unlikely to correlate. The family doesn't know how to take the necessary precautions to heal, so they rely on an illogical method that provides them with what they believe is a definitive way to cure their illness. Their fear of a disease they do not understand leads them to form superstitions based on their ignorance. The rumors accumulated by the residents of Galina regarding the Tiger's Wife demonstrate a case in which superstition plays a specific role in the lives of those who believe in it. . The townspeople become increasingly uncomfortable with the presence of the tiger and its interaction with the deaf-mute girl. So, to deal with it, they shape new ideas that quickly move from idle hypotheses to accepted facts. Whether or not these lies are perpetuated to distract from the danger they feel from the nearby carnivore or to blame someone for their lack of safety, the superstitions they maintain provide small comfort to the residents of Galina . Once again, the role that superstition plays in the lives of Téa Obreht's characters is specific to their fears and provides a false escape from their own ignorance in times of despair. Later, when Dariša the bear arrives and the town is relieved to have someone to kill the tiger, fables about his previous deeds surface, describing several different stories, including that he was "raised by bears – or that he did not eat.