The Moon Tiger Analysis

The excerpt from the novel Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively is about a brother and a sister, Claudia and Gordon, searching for ammonites while the mother watches. The Moon Tiger illustrates how siblings and parents can have complex relationships. The excerpt has three different points of view. The first point of view is from Claudia, the sister. She Spots her brother “tap-tapping” on an outcrop. The author’s diction by showing her complex relationship with her brother; she becomes very suspicious of him and also did not want him to get the upper hand so she became jealous of him. Claudia makes her way up to where her brother is, but then she spots a place where “Asteroceras is lurking by the hundred” and tries to pass him. Unfortunately Gordon is in the way and will not give up his spot. They and up thrashing around on the cliff and Claudia ends up falling off the cliff; however, she is to stun with pain to even scream on the way down. Gordon is horrified that he made her fall, but also satisfied that he gets all the fossils to himself. Which shows the very complex relationship that the children have. The author shifts to Gordon point of

It starts with the mother coming and checking on Claudia from the fall. The children argue on what has just happened and if she was pushed or if she slipped. As Edith Hampton, the mother, continues to check on Claudia; both of the children are quarreling back and forth on the ammonites. The author states “…her offspring whose emotions seem the loudest sound on the beach” it shows that the children care about their fossils more than the people that are surrounding the children. The children emotions are on the fossils and not about Claudia condition from the fall. The mother is very happy that Claudia is alright from the fall, but is very annoyed on how loud they are. The children and the mother have a very complex relationship because they do not feel one emotion at one