Motivation In The Tiger's Heart By Jim Kjelgaard

A motivation is a reason someone has for doing something a certain way. The Tiger’s Heart is a story written by Jim Kjelgaard in which the protagonist, Pepe Garcia has been making decisions based on forces within him. These forces all contributed in their own ways for Pepe’s decision making and outcomes in the story. These forces have helped define what Pepe is as a human being within the story. The forces motivating Pepe are security, fear and courage, greed and exploitation, and power. These forces motivated Pepe. Security is what drove Pepe to make decisions in the story. It was said by the people of the village that “when darkness came, the jungle was alive with strange and horrible things” (Kjelgaard 54). Knowing this Pepe saved up money and bought a rifle so that he can have a feeling of safety and security. Pepe fought a tiger because he thought that he was secure enough to fight one with a gun. His sense of security helped him sleep peacefully unlike the other villagers, and “he did not awaken until the sun was up” (Kjelgaard 55). His behavior and decisions are being motivated because the jungle is dangerous at night without the right

Courage is defined as strength in the face of pain. Pepe with his gun at hand showed to be very courageous against the darkness of the jungle. Agreeing to fight a tiger was a courageous act because in the village “none would work were tigers were known to be” (Kjelgaard 57). Fear was also present because killing a tiger that “was bursting with raw anger” was no easy task (Kjelgaard 58). The two motivations intertwined because fear made Pepe hesitant to attack the tiger, but courage is strength in the face of suffering so he had to have faith in the task at hand. Pepe had the courage to fight against that opponent, but against overwhelming odds fear is really a scary thing. Fear and courage were why he fought the tiger the way he