How to Make Friends with the Dark

Content Warning: This section discusses themes of grief, parental loss, and trauma.

The “bug in a jar” is an important symbol that recurs throughout the novel. It first appears when Tiger reflects on how she feels stifled by June’s refusal to let her do “normal” teenage things. Tiger thinks that her lack of freedom makes her feel like a bug stuck in a glass jar, watching the outside world go by. This feeling intensifies after June’s death, and Tiger reflects on feeling like a “bug in a jar” at multiple points as she is grieving. The image symbolizes how Tiger feels insignificant in the larger scheme of things and also that she feels trapped in her situation. Interestingly, Tiger felt this way about her life even while June was alive. While June’s death intensifies this feeling, it does not cause it.

The final time the “bug in a jar” imagery makes an appearance is when Tiger is at the juvenile detention center. It is the lowest point of Tiger’s life, and, accordingly, she reflects on how the bug tells her that she has become “nothing.” However, the bug symbol does not appear again in the novel, and this correlates with the upward trajectory Tiger’s life takes after she moves out of juvenile detention.