conform, Andy is forced to hide his true emotions behind a mask. Despite the presence of a student counselor on the staff, the school doesn't really know how to handle a troubled soul like Andy. And as for the students themselves, unless they've gone through similar experiences themselves, they can't begin to understand what Andy's going through. So they blithely assume that when Andy seems to be enjoying himself at the school talent contest—i.e. when he's conforming to their notions of what constitutes normal behavior—that everything's ok.

The protagonist of Tears of a Tiger is the main character, Andy Jackson. He is a flawed person, having killed his friend and fellow basketball teammate by driving drunk, but he is still the protagonist because the reader witnesses his attempts to live with the immense guilt he carries from the accident. The antagonists are most of the adults in the novel. While Dr. Carrothers, the psychologist, tries to help Andy, he is largely unable to do so, and Andy winds up committing suicide. Before he dies, Andy feels that his teachers discredit the academic efforts of African-American students, making Andy feel like it is pointless to try hard in school. In addition, Andy feels like his parents do not connect with him because his father is too busy working to attend Andy's basketball games, and his mother does not want to attend the games. Andy feels abandoned by most of the adults in his life, so they are antagonists of this novel. 

I would argue that Andy is both protagonist and antagonist in this novel.  Tears of a Tiger is truly an example of man versus self conflict.  Andy struggles throughout the novel to resolve his feelings concerning his role in Robbie's death.  One of the truly telling moments in the novel is when Andy's English class has the discussion concerning culpability and guilt, murder and suicide, in Macbeth.  Ultimately unable to come to terms with his emotion and overwhelming feelings of loss and guilt over his friend's death, Andy Jackson chooses to end his own life. 

In the book Tears of a Tiger by Sharon M. Draper, the protagonist is a teenager named Andy Jackson. He is the main character, and the character who struggles after a car wreck kills his good friend, Robbie. Throughout the book Andy's emotions change from those of a normal teenager whose life revolves around basketball to a moody, brooding teenager who is attempting to come to grips with the death of his friend. The most difficult part is that he caused the accident that killed Robbie while drinking and driving. Dr. Carrothers, a psychologist, works with Andy in an attempt to sort through his feelings following the accident, but Andy is unable to deal with his friend’s death and in turn he pays the final price. After a classroom discussion of Shakespeare’s Macbeth leaves him unable to live with his guilt he commits suicide.