The Moon Tiger insecticide incense, as it burns, is a symbol that represents the passage of time and, in conjunction, the nature of memory. Its burning hints at the preciousness of fleeting moments. Its spiral suggests how the mind circles those moments in striving to recall them, never quite able to return to that same place. “A green coil” with a “glowing red eye” on its burning tip, the Moon Tiger is an object that is tied closely to the place and time, Egypt in the 1940s. The titular symbol appears in Chapter 6, during a night that Claudia and Tom spend together in Egypt. In this moment, the Moon Tiger is a spiral-shaped, slow-burning incense lit at their bedside to keep mosquitoes away while they sleep.

The shape of the incense is reminiscent of a clock, with hands ticking around in a circle to mark the passage of time. Claudia observes that, as the spiral of incense burns away, it leaves an ash trail in the same shape, clear evidence of how much time has gone. As Claudia watches the incense burn, “she lies there thinking of nothing, simply being, her whole body content. Another inch of the Moon Tiger feathers down into the saucer” (75-76).