The Tiger Rising is a children´s story written by author Kate DiCamillo in 2001. The story is about a boy, Rob Horton, who at 12 years of age moves with his father to Florida after the death of his mother. The point of the story is the feelings and emotions that have been bottled up inside Rob and some of the other characters in the story and the meaning it has for the main character to have found that in the place where he and his father live there is a caged tiger. For the main character and some of the others, the image of this caged animal becomes the representation of what is hidden within themselves, the feelings that have been generated by the tragic event of the death of a parent and the loss of another through divorce. In fact, the tiger, for Rob, becomes almost like a lifeline, the only way that he is finally able to let go of all the pain within him and its freedom represents Rob´s winning his own freedom from pain and his emotions. When Rob is called to the principal´s office, the adult wishes to let Rob know that because he still has a rash on his legs, he must remain at home for his sake and that of other students while the rash passes. That is when Rob feels the burning of the picture of the tiger. In the end, Rob feels happiness with the principal´s decision because he sees the end of his misery at school. That is why he says freedom at last.