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The story, "The Child By Tiger" written by Thomas Wolfe, is primarily interpretive literature, not escape literature. "Escape literature" is written purely for pleasure, while "interpretive literature" is written for pleasure and to help us understand the world around us. Interpretive literature educates, asks questions about life and presents some aspects of life that we may not want to face. "The Child by Tiger" is interpretive literature because of the way the author presents the story, the way it ends, the way it educates us, and especially how it helps us understand man's darker nature. This work is interpretive rather than escape literature because of the way the author presents the story. Thomas Wolfe has the protagonist looking back on the events that occurred twenty-five years earlier. Even though he has had a very long time to reflect on them, he is looking back in the hope that he can make some sense out of it all. The author uses this situation to his advantage. On the second page of the story where the author writes, "He had, he said, o