“The Secret Lion”

Being a child is being fresh to a world that is fresh to you. Like a sponge; absorbing every little drop of life, and creating your own point of view. Each day offers another chance to learn, and explore the world. It keeps having unanswered question to be answered, but you don’t question it, assuming you can trust all the pleasant things you have imagined and have been told. With your loyal eyes you only see what you want to see until some day, when someone comes and pulls away the veil from your eyes. The world suddenly looks different, and it has changed without you noticing it. It all happens so fast, you do not have the time to understand.
In “The Secret Lion” by Alberto Alvaro, the narrator and his friend Sergio experience growing up, without really knowing what is going on. As they start in junior high school, things as they know them, begins to change, and everything turns different. They do not like the change; however change is inevitable for them. To escape school, where “everything was backward-like” (197), the boys seek to the arroyo, the place that never changes. The arroyo illustrates their childhood, their sanctuary, where they can rebel and be children, without parents and teachers take away their freedom by making up rules and new expectations. “It was our river, though, our personal Mississippi, our friend from long back, and it was full of stories” (197). The arroyo is the place they found when they were younger. They know it well, trust it and feel like it is theirs, because they have shared so many memories and stories. Since it was not adults who showed it to them, they could form their own impressions of the place.
As the boys grow older the arroyo does not change, but the boys’ view of it does. They feel like it is the arroyo that changes, when in fact it is themselves who change, as they grow older. When you grow