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Loss in The Secret Lion by Rios Essay examples

Decent Essays

The Secret Lion

Reality Bites

We all have gone through it: patiently we wait for our name to be announced, lining up one by one. Soon, it will be our turn and realize that we must take the leap and face our destiny. As you consider what this means, you look back at the memories you have created in this sanctuary, but now your time has ended and you will have to move on. Finally, your name is called and you are presented a book of achievement. This book will open new doors for opportunity, however, it also closes your childhood memories of school, friends, and pep rallies. Today, you have graduated and a new life of adulthood awaits you, while the old one is stuffed into an old high school year book. In his story, “The Secret …show more content…

The first example of the children losing their innocence is when they are describing the transition from elementary school to junior high school. Each has found that instead of one teacher, they in fact had many teachers. Additionally, the girls they were once friends with, now different in size and grace, ignored them. This becomes apparent that things have change as a result of age.
The main setting of the story is the river, an arroyo. It illustrates their childhood, the place that never changes. It was their secret place where they could do whatever they wanted to do. “It was our river, though, our personal Mississippi, our friend from long back, and it was full of stories” (59). Additionally, they come in contact with a grinding ball. It represents their soon to be lost childhood. In realizing this, they decide to bury it hoping to preserve it and their childhood memories.
However, as they grew up, they realized that their thoughts of the arroyo were changing. They stopped going and decided to venture elsewhere. What they find is a golf course. It is like “heaven” (62) for the boys when they first noticed it. They considered it “Perfect. Heaven was green, like nothing else in Arizona… This was perfect, had lots of trees, had birds, like we had never seen before. It was like “The Wizard of Oz” (62). Upon discovering two men with bags, they soon realized that their heaven

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