In the very short strange short story of "The Secret Lion" written by Alberto Rios has many different symbols. All symbols emphasizes the change of the lives of the twelve-year-old person who tells the story and his friend Sergio. As the story goes along, the boys are becoming adults. The story is associated with growing up.
             The main symbol of the story is river, an arroyo. It illustrates their childhood, the place that never changes. It is the place where they can do whatever they wante to do. It is a place to hnag around. "It was our river, though, our personal Mississippi, our friend from long back, and it was full of stories" (43). But as they become more grown up they realize that their thoughts of the river change. As time goes by, the arroyo dissatisfies the boys, and they decide to stop going there. "Nature seemed to keep pushing us around one way or another, teach us the same thing every place we eneded up" (45).
             At the beginning of the story, another symbol, the grinding ball, represents balance. But after the boys found it, they understand that they cannot have the ball forever, at the same time as they realize that they cannot be children forever. But they want the ball to stay the way it was. That is why they decide to bury the grinning ball. It appreas they wanted to stop the time, to keep the ball and to be children forever.
             It was so perfect so they did not wanted lose it. "We went back to the arroy for the rest of that summer, and tried to have fun the best we could. We learned to be ready for finding the grinding ball. We loved it, and when we buried it we knew what happen. We were two boys and twelve summer then, and not stupid. Things taken away' 947). They knew they were not going to stay children forever. Boys knew that thing like childhood goes away; they are growing up.
             The secret lion is also very perplex and uses complicated symbol. It is
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