Eng 2 - the Secret Lion

Vahid Maheri

Prof. Meyer

English 2

March 2018

          "The Secret Lion”

Regardless of genetic issues, the personality of man is completely influenced by the environment around him. Family and community education is one of the most effective factors in shaping each person's personality, and after that, the friends and location geographically will be impressive. Alberto Rios in his short story "The Secret Lion” is narrated the life of two kids who are twelve years old. Might be Alberto describes his own childhood story with his friend Sergio since he graduated from University of Arizona.

          Along the story unnamed narrator tell us about his junior high school, fears and courage, embarrassment and daring, discoveries and Losses, and growth and maturation. He starts with blaming the compulsory schools and relation between students and teachers when he says” Only, in junior high school, school wasn’t school, everything was backward like. If you went up to a teacher and said the word to try and find out what it meant you got in trouble for saying it. So, we didn’t. And we figured it must have been that way about other stuff, too, so we never said anything about anything---we weren’t stupid.” So, they knew, they should not ask any questions if they do not like to get in trouble at school. But the narrator confessed later that when they grew up and backed home they found how they liked some teachers and disliked others. As an example, he says” and we would yell about teachers and how we loved some of them, like Miss Crevelone, and how we wanted to dissect some of them, making signs of the cross, like priests.”