The Secret Lion Literary Analysis

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When writing a story, the author can choose the amount of information the reader

comprehends by writing it in a certain point of view. In Rios’ “The Secret Lion,” the first

person point of view allows us to see the world through the eyes of a boy who has just

reached adolescence. This means that we are transforming ourselves into a 12-year-old

child in order to fully see the story through the narrator’s eyes; in fact, this point of view

is the reason we can immerse ourselves in the narrator’s mind. The third person point of

view is a lot less intimate since it allows us to look at the big picture in a more detached

way. In Kaplan’s “Doe Season,” we are given a limited omniscient point of view, which

presents to us only what …show more content…

In “The Secret Lion,” author Albert Alvaro Rios presents us with a charming

story about a boy who has arrived at the beginning of adolescence. The first person point

of view narrative is what allows the author to convey the confused state that the child is

in. This point of view has allowed the author to present the story through the innocent

eyes of a child who has absolutely no idea why everything around him has suddenly

started to change. “I was twelve and in junior high school and something happened that

we didn’t have a name for, but it was there nonetheless like a lion, and roaring, roaring

that way the biggest things do” (401). When we read this first sentence of the story, we

only know that something big has happened to the narrator. In a sense, we are …show more content…

Similar to first person is the limited omniscient point of view in that the narrator

knows the thoughts and feelings of the main character; however, it is told from a more

detached voice—using terms such as “she/he, they, them.” In “Doe Season,” author

David Michael Kaplan introduces the story of Andy through a limited omniscient point of

view. The narrator is able to delve into Andy’s thoughts and feelings but is also able to

provide certain information that Andy herself is not mature enough to comprehend. As

opposed to a first person point of view, a limited omniscient point of view gives the

author more flexibility in regards to the language used and the knowledge of the narrator.

We are not only given the thoughts of the character but are also provided with a

knowledgeable voice that helps make connections between Andy’s thoughts and the more

developed thoughts of the omniscient narrator. “The thought made her feel good: it was

like thinking of God; it was like thinking of the space between here and the moon; it was

like thinking of all the foreign countries from her geography book where even now,

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