Describe the elements of initiation present in "The Secret Lion". How do the symbols, especially the lion, contribute to our understanding of the protagonist's initation into adolescence and the accompanying loss of innocence?

The “lion” of the title is clearly a symbol—invested with enough meaning to rise to the level of metaphor, really—but it defies being defined as a metaphor precisely because what is it intended to symbolize is murky. Fortunately, the murkiness of meaning is intended. The lion is described by the narrator as “roaring, roaring that way the biggest things do.” Prior to that, however, the narrator fumbles through a lack of precise control of language with vague explanation that the lion represents something that happens for which there is no name. It is symbolism of the most flexible type which in most stories would be a cheat, but which gains strength in this story which is more than partially about the loss perfection in the world and its substitution with a quality of considerable less.