Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.

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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is an amazing book which explores the themes of mental health, homosexuality, and the adolescent experience. The book follows a young man named Ari and his developing relationship with a young man named Dante. Ari is plagued with self-doubt and confusion throughout. Much of this confusion and anger he feels seems to stem from his lack of knowledge of his brother. However, I believe that it is possible that Ari was using his brother as a scapegoat for the origin of his confusion. This confusion could likely be the feelings he has for Dante and his inability to understand them.
Ari is an incredibly confused young man, confusion turns out to be one of the most prominent themes in the book. I feel he misplaced a lot of the confusion to other places of his life. I believe he did this because having thoughts like these can be incredibly scary. You are scared to face other people and even to face yourself because you have been told this is wrong your whole life. It is not irrational to be afraid of these feelings because there is a high possibility for people to hurt you in 1987 due to your sexual orientation. It is sad but it still happens to people today. He would rather avoid this confusion and blame all of his identity issues, confusion, and mental health problems on the absence of his brother. 

The best example that I can think of this in the book would be when Ari and Dante kiss for the first time. Ari tells Dante that he didn’t feel anything and Dante tells Ari that he did. Dante then asks Ari,”Are you mad at me” (Sáenz, 256)? Ari responds, “A little” (Sáenz, 256). Then Ari thinks about Bernardo throughout the whole day in the very next chapter. He confronts that confusion instead of the confusion from the kiss from earlier. We know that he was confused from the kiss because later on page 358 he confesses to Dante that he lied and that he did feel something. It is sad how some people had to channel their feelings inwards and into different areas to avoid being judged for something as simple as who they want to kiss.

Comments

  1. Logan FowlerSeptember 17, 2019 at 7:54 AM

    I like how you said Ari is "plagued with self-doubt and confusion." That is the best description I've been introduced to about the book so far. Do you think his confusion could also stem from his dad's lack of communication (emotions, thoughts, stories, etc)? Also, do you think his avoidance is a subconscious act or more thought out and purposeful? I personally think its unintentional and that a lot of outside factors play into Ari's identity and his search for his place in the world.

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    1. Griffin ThomasSeptember 18, 2019 at 1:50 PM

      Thanks so much for reading and your thoughtful questions Logan.

      I do believe that another big factor into his confusion could be at the lack of intimacy and communication between him and his father. Not having a strong supportive male role model could of lead to this self doubt and lack of identity he struggles with. I am not saying that Ari's father was a bad father. However, due to his ptsd from the war and other mental illnesses, he never established a supportive bond with Ari at a young age.

      As for the other question, I think that he was masking his confusion subconsciously. I believe that he pushed all sexual confusion out of his mind completely. After that the confusion, anxiety, and self doubt remain. He then attributed this to the lack of knowledge of his brother. However, this is just what I think. It is just as possible for him to have done it consciously. It is also just as possible that he was not masking confusion at all and was only confused about Bernardo. That is just my two cents. Thank you for reading.

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