Aristotle and Dante Reflection: The theme of isolation

By -
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe tells the story of how Aristotle or Ari navigates his young adolescents despite having so many questions about his family and the world around him. Pretty early on in the book, we get to know Ari through his narrations as a lonely boy who tends to stick to himself a lot. Before Ari meets Dante, he sees himself as someone that doesn't really fit in with people his age group. Ari likes being alone and says, "Feeling sorry for myself was an art" (pg 13). He grew up in a family as the "odd man out" with siblings too old to relate to and an older brother who was out of his life. It wasn't until Ari later meets his best friend Dante that his life changes along with his perspective on people.

Dante is very different than Ari in many ways. He has a close relationship with both his parents, he's confident, and he knows who he is. He doesn't have a hard time getting along with others and being friends with other people. Ari notices these qualities and takes an admiration for Dante. He wonders how a boy with a big heart like Dante who cries over dead birds can exist. After hanging out with Dante for the day Ari goes home and reflects to himself saying, "...it seemed to me that Dante's face was a map of the world. A world without any darkness" (pg 56). Based on what Ari says, finding Dante to him was a breath of fresh air. The world can be so dark sometimes that it's not hard for adolescents such as Ari to be pessimistic or resort to isolation as a means of protection against the world. The theme of isolation in this book is shown a lot through Ari. He doesn't like many people and he thinks that adults are pretty weird. Any adolescent who reads this book could probably relate on some level of how isolating it can be if they don't feel like they fit in with their friends or family.

Comments

  1. Ally DunlapSeptember 17, 2019 at 2:06 PM

    I like how you mentioned how Ari acts at the beginning of the novel. He is very negative and does not have the best outlook on life. I think this is something that a lot of adolescents can relate to. I agree with you that Dante was kind of Ari's "saving grace". I think that Dante showed Ari that there is so much more to life. I think the scenes with Dante being upset over the bird and Ari and Dante reading the poems/books shows a lot of growth in Ari's character. Would you want to include this book in your classroom?

    ReplyDelete
  2. NoahGoodwinSeptember 18, 2019 at 8:02 PM

    I appreciate your decision to focus on the theme of isolation. This theme is the one that stood out to me the most when examining how dynamic of a character Ari is. The initial meeting with Dante is probably one of my favorite parts of the novel because of the somewhat immediate character shift we see in Ari; he goes from hating being around people to finally finding someone he enjoys. It's interesting to think about how the novel would have gone had Ari not been so isolated from everyone else. Would him and Dante develop the relationship that they did?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe...
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm...
Read more

Postmodernism in Curious Incident

By -
Before I start writing, I first want to acknowledge that I just really loved this book! It seemed like a lot of the class had trouble enjoying or appreciating the novel because it's so different stylistically, which is understandable, but all of those unique elements helped make the novel more authentic. The main topic I want to focus on (also what I'm writing my paper on) is how a lot of postmodernist elements were used in the novel to make Christopher come to life. While obviously not every postmodern novel is about an autistic kid, I think Haddon really used a lot of these elements to his advantage and they ended up working out really well to characterize Christopher. One of the major postmodern elements which helps this book really craft an authentic portrayal of autism is the fact that it's metafictive. Basically, this means it's a "story within a story." Readers would be extremely limited just reading the parts of the novel which are meant to be C...
Read more