Aristotle and Dante Reflection

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In my opinion, this book was eye-opening to the experiences and emotions of LGBTQ adolescents. I did not realize how hard it is to come out, even when your family is supportive of it. Honestly, I would have liked to see Ari be bold and confident in who he was and what he wanted. Dante was a dynamic character who really came to find himself. Overall, this book was not one of my favorites. It was a slow building of the relationship between Dante and Ari that ended pretty quickly. I do not understand why moments like Ari’s fight with Julian are so rushed. Once the dialogue is over, there is very little explanation afterwards about Ari’s feelings.
I agree with the author’s portrayal of adolescence. I think that oftentimes, teens hold in their feelings, just like Ari did. They even wrestle with them internally. Ari could not come to terms for the majority of the book about his feelings. I think that this text relates to the book we just read about Arnold with regard to family members. Ari’s family rarely discussed things about family history, and Arnold’s family did not discuss many things about the reservation. It was just a constant cycle of pain and disappointment.

Comments

  1. Logan FowlerSeptember 17, 2019 at 7:45 AM

    I agree as I found this book hard to get into. Areas that I was interested in, the author rushed through, and other parts that weren't as captivating, were dragged out. I understand that Ari's emotions may have never fully been explored because he himself doesn't fully understand how he is feeling, but I feel like this prevents the reader from ever fully connecting to him. Do you think that parents can be too strict and maybe keep too much from their children?

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  2. Carter McGillSeptember 18, 2019 at 10:19 AM

    This book also opened my eyes to how adolescents deal with their sexuality, and how hard it is to let others in about how they truly feel. I think the reason both boys were afraid of telling their parents about their sexuality was because they didn't want to disappointment them. Even though they both feel this way, each one of them don't want to fail their parents in different ways. For instance, Ari is afraid to come out to his parents because he doesn't want to be viewed the same way as his brother in prison. He knows one son has failed his parents, he doesn't want to follow in his footsteps. In Dante's situation he wants his parents to have grandchildren one day, and he thinks that he will crush their hearts if he likes the same gender. This all cycles back to the fact that parents have to be there for their children during this stage of their life. Adolescents shouldn't feel afraid that their own parents won't accept them, and should be able to go to them for anything.

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