Aristotle and Dante: Reflection

By -
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Sáenz is a novel that explores multiple themes such as homosexuality and parental relationships, among many others.  These themes are exclusively examined through the lens of an adolescent boy, which provides a very unique perspective.  
For almost the entire novel, Ari is stuck in a constant state of not understanding any of his feelings and acting to avoid any confrontation of his own feelings whatsoever; this wholeheartedly represents the emotional storm of adolescence.  By the end of the novel, the reader can conclude that much of Ari’s seeking to understand the universe was a gateway for understanding his emotions: “All this time I had been trying to figure out the secrets of the universe, the secrets of my own body, of my own heart.  All of the answers had always been so close and yet I had always fought them without even knowing it” (358).  Ari proclaims his realization of his storm of frustrations being caused by his deep love for Dante.  At this final realization, many connections can be drawn to previous points in the novel that tie together the theme of homosexuality with the internal struggle of adolescence, particularly in relation to Ari’s actions following the hate crime against Dante. 

As previously mentioned, Ari tends to avoid any confrontation for his own feelings.  He primarily does this by resorting the the ‘crutch’ of thinking about his brother and the mystery behind him: “No, no no. No thinking about kissing.  And then I don’t know why, but I felt sad. And then I started thinking about my brother. Everytime I felt sad, I thought about him” (177).  This crutch comes up in other places, particularly whenever Ari has to face a deep emotional issue such as his feelings towards Dante’s letters.  Sáenz includes this repetitive reference towards Ari’s brother to show that commonplace of comfort to avoid realization of feelings that many teens go through. 

Comments

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