Aristotle and Dante: Sexuality

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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is about a boy named Ari and he meets a boy named Dante who befriends him. The two boys become best friends and they go through many challenges together. One of the biggest challenges would be their sexuality. Dante discovered who he was early on in the novel, but Ari didn't discover himself until the end of the novel. I think that the author made a very accurate representation of how homosexual adolescents deal with everyday life. The way that adolescents come out to their family and friends differs with each individual.

Dante chose to come out to his friend first, and I think that had to do with how comfortable Dante was with Ari. Dante did not want to disappoint his family so he struggled to come out to them. His parents suspected that he was homosexual, but they did not know for sure until the accident in the alley. Dante's parents were not bothered by the fact that he was homosexual, they were only upset that Dante did not talk to them about it.

Ari was the complete opposite of Dante when it came to knowing who he was, and what he liked. Ari fought with the fact that he had feelings for Dante for the entire book. Ari fought with many emotions throughout the book, but his biggest one was the feelings that he had for Dante. Ari's parents had a sit down with him to discuss his actions and talk about what was going on with him. This was all to make him realize his feelings for Dante. Ari told his parents that he felt ashamed. His parents showed nothing but love for him because they were the ones who knew about it before he did, and they loved him.

Both of the characters had very different experiences when it came to how they figured out that they were homosexual. I think that this was good because in reality nobody's experience is the same.

Comments

  1. Eva YoussefSeptember 16, 2019 at 2:24 PM

    I really like that you brought up the point that not all adolescents will have the same experiences with coming out. In Dante's case it was easy because of how established he was as a person at a young age. Ari had many more struggles regarding his family that had to be resolved first before he could look inside and figure out who he was.

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