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Part Three, Chapter Eleven
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity, Ethnicity, and Masculinity
Silence and Trauma vs. Communication
Family and Coming of Age
Intellectualism and Emotion vs. Physical Strength
Summary
Analysis
Gina Navarro sits down next to Ari during lunch on the first day of school and asks him what happened. Ari answers that he was in an accident and refuses to say more, which annoys Gina. She scolds him for being so sad and says that he’s the least popular guy in school. Ari insists that Charlie Escobedo is less popular as Susie Byrd sits down and asks Ari what happened. She demands an explanation and Ari tells the truth: after a rainstorm, he saved a guy standing in the street and a car ran over his legs. Gina and Susie don’t buy it, especially when Ari says that the guy’s name was Dante. The girls leave and Ari smiles for the rest of the day.
The simple fact that Gina and Susie don’t believe Ari when he tells the truth makes it clear just how isolated Ari is: he’s so much of a loner, it’s unthinkable that he would’ve jumped in front of a car to save someone else. Though this makes Ari happy, it also speaks to how heavily he relies on silence and how proud he’s learned to be of not sharing anything of himself with the world. In other words, Ari shouldn’t be thrilled about this.
Themes
