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Part One, Chapter Eight
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
After swimming one day, Ari and Dante stop at a convenience store. Dante buys Coke and peanuts, and Ari buys candy. Ari declines a sip of Dante’s Coke and says he doesn’t like it. They walk around and talk about nicknames. Dante says that Mexicans really like nicknames and that his aunts call Mrs. Quintana Chole. Ari asks if her name is Soledad, which Dante says proves his point—the name Soledad has a set nickname. They discuss that Ari’s mom, Liliana, goes by Lilly, and Ari says that Soledad, which means solitude or lonely, is a beautiful name and fits Mrs. Quintana. Ari says that Dad is Santiago but goes by Jaime, which again proves Dante’s point. Ari asks if it bothers Dante that he’s Mexican. Dante says that he thinks that Mexicans don’t like him.
Dante’s annoyance with nicknames, and specifically traditionally Mexican ones suggests that he’s not comfortable in his Mexican identity. The fact that he doesn’t understand why these nicknames crop up the way they do suggests that Dante might not have the cultural knowledge to just accept that this is the way things are or understand why nicknames work in this way. With this, the novel begins to show that Dante is missing important knowledge that will be hard for him to discover on his own as he becomes an adult.
Themes
