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Part Two, Chapter Nine
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
Ari enjoys talking with Mom about things, especially since it makes him feel like he knows her. She’s different when they talk and doesn’t give as much input on what Ari should be, which Ari hates. Ari wonders if Mom and Dad blame themselves for what happened to Bernardo. He knows that they’re trying hard with him so he doesn’t end up the same way, so Ari has to carry his family’s guilt and he feels like the only son. Ari feels angry and like he’s betrayed his family by talking about Bernardo to Dante, and he feels surrounded by ghosts.
For Ari, he feels as though his parents’ experiences with Bernardo are actively keeping him from figuring out who he is and developing identity all his own. This shows that Ari doesn’t just crave knowledge about his family: he also craves independence and the ability to make his own choices. His anger that he mentioned Bernardo to Dante again drives home how important it is to Ari’s family to stay silent, even if it’s unhealthy to do so.
Themes
Ari picks up his old journal and finds an entry from the week after he turned 15. He wrote that he didn’t like being a teen or a preteen, but being 10 was great. He had a good teacher and kids liked him. Now, his voice is changing and he’s clumsy. He’s hairy and his feet keep growing. At ten, his biggest worry was speaking English well, as he decided that year to be an American and not sound Mexican. Ari is embarrassed to read this and feels like a loser.
The fact that Ari wrote this entry indicates that on some level, he understands that language will be the thing that frees him. Writing in a journal gives him a place to practice communicating openly, even if it’s just with himself—which, going forward, Ari can draw on as he learns to communicate openly with others.
Themes
Ari keeps flipping through until he finds an entry about Bernardo. He wrote that there are no pictures of him, even though there are pictures of Mom, Dad, Cecelia and Sylvia and their children, and Ari. He wrote that being in prison is worse than being dead, since at least the living talk about dead people. They talk about their deceased dog, but they don’t talk about Bernardo. Ari quips in his journal that he knows more about Alexander Hamilton than his brother, and he’d rather write essays about Bernardo. Ari stops reading and wonders if he’ll ever be able to ask about Bernardo. He remembers whispering, “my brother is in prison” over and over again. The words were bitter and seemed to leak out of him.
Ari sees prison as the ultimate symbol of silence because of the way his parents act about Bernardo. While Ari does struggle to speak truthfully, suggesting that prison is similar to silence suggests that Ari recognizes the damage and the pain that silence can cause. When he mentions truthful words “leaking” out of him, it indicates that the truth isn’t something that Ari will be able to ignore forever. This holds true for a number of things, from Bernardo to, eventually, Ari’s sexuality.
Themes
Ari feels afraid and chaotic. He decides he needs to create order, so he starts a list in his journal of all the things that are happening in his life. He lists the flu, the fact that he feels terrible, that he’s talking to Dad about his dreams, that he hates Mom a little, and that he wants to know about Bernardo. He writes that Dad held him and he wants Dad to hold him forever, that he doesn’t know how to love his parents, that Dante is his first friend, and that he suspects that if Dante really knew him, he wouldn’t like him.
Despite his internal sensitivity, Ari is an angry boy—something that he fears won’t go over well with the openly sensitive Dante. He shows here, however, that his problem really is that he doesn’t know how to be open and vulnerable. Were he to learn these skills, it’s possible that he wouldn’t feel as angry—or, at least, that he’d be able to deal with his anger more healthily.
Themes
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