My favorite quote is when Arisays to himself, “Senior year. And then life. Maybe that’s the way it worked.High school was just a prologue to the real novel. Everybody got to write you— but when you graduated, you got to write yourself” (Saenz). In many ways,this book uses friendship as a tool to help Ari discover who he is and who hewants to be.
Social connections encouragehealthy physical, social, and emotional development. Friendship in adolescenceis important as teens “start to spend less time with parents and siblings,friendships with peers become an increasingly important source of these socialconnections” (HHS.gov). For girls, it is socially acceptable to find closebonds with “girlfriends” who are their platonic friends. “Stereotypes of boysoften send the message that boys don’t feel as strongly or form the same typeof attachments in their friendships, but this is inherently false. It is humannature to attach to certain people and to want closeness and support from others,regardless of gender” (Derhally). Hence, this is probably why the term“bromance” came about. This term gives males a way to signify the relationshipwhile remaining platonic in meaning.
In Aristotle and Dante Discoverthe Secrets of the Universe, we follow the development of two boys and theirfriendship. The boys have a lot of commonalities. Neither is allowed to watchtelevision during the day, they are both Mexican American, and both havetwo-parent families in education. Ari (Aristotle) is from a multiple childworking class family, though he is not close in age to any of the otherchildren. He is reserved as he carries a lot of anger and resentment towards afamily secret. Dante is an only child from a middle-class family and isoutgoing and confident, though he is hesitant about his heritage. Over thecourse of their growing friendship, Dante teaches Ari to swim and Ari teachesDante that he can accept his heritage, despite not being from Mexico. Positiveforms of masculinity are represented in both fathers and help to mold thepositive relationships of Ari and Dante as they transition into young men.
“Adolescents become reliant on peers as a primary source of social support” (Masten 106). Ari and Dante suffer through traumatic accidents during their friendship. These events make their bond stronger. Ari attempts to save Dante from being hit by a car, only to have the car hit Ari instead. Dante is beaten by boys who are not accepting of him kissing another boy. Ari gets angry at the boys from what they did to Dante and threatens them. Both Ari and Dante instinctively want to protect the other. Their friendship grows from a mutual fondness to a love. We are reading the story from Ari’s POV and the signs are subtle for him. We get to experience the ups and downs as Ari experiences them.
Between the traumatic events, separation once their friendship becomes established, the letters of time spent apart, their reunion, and Ari and Dante’s separate coming-out stories this book explores the many ways being authentic makes one a happier person. Sometimes the hardest thing is being honest with yourself about who you as you discover yourself.
I have read that Saenz has saidhe will be writing a sequel, though no release date has been given. I knowthere is a large following for this book and many who want a sequel so they cancontinue the journey with Ari and Dante. What do you think about a sequel? I’min the mindset that I love the ending and no matter where the characters goafter this they have a special place in each other’s lives.
Derhally, Lena Aburdene. “TheImportance of Childhood Friendships, and How to Nurture Them.” TheWashington Post, 25 July 2016, http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2016/07/25/the-importance-of-childhood-friendships-and-how-to-nurture-them/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e5259cb114d7.
Masten, Carrie L, et al. “Time Spentwith Friends in Adolescence Relates to Less Neural Sensitivity to Later PeerRejection.” Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, vol. 7, no. 1,Jan. 2012, pp. 106–114., doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsq098.
Office of Adolescent Health.“Healthy Friendships in Adolescence.” HHS.gov, US Department of Healthand Human Services, 25 Mar. 2019, http://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/adolescent-development/healthy-relationships/healthy-friendships/index.html.
