Identity: Aristotle and Dante’s Story (2024)

“I don’t know who I am” (Saenz 149).

Aristotle and Dante’s story is a beautifully written novel about friendship, love (familial and not), family, masculinity, gender, and, most importantly, identity. Ari and Dante are both young. They’re fifteen at the start of the novel. They’re at the coming of age phase in their journey to self identity, a phase that we’ve all been through and some of us even hated at the time. Not all journeys to learning who you are can be easy and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe touches on this in such a way that is both relatable and educational. Sometimes, it feels as though you “don’t belong anywhere” and this novel so brilliantly explored that notion (Saenz 88).

Ari was so relatable to me in the way that he was angry while trying to figure out who he was. There were two quotes in the beginning of the novel, almost right from the start, that hit the mark for me and I think a lot of other people. Ari says that “fifteen-year-old’s don’t qualify as people” who all, at some point, think, “the problem with my life was that it was someone else’s idea” because it’s true (Saenz 8). Fifteen feels like so long ago and I’m only twenty-one but I can remember how, at that age, I felt as though I was being told who I was before I could learn that on my own. We’ve all been there when Ari is speaking to his mother and says, “I’m fifteen. How old do I have to be? How old, mom, before you think I’m smart enough to get it? I’m not a little boy” (Saenz 69). Parents and adults think they know you best and even mean well but, sometimes, they’re wrong. What I love about the novel is that Ari’s parents actually seem to apologize for this near the end of the novel where they tell Ari that they thought what they were doing was right but even they can make mistakes. I like that the author included this because there seems to be the notion that parents are all-knowing adults who can’t be wrong when you’re trying to get them to understand you or if you’re arguing with them.

My ‘coming of age’ stage (if you can really call it that in my case) was full of anger, despair, and desperation of trying to figure out who I was and I still don’t fully know. I think that’s one of the points of the novel that’s done well. It takes a while to really learn who you are as a person. You get the initial understanding but, even then, as you grow older you learn more things about yourself and we see that at the end of the novel from Ari’s POV. Furthermore, when Ari says “I was ashamed of myself for being ashamed of myself” (Saenz 18), I felt that. When I was younger, and sometimes even now, I struggled a lot with figuring out who I was and when I looked in the mirror, I didn’t like it at first. But, like Ari, I learned to like who I was and, what I didn’t like about myself, I could always come to an understanding with.

Aristotle and Dante’s friendship is one of my favorite things of the novel. It felt so real and not dramatized for appeal. Together, they learned about themselves and each other. I felt as though, through their bond, they helped each other come to terms with their identities. They helped figure out who they were and that was done so well by the author. Ari finally found someone who he could be himself around without any expectations. The novel follows these two as they struggle with both their sexuality and identities.

The two main characters — Aristotle (“Ari”) and Dante — are both Mexican-Americans, but have different relationships with that identity and what it means to them. Aristotle is proud of his heritage, even though he makes jokes about joining gangs to annoy his mother. There is a strong “anti-stereotype” shown, all the Mexican characters we meet are respectable, but none can escape the belief of what a Mexican person should be. Dante regularly struggles with this cultural identity and this is a key part of his character — he battles an internal shame of being Latino, while also coming to terms with a fluid sexuality that he doesn’t quite understand yet.

Zara Martin, 2018

I think what makes the theme of identity so appealing in this novel is that the author doesn’t make it obvious like some of the YA novels that are in the spotlight. His themes are subtle, at times, and flow in such a way that it just works for the novel. Representation is also evident in ways that haven’t been done in other novels. Saenz includes several types of representation (race, sexuality, mental illness, etc) in a way that appeals to many readers and has probably helped a lot of readers come to term with their identities in a way only a well-written novel can.

While the focus of this blog is self-identity, the main characters’ sexuality is a part of this identity and it wouldn’t feel right without talking about that topic briefly. There’s actually an important scene in the novel pertaining to identity that I think is really relevant, especially right now, but also poses as an example of how sexuality can go with self-identity. When Dante gets beaten up for simply kissing another boy, it reminded me about Pride Month and how this is exactly what many LGBT+ members have either gone through or are scared of going through. A writer at the Seattle Times wrote, “During my adolescence, I learned what people thought about hom*osexuality from TV, movies, the newspaper, school and church. When I knew for certain that I was gay, I did not celebrate.” Dante is such an important character in the fact that he probably felt this way and still decided to be himself publicly and he didn’t run. He was courageous in that he refused to be ashamed of being himself. Dante is such a strong representation for those who are coming to terms with both their sexuality and identity. Though sexuality is not something that solely defines who someone is. It’s just another part of who someone is.

Saenz wrote a novel that was so relatable and I’m truly glad that I got to read it in this class. While doing some research for this blog post, I stumbled upon an interview that the author had done with NPR. I learned that the author himself had come out and that this book was a result of that, in a way.

Writing this story was therapeutic, Saenz says. “I think I needed to write this book because I had such difficulties coming to terms with my own sexuality,” he says. Saenz’s coming out happened much later in life, when he was 54. “I was abused as a boy, and the thought of being with a man was not very appealing, to say the least.”

The site continues on to say that a friend told Saenz that writing this book could help him “come to terms” with his sexuality and identity, the same way that Ari comes to terms with his sexuality and identity in the novel. I think it’s kind of beautiful that the author was able to use the book in this way. It makes the novel that much more special.

This novel is one of discovery. Our main characters, by the end of the novel, have discovered who they are and their places in the world, so to speak. It’s become one of my favorites of this class so far.

References:

• LiseKhea. “Witchcraftmood.” Oh Well, Tumblr, http://www.witchcraftmood.tumblr.com/post/175740577657/all-this-time-tribute-illustration-to-one-of-the.
• Martin , Zara. “More than Skin-Deep: Representation in Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe | University Express.” UCC Express, University Express, 8 Apr. 2018, http://www.uccexpress.ie/more-than-skin-deep-representation-in-aristotle-and-dante-discover-the-secrets-of-the-universe/.
• Sater, Richard Compson. “Why It’s Still Scary to Be Gay.” The Seattle Times, The Seattle Times Company, 24 June 2016, http://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/why-its-still-scary-to-be-gay/.
• NPR Staff. “Discovering Sexuality Through Teen Lit.” NPR, NPR, 20 Feb. 2013, http://www.npr.org/2013/02/20/172495550/discovering-sexuality-through-teen-lit.