Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Detailed Summary & Analysis
Part One, Chapter OnePart One, Chapter TwoPart One, Chapter ThreePart One, Chapter FourPart One, Chapter FivePart One, Chapter SixPart One, Chapter SevenPart One, Chapter EightPart One, Chapter NinePart One, Chapter TenPart One, Chapter ElevenPart One, Chapter TwelvePart Two, Chapter OnePart Two, Chapter TwoPart Two, Chapter ThreePart Two, Chapter FourPart Two, Chapter FivePart Two, Chapter SixPart Two, Chapter SevenPart Two, Chapter EightPart Two, Chapter NinePart Two, Chapter TenPart Two, Chapter ElevenPart Two, Chapter TwelvePart Three, Chapter OnePart Three, Chapter TwoPart Three, Chapter ThreePart Three, Chapter FourPart Three, Chapter FivePart Three, Chapter SixPart Three, Chapter SevenPart Three, Chapter EightPart Three, Chapter NinePart Three, Chapter TenPart Three, Chapter ElevenPart Four, Chapter OnePart Four, Chapter TwoPart Four, Chapter ThreePart Four, Chapter FourPart Four, Chapter FivePart Four, Chapter SixPart Four, Chapter SevenPart Four, Chapter EightPart Four, Chapter NinePart Four, Chapter TenPart Four, Chapter ElevenPart Four, Chapter TwelvePart Four, Chapter ThirteenPart Four, Chapter FourteenPart Four, Chapter FifteenPart Four, Chapter SixteenPart Four, Chapter SeventeenPart Four, Chapter EighteenPart Four, Chapter NineteenPart Four, Chapter TwentyPart Four, Chapter Twenty-OnePart Four, Chapter Twenty-TwoPart Four, Chapter Twenty-ThreePart Four, Chapter Twenty-FourPart Four, Chapter Twenty-FivePart Four, Chapter Twenty-SixPart Four, Chapter Twenty-SevenPart Four, Chapter Twenty-EightPart Four, Chapter Twenty-NinePart Four, Chapter ThirtyPart Four, Chapter Thirty-OnePart Five, Chapter OnePart Five, Chapter TwoPart Five, Chapter ThreePart Five, Chapter FourPart Five, Chapter FivePart Five, Chapter SixPart Five, Chapter SevenPart Five, Chapter EightPart Five, Chapter NinePart Five, Chapter TenPart Five, Chapter ElevenPart Five, Chapter TwelvePart Five, Chapter ThirteenPart Five, Chapter FourteenPart Five, Chapter FifteenPart Five, Chapter SixteenPart Five, Chapter SeventeenPart Five, Chapter EighteenPart Six, Chapter OnePart Six, Chapter TwoPart Six, Chapter ThreePart Six, Chapter FourPart Six, Chapter FivePart Six, Chapter SixPart Six, Chapter SevenPart Six, Chapter EightPart Six, Chapter NinePart Six, Chapter TenPart Six, Chapter ElevenPart Six, Chapter TwelvePart Six, Chapter ThirteenPart Six, Chapter FourteenPart Six, Chapter FifteenPart Six, Chapter SixteenPart Six, Chapter SeventeenPart Six, Chapter EighteenPart Six, Chapter NineteenPart Six, Chapter TwentyPart Six, Chapter Twenty-One
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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
byBenjamin Alire Sáenz
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The novel’s protagonist. Over the course of the novel, Ari grows from age 15 to almost 17. While he develops in a number of important ways, a few things remain the same: he desperately wants to figure out the titular “secrets of the universe,” and also thinks that being a teen in the throes of puberty is tragic. Ari believes that his development will be tied to figuring out Dad, a non-communicative Vietnam War vet, and discovering what happened to his brother, Bernardo, who’s in prison for a mysterious crime. When Ari meets Dante at the local pool, Dante introduces Ari, who’s quiet like Dad, to the possibility that he’ll only be able to make these changes by becoming more open and vulnerable—and, most importantly, by communicating with others. This becomes increasingly important as Ari grows angrier and angrier, especially after he saves Dante from a speeding car and Ari’s legs are run over. Ari insists that he saved Dante out of instinct, something that allows him to ignore his romantic love for Dante—which everyone but Ari himself can see. After the accident, Ari begins to lean more heavily on his physical strength and on doing things that make him seem more Mexican, such as asking for a 1957 pickup truck for his birthday. Despite his belief that he must remain silent around other people, Ari resurrects his childhood journal and in it, begins to pour out some of his insecurities and his desire to communicate better and know more about himself and his family. During his and Dante’s second summer, Ari’s dangerous and unhealthy silence reaches a head and as Dad begins to talk to Ari, Ari begins to open up. Ari’s journey culminates when he breaks a boy’s nose in retaliation for beating up Dante for being gay and when, in the aftermath, Dad encourages Ari to be brave and stop running from the truth. Because of this, Ari is able to confess his love to Dante, and this makes him feel free for the first time.
Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza Quotes in Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
The Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe quotes below are all either spoken by Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza or refer to Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part One, Chapter ThreeQuotes
So that’s the way it was. When I was eight, I didn’t know anything about war. I didn’t even know what a conscience was. All I knew is that sometimes my father was sad. I hated that he was sad. It made me sad too. I didn’t like sad.
So I was the son of a man who had Vietnam living inside him. Yeah, I had all kinds of tragic reasons for feeling sorry for myself. Being fifteen didn’t help. Sometimes I thought that being fifteen was the worst tragedy of all.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dad, Mom
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:14
Explanation and Analysis:
Part One, Chapter FourQuotes
Boys. I watched them. Studied them.
In the end, I didn’t find most of the guys that surrounded me very interesting. In fact, I was pretty disgusted.
Maybe I was a little superior. But I don’t think I was superior. I just didn’t understand how to talk to them, how to be myself around them. Being around other guys didn’t make me feel smarter. Being around guys made me feel stupid and inadequate. It was like they were all a part of this club and I wasn’t a member.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker)
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:22
Part One, Chapter FiveQuotes
It made me smile, the way they got along, the easy and affectionate way they talked to each other as if love between a father and a son was simple and uncomplicated. My mom and I, sometimes the thing we had between us was easy and uncomplicated. Sometimes. But me and my dad, we didn’t have that. I wondered what that would be like, to walk into a room and kiss my father.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana, Dad, Mom, Sam Quintana
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:26
Part One, Chapter SevenQuotes
“My dad says it’s all right if people make fun of you. You know what he said to me? He said, ‘Dante, you’re an intellectual. That’s who you are. Don’t be ashamed of that.’”
I noticed his smile was a little sad. Maybe everyone was a little sad. Maybe so.
“Ari, I’m trying not to be ashamed.”
I knew what it was like to be ashamed. Only, Dante knew why. And I didn’t.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana (speaker), Sam Quintana
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:35
Part One, Chapter ElevenQuotes
“We’re not really Mexicans. Do we live in Mexico?”
“But that’s where our grandparents came from.”
“Okay, okay. But do we actually know anything about Mexico?”
“We speak Spanish.”
“Not that good.”
“Speak for yourself, Dante. You’re such a pocho.”
“What’s a pocho?”
“A half-assed Mexican.”
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana (speaker)
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:44-45
Part Two, Chapter TwoQuotes
I kept staring down at the floor. And then I heard my father’s voice in the room again. “I have bad dreams too, Ari.”
I wanted to ask him if his dreams were about the war or about my brother. I wanted to ask him if he woke up as scared as me.
All I did was smile at him. He’d told me something about himself. I was happy.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dad (speaker), Bernardo Mendoza
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:66
Part Two, Chapter EightQuotes
“I mean, my dad’s parents were born in Mexico. They live in a small little house in East LA and they speak no English and own a little restaurant. It’s like my mom and dad created a whole new world for themselves. I live in their new world. But they understand the old world, the world they came from—and I don’t. I don’t belong anywhere. That’s the problem.”
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana (speaker), Sam Quintana, Mrs. Quintana
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:87-88
Part Two, Chapter TenQuotes
Because my older brother was in prison and maybe my mother and father blamed themselves. If only they’d said something, done something. They weren’t going to make that mistake again. So I was stuck with my family’s guilt—a guilt that not even my mother would talk about. She sometimes mentioned my brother in passing. But she never said his name.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dad, Mom, Bernardo Mendoza
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:92-93
And my feet keep getting bigger and bigger. What’s with the big feet? When I was ten, I was kinda small and I wasn’t worried about hair. The only thing I was worried about was trying to speak perfect English. I made up my mind that year—when I was ten—that I wasn’t going to sound like another Mexican. I was going to be an American. And when I talked I was going to sound like one.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker)
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:94
Part Two, Chapter ElevenQuotes
“When I went to the university, I never had one Mexican-American professor. Not one.” There was a look on her face, almost anger.
I knew so little about her. About what she’d been through—about what it felt like to be her. I’d never cared, not really. I was starting to care, starting to wonder. Starting to wonder about everything.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Mom (speaker), Sam Quintana
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:99
Part Three, Chapter TwoQuotes
This is what I understood: a woman like Mrs. Quintana didn’t use the word “love” very often. When she said that word, she meant it. And one more thing I understood: Dante’s mother loved him more than he would ever know. I didn’t know what to do with that piece of information. So I just kept it inside. That’s what I did with everything. Kept it inside.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana, Mrs. Quintana
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:126
Part Three, Chapter ThreeQuotes
I guess it was enough just to hear the sound of Dante’s voice. It was like listening to a song. I kept thinking about the bird with the broken wing. Nobody told me what happened to the bird. And I couldn’t even ask because I would be breaking my own rule about not talking about the accident.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana
Related Symbols:Birds, Rain
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:131
Part Three, Chapter EightQuotes
When he was done, I opened my eyes. Tears were falling down his face. I should have expected that. I wanted to yell at him. I wanted to tell him that it was me who should be crying.
Dante had this look on his face. He looked like an angel. And all I wanted to do was put my fist through his jaw. I couldn’t stand my own cruelty.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:144
Part Four, Chapter NineteenQuotes
Maybe my dad just didn’t need words to get by in the world. I wasn’t like that. Well, I was like that on the outside, pretending not to need words. But I wasn’t like that on the inside.
I’d figured something out about myself: on the inside, I wasn’t like my dad at all. On the inside I was more like Dante. That really scared me.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana, Dad
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:200
Part Four, Chapter ThirtyQuotes
The thing is I love my dad. My mom too. And I keep wondering what they’re going to say when I tell them that someday I want to marry a boy. I wonder how that’s going to go over? I’m the only son. What’s going to happen with the grandchildren thing? I hate that I’m going to disappoint them, Ari. I know I’ve disappointed you too.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Sam Quintana, Mrs. Quintana
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:227
Part Five, Chapter OneQuotes
“You’re in high school, Ari. You’re not looking for a profession. You’re just looking for a way to earn some money. You’re in transition.”
“In transition? What kind of a Mexican mother are you?”
“I’m an educated woman. That doesn’t un-Mexicanize me, Ari.”
She sounded a little angry. I loved her anger and wished I had more of it. Her anger was different than mine or my father’s. Her anger didn’t paralyze her.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Mom (speaker), Dad
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:237
Sometimes parents loved their sons so much that they made a romance out of their lives. They thought our youth could help us overcome everything. Maybe moms and dads forget about this one small fact: being on the verge of seventeen could be harsh and painful and confusing. Being on the verge of seventeen could really suck.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dad, Mom
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:239
Part Five, Chapter ThreeQuotes
“We’ll play that game,” I said. “That game you made up to beat the hell out of your tennis shoes.”
“It was fun, wasn’t it?”
The way he said that. Like he knew we would never play that game again. We were too old now. We’d lost something and we both knew it.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana (speaker)
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:249
Part Five, Chapter TwelveQuotes
“I’m sorry about last night,” I said. “It’s just that sometimes I have things running around inside me, these feelings. I don’t always know what to do with them. That probably doesn’t make any sense.”
“It sounds normal, Ari.”
“I don’t think I’m so normal.”
“Feeling things is normal.”
“Except I’m angry. And I don’t really know where all that anger comes from.”
“Maybe if we talked more.”
“Well, which one of us is good with words, Dad?”
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dad (speaker), Aunt Ophelia
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:280
I left him alone for a while. But then, I decided I wanted to be with him. I decided that maybe we left each other alone too much. Leaving each other alone was killing us.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dad, Mom, Bernardo Mendoza, Aunt Ophelia
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:280
Part Six, Chapter OneQuotes
He looked tired but at that moment, as we sat at the kitchen table, there was something young about him. And I thought that maybe he was changing into someone else.
Everyone was always becoming someone else.
Sometimes, when you were older, you became someone younger. And me, I felt old. How can a guy who’s about to turn seventeen feel old?
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dad
Related Symbols:Rain
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:300
Part Six, Chapter TwoQuotes
“He was so happy that you were going to have another baby. And not just because he was going to be a big brother. And he said, ‘He has to be a boy and he has to like girls.’ That’s what he said. So that you could have grandchildren. So that you could be happy.”
“I don’t care about grandchildren. I care about Dante.”
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Sam Quintana (speaker), Dante Quintana
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:202
Part Six, Chapter FourQuotes
Sometimes, you do things and you do them not because you’re thinking but because you’re feeling. Because you’re feeling too much. And you can’t always control the things you do when you’re feeling too much. Maybe the difference between being a boy and being a man is that boys couldn’t control the awful things they sometimes felt. And men could. That afternoon, I was just a boy. Not even close to being a man.
I was a boy. A boy who went crazy. Crazy, crazy.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana, Julian Enriquez, Daniel
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:311
Part Six, Chapter NineQuotes
And loved my father too, for the careful way he spoke. I came to understand that my father was a careful man. To be careful with people and with words was a rare and beautiful thing.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dad
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:324
Part Six, Chapter EighteenQuotes
“What am I going to do?”
My father’s voice was soft. “Dante didn’t run. I keep picturing him taking all those blows. But he didn’t run.”
“Okay,” I said. For once in my life, I understood my father perfectly.
And he understood me.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dad (speaker), Dante Quintana, Mom
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:350
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Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza Quotes in Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
The Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe quotes below are all either spoken by Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza or refer to Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part One, Chapter ThreeQuotes
So that’s the way it was. When I was eight, I didn’t know anything about war. I didn’t even know what a conscience was. All I knew is that sometimes my father was sad. I hated that he was sad. It made me sad too. I didn’t like sad.
So I was the son of a man who had Vietnam living inside him. Yeah, I had all kinds of tragic reasons for feeling sorry for myself. Being fifteen didn’t help. Sometimes I thought that being fifteen was the worst tragedy of all.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dad, Mom
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:14
Explanation and Analysis:
Part One, Chapter FourQuotes
Boys. I watched them. Studied them.
In the end, I didn’t find most of the guys that surrounded me very interesting. In fact, I was pretty disgusted.
Maybe I was a little superior. But I don’t think I was superior. I just didn’t understand how to talk to them, how to be myself around them. Being around other guys didn’t make me feel smarter. Being around guys made me feel stupid and inadequate. It was like they were all a part of this club and I wasn’t a member.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker)
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:22
Part One, Chapter FiveQuotes
It made me smile, the way they got along, the easy and affectionate way they talked to each other as if love between a father and a son was simple and uncomplicated. My mom and I, sometimes the thing we had between us was easy and uncomplicated. Sometimes. But me and my dad, we didn’t have that. I wondered what that would be like, to walk into a room and kiss my father.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana, Dad, Mom, Sam Quintana
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:26
Part One, Chapter SevenQuotes
“My dad says it’s all right if people make fun of you. You know what he said to me? He said, ‘Dante, you’re an intellectual. That’s who you are. Don’t be ashamed of that.’”
I noticed his smile was a little sad. Maybe everyone was a little sad. Maybe so.
“Ari, I’m trying not to be ashamed.”
I knew what it was like to be ashamed. Only, Dante knew why. And I didn’t.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana (speaker), Sam Quintana
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:35
Part One, Chapter ElevenQuotes
“We’re not really Mexicans. Do we live in Mexico?”
“But that’s where our grandparents came from.”
“Okay, okay. But do we actually know anything about Mexico?”
“We speak Spanish.”
“Not that good.”
“Speak for yourself, Dante. You’re such a pocho.”
“What’s a pocho?”
“A half-assed Mexican.”
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana (speaker)
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:44-45
Part Two, Chapter TwoQuotes
I kept staring down at the floor. And then I heard my father’s voice in the room again. “I have bad dreams too, Ari.”
I wanted to ask him if his dreams were about the war or about my brother. I wanted to ask him if he woke up as scared as me.
All I did was smile at him. He’d told me something about himself. I was happy.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dad (speaker), Bernardo Mendoza
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:66
Part Two, Chapter EightQuotes
“I mean, my dad’s parents were born in Mexico. They live in a small little house in East LA and they speak no English and own a little restaurant. It’s like my mom and dad created a whole new world for themselves. I live in their new world. But they understand the old world, the world they came from—and I don’t. I don’t belong anywhere. That’s the problem.”
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana (speaker), Sam Quintana, Mrs. Quintana
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:87-88
Part Two, Chapter TenQuotes
Because my older brother was in prison and maybe my mother and father blamed themselves. If only they’d said something, done something. They weren’t going to make that mistake again. So I was stuck with my family’s guilt—a guilt that not even my mother would talk about. She sometimes mentioned my brother in passing. But she never said his name.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dad, Mom, Bernardo Mendoza
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:92-93
And my feet keep getting bigger and bigger. What’s with the big feet? When I was ten, I was kinda small and I wasn’t worried about hair. The only thing I was worried about was trying to speak perfect English. I made up my mind that year—when I was ten—that I wasn’t going to sound like another Mexican. I was going to be an American. And when I talked I was going to sound like one.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker)
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:94
Part Two, Chapter ElevenQuotes
“When I went to the university, I never had one Mexican-American professor. Not one.” There was a look on her face, almost anger.
I knew so little about her. About what she’d been through—about what it felt like to be her. I’d never cared, not really. I was starting to care, starting to wonder. Starting to wonder about everything.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Mom (speaker), Sam Quintana
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:99
Part Three, Chapter TwoQuotes
This is what I understood: a woman like Mrs. Quintana didn’t use the word “love” very often. When she said that word, she meant it. And one more thing I understood: Dante’s mother loved him more than he would ever know. I didn’t know what to do with that piece of information. So I just kept it inside. That’s what I did with everything. Kept it inside.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana, Mrs. Quintana
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:126
Part Three, Chapter ThreeQuotes
I guess it was enough just to hear the sound of Dante’s voice. It was like listening to a song. I kept thinking about the bird with the broken wing. Nobody told me what happened to the bird. And I couldn’t even ask because I would be breaking my own rule about not talking about the accident.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana
Related Symbols:Birds, Rain
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:131
Part Three, Chapter EightQuotes
When he was done, I opened my eyes. Tears were falling down his face. I should have expected that. I wanted to yell at him. I wanted to tell him that it was me who should be crying.
Dante had this look on his face. He looked like an angel. And all I wanted to do was put my fist through his jaw. I couldn’t stand my own cruelty.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:144
Part Four, Chapter NineteenQuotes
Maybe my dad just didn’t need words to get by in the world. I wasn’t like that. Well, I was like that on the outside, pretending not to need words. But I wasn’t like that on the inside.
I’d figured something out about myself: on the inside, I wasn’t like my dad at all. On the inside I was more like Dante. That really scared me.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana, Dad
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:200
Part Four, Chapter ThirtyQuotes
The thing is I love my dad. My mom too. And I keep wondering what they’re going to say when I tell them that someday I want to marry a boy. I wonder how that’s going to go over? I’m the only son. What’s going to happen with the grandchildren thing? I hate that I’m going to disappoint them, Ari. I know I’ve disappointed you too.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Sam Quintana, Mrs. Quintana
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:227
Part Five, Chapter OneQuotes
“You’re in high school, Ari. You’re not looking for a profession. You’re just looking for a way to earn some money. You’re in transition.”
“In transition? What kind of a Mexican mother are you?”
“I’m an educated woman. That doesn’t un-Mexicanize me, Ari.”
She sounded a little angry. I loved her anger and wished I had more of it. Her anger was different than mine or my father’s. Her anger didn’t paralyze her.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Mom (speaker), Dad
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:237
Sometimes parents loved their sons so much that they made a romance out of their lives. They thought our youth could help us overcome everything. Maybe moms and dads forget about this one small fact: being on the verge of seventeen could be harsh and painful and confusing. Being on the verge of seventeen could really suck.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dad, Mom
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:239
Part Five, Chapter ThreeQuotes
“We’ll play that game,” I said. “That game you made up to beat the hell out of your tennis shoes.”
“It was fun, wasn’t it?”
The way he said that. Like he knew we would never play that game again. We were too old now. We’d lost something and we both knew it.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana (speaker)
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:249
Part Five, Chapter TwelveQuotes
“I’m sorry about last night,” I said. “It’s just that sometimes I have things running around inside me, these feelings. I don’t always know what to do with them. That probably doesn’t make any sense.”
“It sounds normal, Ari.”
“I don’t think I’m so normal.”
“Feeling things is normal.”
“Except I’m angry. And I don’t really know where all that anger comes from.”
“Maybe if we talked more.”
“Well, which one of us is good with words, Dad?”
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dad (speaker), Aunt Ophelia
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:280
I left him alone for a while. But then, I decided I wanted to be with him. I decided that maybe we left each other alone too much. Leaving each other alone was killing us.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dad, Mom, Bernardo Mendoza, Aunt Ophelia
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:280
Part Six, Chapter OneQuotes
He looked tired but at that moment, as we sat at the kitchen table, there was something young about him. And I thought that maybe he was changing into someone else.
Everyone was always becoming someone else.
Sometimes, when you were older, you became someone younger. And me, I felt old. How can a guy who’s about to turn seventeen feel old?
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dad
Related Symbols:Rain
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:300
Part Six, Chapter TwoQuotes
“He was so happy that you were going to have another baby. And not just because he was going to be a big brother. And he said, ‘He has to be a boy and he has to like girls.’ That’s what he said. So that you could have grandchildren. So that you could be happy.”
“I don’t care about grandchildren. I care about Dante.”
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Sam Quintana (speaker), Dante Quintana
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:202
Part Six, Chapter FourQuotes
Sometimes, you do things and you do them not because you’re thinking but because you’re feeling. Because you’re feeling too much. And you can’t always control the things you do when you’re feeling too much. Maybe the difference between being a boy and being a man is that boys couldn’t control the awful things they sometimes felt. And men could. That afternoon, I was just a boy. Not even close to being a man.
I was a boy. A boy who went crazy. Crazy, crazy.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dante Quintana, Julian Enriquez, Daniel
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Page Number and Citation:311
Part Six, Chapter NineQuotes
And loved my father too, for the careful way he spoke. I came to understand that my father was a careful man. To be careful with people and with words was a rare and beautiful thing.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dad
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Page Number and Citation:324
Part Six, Chapter EighteenQuotes
“What am I going to do?”
My father’s voice was soft. “Dante didn’t run. I keep picturing him taking all those blows. But he didn’t run.”
“Okay,” I said. For once in my life, I understood my father perfectly.
And he understood me.
Related Characters:Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza (speaker), Dad (speaker), Dante Quintana, Mom
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:350
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