LitCharts (2024)

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Detailed Summary & Analysis

Themes

All Themes Identity, Ethnicity, and Masculinity Silence and Trauma vs. Communication Family and Coming of Age Intellectualism and Emotion vs. Physical Strength

Quotes

Characters

All Characters Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza Dante Quintana Dad Mom Sam Quintana Mrs. Quintana Bernardo Mendoza Aunt Ophelia Gina Navarro Susie Byrd Julian Enriquez Legs Ileana Dr. Charles Daniel

Symbols

All Symbols Birds Rain

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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Benjamin Alire Sáenz

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Part Five, Chapter Four

Part Five, Chapter Six

Themesand ColorsKey

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

One night in Dante’s room, Ari asks to see the canvas he’s been working on. Dante refuses and seems far away, but he asks Ari how he knows if he doesn’t like kissing boys when he’s never kissed a boy. Ari points out that Dante hasn’t kissed a boy either and might not know that he likes it. Dante convinces Ari that they should try it and Ari doesn’t know why, but he agrees. They kiss, but Ari pulls away and insists it didn’t work for him. Dante says that it worked for him. Ari admits that he’s a little mad, but more at himself for letting Dante talk him into it. He tells Dante to not cry.

The way that both boys behave in this instance suggests that there’s more to what’s going on than they’d like to admit. Though Ari doesn’t know why, he likely agrees to the kiss because he’s at least curious on some level, if not in love with Dante. Telling Dante not to cry afterwards reveals how uncomfortable Ari is with the possibility that he’s in love with Dante, as stopping Dante’s emotional exhibition means that they can ignore their connection.

ActiveThemes

Part Five, Chapter Four

Part Five, Chapter Six

LitCharts (2024)

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