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 gets his casts off. He feels like his old self, but thinks that this isn’t entirely true—that person doesn’t exist, and Ari doesn’t yet know who he’s going to be. He takes a walk and ends up where Dante held the bird. He walks past Dante’s house and sees a dog in the park across the street. Ari sits down with the dog, which wiggles close and puts its head in Ari’s lap. Ari notes that the dog is female and doesn’t have a collar. Ari walks to the library and then home again, thinking that Dante’s math was off about when he was going to get his casts off. He wonders if Bernardo knew how to swim and thinks about how Dad never talks about Vietnam, even though he has a photo of his war buddies on the wall at home.
Now that Ari recognizes that he’s in a liminal space between childhood and adulthood, he’s able to let go of some of his anxiety and deal exclusively with the project of looking forward to who he’s going to be as a grown man. Wondering more about Bernardo shows Ari continuing to expand the circle of people he thinks about critically. Dad’s photo of his war buddies shows that even if he won’t talk about the war, he does have emotional attachment to it and those who experienced it with him—which, in turn, continues to humanize him for Ari.
Themes
At home, Ari sits on the steps. The dog, who followed him, lays down on the sidewalk and stares at Ari. Dad notices the dog, and both he and Ari start to smile. They reminisce about Charlie, their dog that died, and Dad laughs that Mom doesn’t like dogs inside.
The dog gives Ari another friend to teach him how to be kind, compassionate, and emotionally open—while also being silent. This shows Ari that his silence can be used for good, not just to hurt people or shut them out.
Themes
