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 thinks that there’s a direct connection between his dream of Bernardo and his last memories of him. Ari was four when Bernardo was put in prison. Ari knows that there’s a difference between prison and jail—his alcoholic uncle goes to jail overnight, but people go to prison for a long time. Ari vows to find out why Bernardo is in prison. He decides to start looking through old newspapers and thinks that Dante would know how to figure this out, but Ari declares that he’s going to do this alone.
Choosing to search for the truth about Bernardo on his own is both a step forward and a step back for Ari. Taking matters into his own hands is, importantly, an attempt to end the silence in his family, which Ari believes will help him come of age. However, doing it without help at all means it’s going to be far more difficult and suggests that he still relies on silence more than is healthy.
Themes
