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 falls asleep one summer night, hoping that things will be different when he wakes up in the morning. Unfortunately, nothing is different when he wakes up. He turns on his radio. The song “Alone” by Heart is playing. Ari doesn’t like the song and thinks that he’s 15, bored, and miserable. The DJ annoyingly plays the theme song from the Lone Ranger. Ari groans as the DJ announces the date—June 15, 1987—and then wishes Waylon Jennings a happy birthday. Ari feels better when the DJ talks about how Jennings survived the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly and Richie Valens. The DJ puts on “La Bamba” and Ari wonders what Valens was thinking when the plane crashed.
It’s a bit of a stretch that Jennings “survived” the 1959 plane crash, as he luckily ended up not being on the plane in the first place. Framing it like this, however, allows Ari to feel like there might be some good in the world, a difficult prospect given how disaffected and unmoored he feels. Trying to think of what Valens felt drives home that Ari is empathetic and can connect to others, but at this point, he’s bogged down in his own misery and that of others.
Themes
