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
It rains almost every afternoon. Ari finishes The Grapes of Wrath and then War and Peace. Dad decides to read everything that Ari does. Dante comes over every day and reads The Sun Also Rises out loud to Ari. They talk about how sad it is, but they never discuss Dante’s sketches. Ari thinks that he’s punishing Dante by not looking at them, but he can’t figure out why he’s doing this. One day, Dante says that he saw a counselor. He asks if Ari is going to go and says that it helped. Ari points out that talking doesn’t help everyone.
The rainy weather mirrors Ari’s injuries, and the changing weather also symbolizes that something fundamental has changed in Ari’s life and in his relationship with Dante. Were Ari willing to admit it, his choice to leap in front of a car shows that he loves Dante, something that’s uncomfortable for him—but the rain here suggests that it’s still inescapable, even if he’s ignoring it.
Themes
