Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

The first section is titled, “The Different Rules of Summer,” a quote that comes from Chapter 2 when Ari says that he loved the different rules of summer while his mother “endured them” (10). The epigraph for the section is, “The problem with my life was that it was someone else’s idea” (8). Although Ari yearns for independence and freedom, he is still a child on some level. Ari is searching for an identity but has yet to discover who he is. His friendship with Dante allows Ari to discover aspects of himself he never knew existed before.

The author creates a vivid sense of time and place in the scene of Ari waking in his bedroom to the radio with the obnoxious DJ. Ari thinks to himself, “Maybe someone should have told that guy that we weren’t all ten-year-olds anymore” (6). Ari, meanwhile, is 15 years old, “the greatest tragedy of all” (14). He struggles to connect with his peers because he prefers to be alone: He loves the notion of being “all on [his] own” (15). However, Ari’s love for solitude is challenged by his flourishing friendship with Dante. Ari calls Dante “one more mystery in a universe full of mysteries” (19). Ari is insecure, thinking he is a “fraud” while Dante is open and confident, though he too “had secrets” (28-29). When Ari goes home after reading poems at Dante’s house, he looks up the word “inscrutable” and thinks about how “words were different when the live inside of you” (31). Dante’s influence on Ari’s perspective is already clear. Dante seems to be opening up a new world for Ari, and Ari feels alive inside of Dante’s world.

The importance of culture in the novel is highlighted from the very beginning. Ari connects to his Mexican identity through his adoration for Latino musicians, such as Carlos Santana. The symbolism of Richie Valens’ untimely death intrigues Ari, and this shows that he is both highly empathetic and sensitive. Pondering the tragedy of someone dying so young, he thinks to himself how sad it was “for the music to be over so soon. For the music to be over when it had just begun” (6). The theme of Ari’s search for his life’s purpose and his frustrations with the limitations and uncertainties of youth is reiterated when he chats with his mother. His mother is optimistic, telling him that he still has time to figure out who he is. Moreover, the way Ari filters his personal growth through art—in this case, music—is one of the book’s most important themes.

The contrast in Ari’s relationships with his parents is established quickly. With his mother, Ari feels comfortable and converses naturally, commenting that she “got my sense of humor. I got hers” (10). The fraught relationship between Ari and his father is explored through the symbolism of the Carlos Santana T-shirt, a gift his father gave him that Ari initially did not like but eventually grew to love. Ari’s changing opinion on the shirt foreshadows his deepening perspective on his father as his view of him changes throughout the novel. He contemplates how the Vietnam War changed his father and makes it difficult for him to understand him. Ari doesn’t know what his father went through during the Vietnam War, and his father’s brooding silence intimidates Ari. This parallels the family’s refusal to discuss Ari’s older brother, who is in prison. His family doesn’t discuss these difficult topics and he struggles to understand them on his own, so he feels lonely. Ari is frustrated by his inability to connect with his father and his inability to connect with his peers who make him feel “inadequate […] like they were all part of this club and I wasn’t a member” (22). He feels he disappoints his father when he quits the Boy Scouts, but his father simply says “It’s your life,” which frustrates him more (23).

Ari and Dante have different relationships with their parents, with Dante admitting that he “is crazy” about his (21). Ari is envious of the relationship Dante and his father have and wonders “what it would be like to walk into a room and kiss [his] father” on the cheek (26). When Ari’s father is filled with tender happiness and gratitude for the art book that Dante gives him, Ari states that “he could never guess how he would react to things” (33).