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Aristotle And Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe

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In the novel “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” by Benjamin Alire Saenz, the main character Ari struggles with finding his self identity and expressing it. He pushes it away and does the opposite of what he really feels to avoid the truth. Ari does not feel that he fits in and compared to the other boys around him he does not want to fit in but he also faces a strong fear of being different. When he meets Dante he is in complete disbelief of how Dante is so intune with himself and it pushes Ari to go on a path of self discovery. As Ari and Dante grow closer in friendship with each other, Ari’s vocabulary begins to expand, thus allowing Ari to express himself. In the beginning, Ari keeps all his emotions to himself and does not know how to …show more content…

Ari loves to feel sorry for himself and believes that not talking about his brother in prison really hurt him and made him feel lonely. His parents through this taught him to not talk about his issues and Dante introduces a whole new world. Ari rejects his thoughts that he does not understand and pushes them away. “I hated taking a shower with a bunch of other guys. I don’t know, I just didn’t like that” (Saenz, 15). At the swimming pool the rule is you have to shower before you swim, Ari thinks it is stupid and it makes him uncomfortable. Deep inside himself he does not realize he is actually suppressing a part of himself because he fears being different. Ari is confused and he is unable to communicate that to anyone so he becomes frustrated. “ ‘Mostly I think I’m trying to find me, Dad.’ It was strange to talk to him about something real. But it scared me

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