Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

It’s been a very long time since I first read this book and well, I first discovered by via someone who was drawing pictures of the characters online. I was about seventeen at this point, maybe pushing eighteen when I found these cartoons online of these characters. When I first found and read the book at first, I was fairly unimpressed but as I got into it, the book got more and more intense. It became more and more emotional, by the end I was crying. It was one of the most beautiful books I’d ever read and it was a YA Novel. It completely changed my mind about YA. It made me believe that YA Novels could be as emotionally sophisticated as classic novels and that they could be honestly some of the greatest books you’ve ever read.

My favourite character was Aristotle. Also known as ‘Ari’ - he is a young Mexican boy who grows up being friends with a boy called Dante. Ari’s greatest attribute is his emotion. He is an incredibly empathetic being who feels almost everything all at once. He is overwhelmingly emotional at some points and you really get to feel all of that with him. He’s a character of extreme complexity and as he grows up, you can really see his emotions become more and more developed and more and more complicated. However, it is also his biggest downfall. His biggest downfall is the fact that he always feels to much and therefore, he often loses control, he often becomes very upset very quickly and he often becomes incredibly anxious over the smallest things. It’s like he’s always on edge to feel something and it is only the slightest thing that is required to set him off. He represents all the overwhelmingly emotional aspects of the novel and yet, Dante represents the opposite. This is why we need them both in order to create a massive balance in the book. They both represent the opposing sides of the masculine stages of growth.

A key theme in the book is compassion. Ari finds that he is seriously compassionate for other people’s feelings. This, ironically, makes him chronically unpopular. Whereas, Dante is not compassionate in the same sense that Ari is - he tends to hide his compassion behind a ‘tougher’ image. This makes him very popular, especially with the opposite sex. But, Ari leads a more satisfactory life in terms of his emotions as he is allowed to sit with them and become compassionate towards himself. In contrast, Dante is not allowed to and therefore, he is not satisfied - confiding in Ari, who is compassionate - he tells his best friend all of his feelings, eventually leaving him behind when he is ‘no longer required’. Therefore, Dante leaves behind compassion for Ari and thus, that is when his life spins out of control. Realising he requires Ari - Dante enacts this theme as a person who requires it once again. However, as Dante struggles to show compassion, Ari is inviting about it. Not only does this present the compassionate nature between them but it also presents the way in which they are again, binary opposites and for them to come together in a relationship is highly unlikely. Thus presenting the end of the novel as something of complete surprise. The theme of compassion is normally used in this book as a way of two characters expressing emotion towards each other. There is a point in the book where Ari and Dante stop speaking to each other for a long time and there is a zero amount of compassion in the novel. This is because the two characters that were representing this emotion are now not connected and therefore, cannot enact this theme. It is also because mostly the only people that they had real compassion for was each other and thus, it becomes a vicious cycle of wanting to show compassion, but also wanting to wait and see if it is true compassion - and that is Dante’s existence. Whereas, with Ari feeling overwhelmed the vast majority of the time, there is a clear amount of compassion coming through everything he is feeling and thus, he comes across as highly emotional. It impacts the way in which we read the book because of the way it deals with the theme of compassion when it comes to the growth of two immigrant boys. It evokes compassion from the reader as well. You find yourself completely compassionate towards these two boys and thus, the book has taught you how to feel for them correctly. It is all empathy and all sympathy at the same time.

This book means an awful lot to me because it was the first real YA style book I became consumed by. When I say consumed, I mean I was obsessed with this book for a good few years afterwards. My latter readings were impacted greatly by this because I started reading way more from the Stonewall Book Award winners and the likes. It became a very obsessive thing for me, I would look up fan art and do things on my computer that had some artistic link to the book. Through my re-readings of this book I have discovered that if we are to be compassionate then it is very important that we find the correct words in order to do so. We cannot hide behind a mask of toughness, or use our words incorrectly. We must communicate with our exact feelings if we want someone else to understand us. It has also taught me that though we must communicate our feelings exactly, our language is far too limited to do so.

I think far more people should read this book, especially those who think that YA Literature is not worth reading. This is mainly because this book will actually change your entire opinion of it. It is an instant modern classic. This book is still incredibly relevant today and the relationship between Ari and Dante should show you exactly why. On my next re-read, I’m going to investigate Dante more than Ari. I want to see into his soul and find out why he nearly completely abandons Ari at one point.