ARISTOLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE

ARISTOLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE By Benjamin Alire Saenz

SUMMARY In this book the two characters Aristole and Dante are very close they have a relationship that is special and like no relation ship they have ever had before. They are both very lonely when they first meet at a swimming pool, and they were just two normal teenage boys slowly growing up and they are gay. At the beginning of the book they had no idea that would happen tho, Dante did know that he was gay first but he didn’t know that he was gay for Ari. Through out this whole book they are basically discovering who they are and I think that is what they mean when they say discovering the secrets of the universe. But just as most stories in the end they lived happily ever after.

MAIN CHARACTERS The two main characters as you know are Ari and Dante, but there are some other characters who are quite known in the book both the kids parents, Aris sibling he has two older sisters (who are twins)he also has a brother in jail that he know very little about and really questions his family because of this and that part plays a pretty important role in the book

SETTING The setting of basically the whole book is in mexico, but in the book we learn the year and the book started in 1988 and finished in 1989. which I found really cool. Although Dante does move away we are never actually in Chicago with him.

SYMBOL I think that a symbol in this book is actually just the title because the title of the book it says that Ari and Dante are discovering the secrets of the universe and when I first read that I thought it meant going on adventures together and stuff like that, but it turns out that is meant discovering them selves and their universe which is what it was meant to symbolize.

CONFLICT There wasn’t very much conflict in the book per say there was just the ocasinal disagreement in something said and for the most part it was between Ari and Dante just about dumb things and then because they were best friends they would get over it.

THEME I think theme was drama cause there was a lot of stuff always exagerated and something was always happening and to me it just seems like a very dramatized book when really they could have cooled it down and done some better stuff with it.

POINT OF VIEW This book is in first person because through out the whole book it is Ari talking and explaining his story and the story of him and Dantes life.

PLOT The plot of this story is two 15 year old boys meet and are completely lost before they meet each other but as they meet they are still trying to find out who they are in many different ways by adventuring. Ari and Dante go through a lot of ups and downs in their friendship but in the end they find out the reason they had trouble with their friendship was because they were so much more than friends.

MY QUESTION Is why do we need love to feel accepted? ?

HOW IS THIS QUESTION RELATED TO THE BOOK And I chose this question because in the book before they go “ find themselves” Ari really had trouble accepting who he was and he was bullied a lot and he didn’t feel love especially from his dad but everyone did love him he just couldn't see it

ANSWER I think that people need to love them selves before they except someone else loving them and the only way we can feel accepted is if we feel loved in this world. Which when you think about it makes sense so basically what I am saying is that in order for us to be loved we have to give love to our selves and to others, . And that is how you feel accepted although I think you were accepted all along, because the only person holding us back is ourselves. So we need to love ourselves and others to be accepted.