Aristotle And Saenz: Character Analysis

One secret of the universe that scientists have discovered is that the opposite charge attracts ; the attraction between two oppositely charged object is to achieve a balance. Similarly, two different people attracts each other to achieve a balance. In the novel Aristotle and Dante Discovers the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Saenz, discusses two themes about friendship and coming of age through presenting two polar opposite characters: Aristotle, an angst teenager that thinks little of life and Dante, an outgoing teenager that thinks optimistically of life. The beginning of the first theme, the coming of age of a young and passionless boy takes place one summer night where the protagonist, Aristotle falls “asleep hoping the world would be

To put it differently Aristotle is the night sky without light. Secondly, the theme of friendship is Dante, a boy “who looked at the stars and knew the mysteries of water,” and who serves as one of the factor that helps with the coming of age of Aristotle through their bonds. From the light and water imagery, Saenz suggests indirectly that Dante is a character of hope and life; like the stars in the universe lighting up the sky of Aristotle. As one can see, to the right of Aristotle in the poster, is another boy, also painted like the night sky. However, Dante’s sky is filled with colors and stars signifying hope and passion. Additionally, Dante teaches Ari to enjoy being in water, representing life. To point out how Dante teaches Aristotle to enjoy life, I added blue straps of paint that emerges from Dante to surround Aristotle, almost as if cleansing Aristotle’s negativity. Dante also “knew enough to know that birds belonged to the heavens and weren’t meant to be shot down from their graceful flights by mean and stupid boys.” In this case the bird symbolizes freedom, the freedom of doing what one thinks is