Secrets Of The Universe Analysis

In Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe, the author, Benjamin Alire Sáenz, describes the journey of two friends, Aristotle “Ari” and Dante, in the late 1980’s in El Paso, Texas. As the friendship develops between Ari and Dante, Ari gradually discovers the traumatic secrets that his parents have hidden from him and gains an entirely different perspective about his life. Through indirect characterization of Ari’s thoughts portraying his dad’s trauma from his war experiences, and the external conflict of Ari’s parents struggling with the circumstance surrounding their son’s imprisonment, Saenz shows that the decision made by the Mendoza family to keep traumatic events to themselves results in family members suffering pain and grief. In essence, the author demonstrates that hiding traumatic events from …show more content…
The author quotes Ari’s inner thoughts in a bitter way, a feeling directed towards his dad, “So that’s what it was. When Ari was eight, [I] didn’t know anything about war…..All [I] knew is that sometimes [my] father was sad. [I] hated that [my father was sad]. It made [me] sad too” (Saenz 14). The quote informs readers on how the author uses Ari’s inner thoughts to indirectly characterize his father’s trauma by stating what he thinks and feels about it. Stating “I didn't know anything about war”, specifically hints that his father never tells him about what happens in the traumatic war and probably never even generally discusses about the topic ‘war’ with him. This makes the quote relevant and important as it signifies that Ari’s dad kept the war trauma feelings inside him and never shared it with anyone, which is a part of the theme. Ari feels that “Sometimes [his] father was sad. He hated that his father was sad. It made [him] sad too and [he] didn’t like sad”. This shows that Ari’s