Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

This section is titled “Sparrows Falling From the Sky,” and its epigraph is a quote spoken by Dante: “When I was a boy I used to wake up thinking that the world was ending” (73). Bird imagery is prevalent here, as Ari’s terrifying fever dreams contain sparrows, and the cliffhanger that concludes this section involves Dante trying to save a bird. Dante’s quote about believing the world was ending every time he woke up creates a parallel between dreams and waking life that the author explores through Ari’s dreams. The progress of the narrative slows down because Ari is sick with a severe flu, but the author provides greater characterization of Ari and Dante’s inner feelings through the symbolism of Ari’s dreams. This deeper understanding is necessary to understand how their relationship develops from a friendship into a romantic relationship in the second half of the book. Through Ari’s dreams, the author foreshadows his later realization about his sexual identity.

Ari gathers clues about his parents’ lives before he was born and who they are outside of their roles as his parents. His mother tells him that even she does not fully understand the nature of his father’s pain (91). Ari is beginning to abandon the superficial perception he has of his parents as rule-enforcers, in the case of his mother, and “inscrutable,” in the case of his father (28). One aspect of Ari’s transformation is learning to accept his parents for who they are, rather than trying to change them.

Ari’s yearning for closeness is manifested in his inner world. He begins to learn how to articulate his feelings in words rather than through his fists. This is due to Dante’s influence on him. In one startling moment, Ari wonders what his father looked like when he was young and if “he’d been as beautiful as Dante” (63). He harbors feelings for Dante that he isn’t comfortable acknowledging yet.

Ari contemplates the typewriter and baseball gloves that he received as gifts from his parents years earlier. Ari learned to type and began writing when he received this gift. As he begins to express “the personal television in [his] brain” (82), Aristotle realizes that literature and writing give his life order. When Ari’s mother sees him reading a book of poetry, she wonders if maybe he will be a poet someday, but Ari doesn’t feel he is good enough for such a beautiful title. Ari’s outward personality stands in contrast to the vivid, fiery thoughts he hides from others. In writing he finds an outlet for expressing his true self.

Readers also discover that Dante is a gifted artist. When he compares his sketchbook to Ari’s dreams, he emphasizes the personal nature of his art. This foreshadows Dante’s similarly complex feelings toward Aristotle and his fears that his feelings will not be reciprocated. Dante’s desire to get to know Ari on a deeper level is demonstrated by the lengthy phone calls they share and his sadness that he can’t see Ari because of his flu. Although the boys are apart for most of this section, they feel each other’s absence deeply: their summer friendship has grown into something more enduring. Like Ari’s typewriter, Dante’s sketchbook is an important conduit for conveying the young men’s complicated emotional interiors, testifying to the power of art and literature to guide a person toward maturity.