Aristotle and Dante discussion:

Choose one question from the list below and write a post answering it, referencing specific quotes or examples from the book to illustrate your ideas. After you write your own post, read through your classmates' posts and write a response to one that adds new ideas to theirs or asks a follow-up question.

Questions

1. How do Ari and Dante relate differently to their Mexican-American identity? Why does Dante seem uncomfortable with his Mexican identity?

2. How does Ari’s relationship with his father contrast to Dante’s relationship with his father? How do these father-son relationships develop during the first part of the book? Why are the father-son relationships important in the novel?

3. How does Ari and Dante’s relationship change after the accident? How does Ari react to Dante when he sees him in the hospital? Why?

4. How has Ari’s family dealt with his brother’s imprisonment? How has that affected Ari? What role does it play in the story?

5. One of the themes of the story is communication. The book contains conversations, journal entries, letters, private thoughts and silences where information or feelings are being withheld. Why is communication so important to Ari's story? What do the different kinds of communication tell us as readers?