"Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe" is a novel by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. The book tells the story of Aristotle and Dante’s friendship, and explores the themes of race, sexuality, and the understanding of oneself. The story is told through the point of view of Aristotle, who is the son in a Mexican-American family. His father is a mailman and veteran from the Vietnam war, and he has two older sisters, and one older brother. All of which are over 10 years older than him. Aristotle meets Dante at the pool, where Dante starts to teach him how to swim. Ari and Dan get along very well since they are both Mexican-American, and are named after “classic-famous” people. When Ari first visits Dante’s house, he meets Dante’s father, an English professor, and spends the day with Dante reading poems while Dante cleans his room. Ari enjoys spending time with Dante, and unlike being with other kids, he feels a sense of belonging. The two become friends very quickly, and when Dante visits Ari’s family, he brings a book of Mexican artwork to Ari’s father, who spends a lot of time looking through the pages. The idea of discovering secrets is then introduced by Dante, when Ari spends time at Dante’s house peering through the telescope at the dark evening sky, stating that “Someday, I’m going to discover all the secrets of the universe.” And “maybe change the world”.

Dante and Ari spend a lot of their free time together, and one day, they start imitating the game of Javelin but with their tennis shoes. When Dante’s father came out and saw them, Ari thought he would be infuriated, but instead, Dante’s father just laughed and told them to play somewhere safe. Ari felt very conflicted seeing the way Dante got along with his parents, knowing how different it was for his family. That night after, Ari caught the flu and had a week-long fever that brought him nightmares. Ari woke up screaming every night, telling his father that he dreamed of being lost from him, and from himself. These dreams occurred not only when he was sick, but on a regular basis. After Ari felt better, Dante came over to his house and started sketching drawings of Ari, he left a drawing of a chair in the corner of Ari’s room, and when Ari looked at it, he told Dante he liked the drawing a lot because ‘it holds something’. ‘Emotion’, was all he said

More about Ari’s family is later discovered in the book. As Ari talks about his twenty-five year old brother in prison, he expresses his feelings of lonely he is despite having three siblings. Ari describes his brother as “all over the house, there are pictures. But there are no pictures of brother. Because he’s in prison. No one in my house talks about him. It’s like being dead. Even Charlie, the dead dog, gets a story. My brother doesn’t get any stories.” Due to the large age gap between him and his siblings, he even feels like he has three ‘mothers’ instead. Dante and Ari open up to each other on what they think of being Mexican-American, and how their cultural differences has brought them mixed feelings. Dante tells Ari he feels lonely too, because all his cousins were ‘Mexican-Mexican’, instead of being part American like he was. “It’s like my mom and dad created a whole new world for themselves. I live in their new world. But they understand the old world, the world they came from - and I don’t.” Dante says to Ari of him struggling to fit in with Mexican culture. Ari answers with “You belong everywhere you go. That’s just how you are.” Dante and Ari comfort each other while facing the same struggles with their family and culture.

One day, Dante tells Ari his family will be moving to Chicago after the University of Chicago offered his dad a job, they spend their last moments together, and when Dante goes in the middle of the street to help a dying bird, Ari pushes him out of the way of a speeding car and unfortunately, gets ran over on his legs. Many days later, Ari wakes up in the hospital, confused and painful. When he sees his parents, he explains that he doesn’t remember anything that happened when he protected Dante from the car. Dante waited outside his room in the hospital for days, leaving him with dark under eyes when he meets Ari again. Like Ari. Dante’s father says Ari was the first person Dante got along with, and spent time hanging out together like real friends. When Dante’s parents leaving their visit to Dante’s room in the hospital, and Mrs. Quintana whispered to Ari “Aristotle Mendoza, I will love you forever.” Throughout the story, Ari struggles with the understanding of his culture, race, and identity. Him meeting Dante helped him finally feel as if he belongs with someone and continue searchers for himself.