Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

What is the importance of dreams in driving the narrative? How do Ari and his father’s dreams promote their growth and transformation throughout the novel?

The author’s use of an epistolary form demonstrates how Ari and Dante’s lives change when Dante moves to Chicago. What is the purpose of the letters? What do the letters reveal about Ari and Dante?

What are the “secrets of the universe” that Dante and Ari discover? How do they help each other discover these secrets?

What does the desert represent in the story? Why does Ari feel such an attraction to the desert?

How does culture play an important part in bringing Ari and Dante together? What role does the boys’ shared Latinx ethnicity play in the story as it unfolds?

Why did the author choose to tell the story through the eyes of Ari? How would the story have been different if told through Dante’s eyes?

In what ways is Ari naïve at the beginning of the story? What wisdom does he cultivate over the course of the narrative?

How does the author effectively capture a sense of the time (the late 1980’s) and place (El Paso, Texas)? What makes the setting so compelling for telling this particular story?