I am made to believe that it might be better to be in one’s own company than in the wrong one after reading Alberto Moravia’s “Agostino”. However, I think not having fun would definitely leave the narrator in an existential mindset. By avoiding this, he is trying to find some meaning through attaining experience that puts Agostino where he is with the “tough boys”. Nevertheless, Agostino still has his boundaries and it is very obvious how sensitive he is when any of the gang members talks about her mother in front of him, especially when they use sexual references.

I can feel Agostino’s internal dependency that he has with his mother and the need to be associated with motherly love. He wants to protect it. He defends her like she is his one and only treasure. He does not want the other young boys that are part of the group to lay a finger on her because he is possessive of her and believes she is the love of his life and nothing should come between him and his mother. From the writing style I can find some sexual references in the way Moravia decides to describe the movement and structure of nature as part of the background. The way he describes the trees, the round hills, and the soft sand that Agostino walks on gives me a feeling of relaxation and pleasure.  I think I am reluctant to feel that Agostino belongs with the gang of young boys as he is not referred to by his true name, but by “Pisa” and gets pushed around as a joke very frequently, which I don’t personally find very comfortable and welcoming.

Agostino loses his innocence as a child and comes to terms with the fact he has to grow up into a man and such losses are inevitable. He loses his sense of self and rubs off of the opinions of others which concatenates the deep sense of connection he has with his mother. “The truth was that the camaraderie of the gang, their foul language, their talk about women, stealing from the fields, and even their violence and harsh treatment of him had transformed him and made him adverse to the old friendships” (74). At this point, he experiences a lack of morals and becomes less aware of himself as he was before. As a result, the more he hangs out with the boys, the less intimate he feels with his own mother. Moving towards the end of the novella, he becomes more aware of the objectification of women, which is something new to him that he finds to be in conflict with his young and blissful upbringing. This is another example of how powerful such social groups can change the individual on a indescribable scale until the individual is unable to figure out what was important to themselves or something new replaces what was once old.

I think a good message from reading “Agostino” would be to realize who one surrounds themselves with. This rivalry between brotherhood and love is a modern issue that many will find themselves in. I wonder how Moravia suggests we deal with relationships in general and how should people deal with growing up if the reality of life can be ugly?