Honestly, I don’t know how I feel. From the first few pages alone, I wasn’t exactly… thrilled. Discomfort while reading this was inevitable to me. That said, I flew through it pretty quickly. Moravia’s imagery was nice, even when it was unsettling. I was just unsure of how to feel about everything.
At the start, Agostino’s relationship with his mother is intense. She is his world and he seems to take comfort in seeing her as dignified and almost untouchable. Early on, he describes her body as something “shrouded in a mystery to which he owed the greatest veneration” (5), which shows how fragile this bond is. When the young man joins them, that stability collapses. Agostino’s jealously cracks through, and he experiences her interest in someone else as a form of betrayal. He feels as though she had been waiting to abandon him, as if all their time together had only been “for lack of better company” (7). After this introduction, I felt uninterested in a way that’s hard to dress up: I simply just did not care.
From there on, Agostino’s discomfort only deepens (and so did mine!). He starts to gravitate towards the group of boys and Saro (do not get me started on him), even though he is also uncomfortable around them. Their vulgarity and cruelty repel him, but he also finds them fascinating. The humiliation he experiences becomes a form of education. At one point, he realizes that the “humiliation and repulsion of the daily outings had almost become his reason for living” (14). At this point I felt detached from the story.
Class also came into discussion. Agostino is aware of his wealth even if he doesn’t fully understand it. The boys don’t let him forget that. Their resentment is tied both to Agostino’s privilege and his innocence. When Agostino tries to distance himself from his background, it doesn’t really help. By that point he has already lost his sense of belonging. As it’s said, he realizes he has “lost his former pleasures without managing to acquire any new ones” (74). It’s as if he has been pushed out of childhood without being welcomed into anything else… just out of place no matter where he is.
By the end, nothing’s resolved. That might be the point. I don’t know. Agostino doesn’t gain clarity or comfort, only a heavier awareness of things that he isn’t equipped to deal with yet. Moravia may be less interested in showing growth than in capturing that discomfort of being pushed out of childhood without any clear place to land. I guess I can understand that, but nothing struck me or resonated with me whatsoever. So I finished the book feeling rather disturbed and kind of checked out. I just don’t care for the Oedipal-like nature at all. Did I like this? Not really! Sorry Moravia.
Discussion Question:
Did you find the lack of resolution at the end frustrating, or does it make it feel more realistic or relatable?
Hi, Emily. Your blog page is sooo cute omg. I really like it a lot!! And also, I feel the same that this story did not resonate with me. However, I do believe for some boys, they had similar experiences but maybe not that serious and bad.
Hi Emily, I think I liked the lack of the resolution. To me it showed that even when you try your best to pursue meaning for yourself, sometimes meaning can only be naturally encountered. Just like his meeting with Berto was chance and led to so much revelations for him, he can only resolve his feelings to his mother by simply existing, not by actively pursuing a revelation.
Melissa:
Your emphasis on Agostino’s relationship to his mother is interesting, along with your mentioning of the idea that nothing was ultimately resolved. This idea reminds me of some other novels I read in this class, where plots were ambiguous and endings did not necessarily tie in something that occurred in the novel.
Hi Emily! I also can’t say I liked the book either, it was very uncomfortable. I like your in-depth discussion of Agostino and his mother’s relationship! I, honestly, did not want to look further into it at all or even think about it. It was so yucky
hi emily, i hate Saro too. I also felt uncomfortable and Just did not care for it by the end as well. I was happy for it to end where it did! because then i could stop reading about how his attraction to his mom!
Hi Emily!
Interesting analysis. Even though you mention not being sure or gaining clarity by the end of the novel I think, as you mention, that is an interesting outcome for the reading. It can relate how adolescence can be.
We can discuss it on class.
See you tomorrow.
Julián.