Tag Archives: class

Agostino — Moravia

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Agostino by Moravia is another coming of age novel that we have read so far throughout this course. Moravia illustrates the story of Agostino, a thirteen-year-old boy who spends the summer with his mother near the beaches and meets a group of boys that influences him to develop an awareness of sexuality. 

The book opens with Agostino narrating how he enjoys going on boat rides with his mother and swimming with her in the ocean. He took pride in these moments shared with his mother. However, things changed for Agostino when a young man, Renzo, invited his mother to go on a ride. As I read through this part of the book, I noticed how Moravia manages to capture Freud’s idea of Oedipus complex in Agostino’s character. Freud’s idea suggests children develop a sexual desire for their opposite sex parent and hostility towards the parent of the same sex.This idea is seen in Agostino’s jealousy that grew from his mother and Renzo going on boat rides alone without him, and his bitter attitudes as he describes his feelings toward Renzo. I also noticed that a similar idea is exhibited in Proust, where he also shows a desire for his mother as seen in his yearning for her good-night kisses. 

Throughout the book, Agostino’s perception of his mother gradually changes. In the opening of the book Agostino admires his mother as a “beautiful woman still in her prime”, and he particularly takes pride and pleasure in how others would envy them. As he meets the “gang” of boys, Agostino’s views shift very quickly. The boys talk about his mother in a humiliating manner, and continuously mock him for his innocence. This conversation evokes both shock and a strong sense of confusion within Agostino. Agostino began to develop an emotional turmoil, where his view of his mother shifted from a parental figure to a woman. He continuously repeats to himself that “she’s a woman”. It seems as if he was constantly reminding himself that his mother was no longer the caring parental figure she once was in his memories; his mother was now the type of “woman” he learned about from the “gang”. Agostino continuously struggles with this idea and seeks to seek an answer by hanging out with the “gang”, despite always being insulted and teased. However, he never manages to find an answer to his distress, and realizes that he would have to continue living his life while bearing this emotional turmoil. 

My question is: do you think Freud’s theory is a recurrent theme in novels written during this era?

Mad Toy

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Compared to the last novel “Combray”, I found Mad Toy to be a much easier read. The most distinct aspect of this book is the way the content is categorized. The book is split into four parts, each representing a different episode of the main character, Silvio’s life. “The Band Of Thieves”, just like this title, captures Silvio’s aspirations to become a bandit by being engaged in a club dedicated to committing theft. “Work and days” recounts Silvio’s experience of his job working at a bookstore. “Mad Toy” narrates Silvio’s attempt to become an apprentice of the School of Aviation. Finally, “Judas Iscariote” illustrates Silvio as a door-to-door paper salesman. Though these four chapters all represent important events of Silvio’s life, the way they are presented in this novel seem to be four completely distinct stories. Despite the episodes appearing to have no connection between each other, they are implicitly connected. For example, the failure of the “Club of the Gentlemen of Midnight” ends Silvio’s dream to become a bandit and forces him to accept reality to begin work. With the difference of events in each chapter, there is also a change in the character Silvio himself. 

The style of this book is another aspect that I found to be interesting. The author depicts the story in an autobiographical way in which everything is written from the perspective of Silvio. Although the audience is already reading through the lens of Silvio, italicized words representing his inner thoughts and emotions would be inserted between the actions actually happening. Some of these italicized writings would be short sentences, others would be long paragraphs written in a poetic style. These poetic expressions essentially represent another one of Silvio’s aspirations, which is to become a poet. As a reader, these italicized expressions were very insightful in terms of understanding the character of Silvio. In the scene where Silvio attempted to commit suicide, his surroundings intertwined with this repeated thought that he needed to kill himself particularly stood out to me. The inner contemplations of whether or not he should “die” and the finalization that he needs to kill himself combined with the vivid depictions of him holding the gun towards himself created a powerful and emotionally charged scene. I found Arlt’s style of writing to be very compelling as it really enabled me to engage with the plot and empathize with Silvio. 

My Question is what is Arlt’s purpose of inserting italicized expressions of Silvio’s thoughts when readers already reading from his perspective?