I quite miss the days of reading a book and not worrying that the main character is going to perform some questionable acts in the name of being unhealthily attached or attracted to his mother. But alas, here we go again.
I don’t think Agostino is meant to be a comfortable read, and I fear that might be the whole point. The mere fact that Agostino is only thirteen highlights his inability to understand the full nature of what he notices, resorting instead to embarrassment and anger. Nothing about his responses feel graceful or mature, they feel like that of an immature, reactive boy, and I think that’s what makes them so believable.
What bothered me most wasn’t just his jealousy, but how fast his feelings toward his mother turn cold throughout the story. Once he realizes she has a life that doesn’t revolve solely around him, Agostino seems to want to punish her for it. It’s like he needs to paint her out to be the villain so he can justify his resentment. And instead of seeing her as a person who hasn’t changed, he convinces himself that she’s become someone — or rather, something — else entirely.
I think the boys at the beach play an important role in this change, voicing the crude thoughts that Agostino has silently been harbouring all along. Finally feeling seen, and free from the confines of his mansion, he is so desperate to be accepted by the boys at the beach that he’ll take attention in any form, even when it’s clearly at his expense. He wants their approval badly enough to play along with their teasing, laughing when they joke about what he let Saro do to him during their boat ride together. Rather than defending himself, he leans into the humiliation, as if showing he can “take it” will earn him a place among them. It’s awkward and sad, but also a pretty accurate representation of adolescence. Agostino mistakes being mocked for being included, and lets their cruelty pass as camaraderie just so he won’t be left out again.
By the end, it’s hard to know what to do with Agostino except feel two things at once. I feel bad for him — he’s lonely, confused, trying desperately to grow up without any idea how — but that sympathy keeps getting derailed by the way he talks about his mother. The casual cruelty, the fixation on her body, the way he reduces her to something embarrassing or useful makes him deeply unpleasant. He can’t see her as a person with her own life, only as an object orbiting his needs and his shame. He’s a boy who is clearly vulnerable, and yet already practicing the same selfish, objectifying gaze that the older boys model for him. It begs the question, if Agostino is truly repulsed by the way the boys speak about his mother, why does he still look to them for validation? What does that say about how adolescence and environment shape who we learn to admire?
5 replies on “The Summer I Turned… Into a Perverted Mama’s Boy Who Pretends to Have Been Tapped by a 50-year-old Pedo?”
Oh, you might have got a “best title” award if you’d posted this earlier, before I’d given all this week’s awards away…
“I don’t think Agostino is meant to be a comfortable read”
Why do you think an author (or this author, Moravia) would want to make their readers uncomfortable?
“if Agostino is truly repulsed by the way the boys speak about his mother, why does he still look to them for validation? What does that say about how adolescence and environment shape who we learn to admire?”
Very good questions, I think they say a lot about adolescence and how fierce external validation tends to be.
We can discuss it on class.
See you tomorrow.
Julián.
Hi! To answer your question, I think that he looked to those boys for validation because in the process of reaching adolescence, you try to fit in with people even if they don’t have the same perspectives as you do. I also think this was an eye-opening moment for him to reflect on what true affections he had for his mother.
I think that Agostino is drawn in by that feeling of being attracted to something taboo, also because he recognizes that he feels validated or justified in his own feelings towards his mother through the other boys’ words. I guess that might mean he isn’t TRULY repulsed, but he just feels as though he should be, because his protectiveness for his mother (well justified) is warring with his strange attraction for his mother (way less justified). Honestly, the group of boys were (and are) a terrifying environmental influence on Agostino.
Hi! The title… AMAZING! But to answer your question, I feel as if the its not really repulsion that he feels towards the boys, but more so jealously. I think he wants his mother to himself and is possessive about it.
And to answer your second question. I feel as if environment definitely shapes adolescents. I do think that it impacts who we admire as well. The first example that comes to mind is internalized homophobia. If a person is in a very homophobic environment then they may admire others differently than a person that grew up in an accepting environment.