and the Grammy goes to … Agostino for the most Freudian MC!

This book was unsatisfying in so many ways: the novel felt extremely unfinished by the end due to Agostino’s glaringly evident “mommy issues,” self-centered personality and the lack of character development.

Agostino’s Oedipus complex has got to be a primary source for Freud’s central psychoanalytic theory TT. He beings being utterly infatuated with his mother (1-3), and then becomes jealous about Renzo’s relationship with his mother.” Somewhere along the line, this jealousy towards Renzo, manifests into a combination of adoration and hatred towards his mother.

Agostino, to me, was a very bland and self-centered main character that lacks any sense of self-awareness. Agostino’s blatant lack of self-awareness became apparent during the scene where he was almost “cosplaying” a boat boy. The following quote: “this small incident left Agostino with the feeling once and for all that he no longer belonged to the world of the children with the soccer ball, and that, anyway, he has sunk so low that he could not live without deceit and vexation” (78) showcases that Agostino believed that he was somewhere between being an elite and member of the working class. However, I would argue that his smugness after receiving his payment showcased how his actions were a cheap caricature of the poverty he was attempting to portray.

Agostino exhibits ZERO character development or growth. Firstly, Agostino states that he “want[s] to leave tomorrow” (101) after getting utterly deceived by Tortima. But honestly, can we even call it deceit, rather than naivety? At the start of the novel, a similar occurrence occurred where Berto assaulted Augustino after receiving cigarettes. Since that instance, I would say that none of the group acted any nicer to him, rather he was blind sighted by being “liberated” from his aristocratic world. His final humiliation was nothing but pure foolishness, rather than the deceit he described.

Moreover, his skewed perception of his mother as a “woman” or a “mother” that lasted throughout the novel did not get resolved. The main character believed that a woman he saw “had somehow confirmed the mother’s womanhood” (102) however, this revelation is really nothing new, from the start of the novel (1-3) the MC thought about his mother in these ways, just without overtly stating it. This showcases how he is unable to see the fact that “womanhood” and “motherhood” can exist concurrently, and how those terms are more nuanced than the MC’s disgustingly lustful portrayals of women. Therefore, I conclude that Agostino is a stale, privileged character that doesn’t learn from his experiences.

I realize that my critique on Agostino’s character development may come out as harsh, which is why I want to ask: do you think the storyline actually progressed enough for Agostino to reflect on himself and grow as a character?

Finally, in honor of the Grammy’s occurring right now, Agostino absolutely swept past Proust to get the award for the most Freudian MC (congrats, I guess?). Seriously, if I could summarize Agostino in one word, it would literally be Freud.