Agostino - Summer vacation gone wrong?
Reading “Agostino” by Alberto Moravia was like watching a car crash I couldn’t look away from. This short book is about a young boy who enters adolescence on a summer vacation to the beach with his mother. Because of the disturbing subject matter, I found myself going through the book quickly to see if Agostino would turn out okay despite being around some concerning people (mostly Saro).
The repeated mention of Agostino’s mother being ‘big’ stood out to me. She is self-assured and unafraid of taking up space, enjoying her vacation with the young man she meets. In comparison, Agostino tries to make himself more childlike in front of his mother, for example in the scene where he pretends to break his piggy bank to buy a book. However, Agostino has been rapidly growing out of his childhood since befriending the group of boys. Another part of Agostino’s awakening is that parental figures also have a side to their life separate from being a parent. He finds Agostino’s mother has a flirtatious side to her and that Saro has sinister motives behind his facade as a fatherly leader, although he doesn’t react very strongly to the latter.
The scene where Agostino takes a wealthy father and son for a boat ride and pretends to be poor also stood out to me. I know teenagers do dumb things but I was cringing through the entire scene. I was reminded of instances where celebrities with privileged backgrounds pretend to be working class, like the recent trend of famous people working at minimum wage jobs for a day. I think the celebrities and Agostino both only see the “fun” parts of being from a lower social class. Agostino is only with the boys for the summer and sees the adventures they get into, but not the full reality of being a young person in the working class. Aside from wanting to fit in with the group I think he was also just experimenting with an identity completely different from his, which is common with teenagers. As well, I interpreted his pretend humbleness as trying to impress the father because he does not have a father in his life.
My question for the class is: Did Agostino's mother act inappropriately? I think it could be interpreted both ways; the mother is her own person and should be free to pursue romantic interests etc but some things like being topless in front of your teenage child are a little questionable.
"I found myself going through the book quickly to see if Agostino would turn out okay"
ReplyDeleteHa! And? Does he turn out okay? (Perhaps we don't know...)
I was worried he would get assaulted by Saro so I thought physically he seemed fine. But the final line being that he spent a long time unhappy about not ‘being a man’ points to how he never grew out of his immature views about women, so maybe not personality wise.
DeleteHi! Based on your question, I think that since the narrative is filtered through Agostino's perspective, it inherently biases our understanding of his mother's actions in a sense. For example, his feelings of love, rivalry, and jealousy towards his mother may have colored his interpretation of her actions, making it challenging to objectively assess whether they were truly inappropriate or merely perceived as such due to his emotional and psychological experiences.
ReplyDeleteHi Arissa (side note: that's a sick name)!
ReplyDeleteI loved reading your post. I definitely agree that I, too, was a bit on edge reading, curious to see how everything would turn out, haha.
To answer your question, I think it is very difficult for a child to see their parents do things that are considered out of the norm. Overall, I think the mother has the right to focus on herself and pursue love/relationships; however, there needs to be boundaries. I think some of Agostino's feelings were valid, and perhaps he should not have been subjected to certain things – topless mom (that's a little traumatizing in my opinion, LOL). But as you said, both sides have valid points. I think it is just important to communicate and set some ground rules.
Looking forward to reading more of your work! See you in class :)