When 15 year old Aristotle meets Dante at the public pool he is an unsure adolescent who is often angry and ready for a fight. Dante is the exact opposite who tries to see the beauty in the world. Despite their differences the two become friends and over the next year begin to see things in a new view. When Dante opens up about his homosexuality Ari is unsure what that might mean for their friendship until Dante's life is almost taken because of it. At that moment Ari understands that Dante is more than just his best friend. When looking at Havighurst's Theory of Development adolescents undergo changing relationships with their parents. The relationship between the two boys in this novel alter drastically from the beginning to the end. Dante and his father are thick as thieves in the beginning yet grow apart as Dante struggles with his new proclaimed identity whereas Ari and his father have a strained and often silent relationship that grows into something more as his father attempts to help Ari find his way to the man he will become.
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