Student Blogs

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Although the content was at times disturbing I thought that this book had a very genuine and honest feel to it. The way that this story is told feels very nostalgic and reminiscent of childhood. When Agostino is first introduced to the concept of sexual things, his world quickly and […] read full post >>

I’m quite confused to be honest. I have been left with just a bundle of mixed feelings about this book.... read full post >>

The novel Agostino by Alberto Moravia was an interesting read. I can confidently say that the story was not what I was expecting it to be. When the novel started, I enjoyed reading the story and seeing the progression of the character. It began to confuse me and then shock me with the content of the story. It followed a young Agostino on a vacation with his mother and all of the things that happen to them. The story examines the intricacies and confusion of growing up. He struggles with bullying and being picked on by older boys. He then becomes eager to belong to the group that had previously picked on him. He explores his confusing feelings surrounding his mother as she leaves him alone daily. He feels overprotective and confusing sexual feelings. 

Most of the story takes place on the beach and I enjoyed reading that. I like when stories take place in natural environments and can greatly explain the setting of the story. A strong story setting creates a more enjoyable reading experience. 

The first theme I noticed, as I am sure everyone else did, was how it seemed a bit Oedipus-like. The Oedipus Complex is a widely known theory where a young child will view their opposite-sex parent in a sexual manner and compete with their same-sex parent. Eventually, as the child grows, they lose those desires. It was pretty uncomfortable to read, especially after the bullies spark Agostino's thoughts. He then begins to spy on his mother in hopes of seeing her naked. He describes her movements in great deal as he peeks on her. He has a seemingly love-hate relationship with his mother and almost uses his newfound friends as an escape from her. After this, he and his friends go spy on a brothel although they do not enter it. I was very shocked that the boys did not enter the brothel as it seemed like they were going to. It was important to the story that the boys showed the restraint to not enter the brothel. Because of that, I thought that he would have clarified his feelings surrounding his mother before the end of the story. 

My question is, how do you think the story would have changed had Agostino entered the brothel?

Personally, I think that he would have lost all of his childhood innocence in an extremely short amount of time. That exposure would have been too mature and scaring for the young boy. 

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The novel Agostino by Alberto Moravia was an interesting read. I can confidently say that the story was not what I was expecting it to be. When the novel started, I enjoyed reading the story and seeing the progression of the character. It began to confuse me and then shock me with the content of the story. It followed a young Agostino on a vacation with his mother and all of the things that happen to them. The story examines the intricacies and confusion of growing up. He struggles with bullying and being picked on by older boys. He then becomes eager to belong to the group that had previously picked on him. He explores his confusing feelings surrounding his mother as she leaves him alone daily. He feels overprotective and confusing sexual feelings. 

Most of the story takes place on the beach and I enjoyed reading that. I like when stories take place in natural environments and can greatly explain the setting of the story. A strong story setting creates a more enjoyable reading experience. 

The first theme I noticed, as I am sure everyone else did, was how it seemed a bit Oedipus-like. The Oedipus Complex is a widely known theory where a young child will view their opposite-sex parent in a sexual manner and compete with their same-sex parent. Eventually, as the child grows, they lose those desires. It was pretty uncomfortable to read, especially after the bullies spark Agostino's thoughts. He then begins to spy on his mother in hopes of seeing her naked. He describes her movements in great deal as he peeks on her. He has a seemingly love-hate relationship with his mother and almost uses his newfound friends as an escape from her. After this, he and his friends go spy on a brothel although they do not enter it. I was very shocked that the boys did not enter the brothel as it seemed like they were going to. It was important to the story that the boys showed the restraint to not enter the brothel. Because of that, I thought that he would have clarified his feelings surrounding his mother before the end of the story. 

My question is, how do you think the story would have changed had Agostino entered the brothel?

Personally, I think that he would have lost all of his childhood innocence in an extremely short amount of time. That exposure would have been too mature and scaring for the young boy. 

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    Okay. Agostino was definitely very engaging, I sat down and just read the entire thing in one go. Granted I did have to entirely stop reading, like I mean fully close the pdf and just take a second a few times because just- what? As coming of age novels go, it was definitely not what I was expecting. My first thought as I began to read was of Freud. I have never taken a psychology class and I don't really know much about his weird, weird theories other than this particular one about young boys wishing to be their mother's lover in place of their father or another man. Strange concept, but the idea was painfully obvious in the first parts of this book. As he met the group boys, and, not to be dramatic but, had his childlike innocence ripped from him it seemed his view on his mother changed. He went from taking pride in her and her beauty to being uncomfortable around her, perhaps partially due to jealousy of the man who took her attention away from him but also because of his new knowledge about sexuality and how this changed how he saw women, including his mother. I can't really summarize it well but the change in attitude Agostino had was entirely due to his new friends. 

    The other thing I would like to comment on is the situation with Saro, Homs and Agostino. I don't remember if Saro's age is mentioned but it is obvious he is respected by the group, sort of like a father figure. This is what made the scene with he and Agostino in the boat so uncomfortable. It was honestly pedophilic in nature and Saro obviously was trying to prey on Agostino's lack of understanding or experience with what could become a sexual encounter. All the rest of the boys knew what was happening but none seemed to care about or likely even understand the issues with it, instead the teasing Agostino, and Homs because it was another boy. I wasn't expecting to see any mention of queerness in this book, and seeing it paired with pedophilia was kind of depressing, mostly due to how true that still is today.

    Agostino was definitely coming of age throughout this novel. So much happened very quickly which I suppose, once again, is very realistic to how it often happens in real life. The book ended with him getting turned away from a brothel (thank god) and then falling asleep next to his mother who he asks to stop treating him like a baby, she agrees but then kisses him on the forehead. This to me shows she doesn't really think he is ready to be a man yet, nor will he be soon. Because the story ended before he actually matured and grew up, my biggest question is what now? What sort of person did Agostino grow into after these experiences?

That's all the nice analysis words I have to say. I quite enjoyed reading this, wasn't what I was expecting but definitely was interesting. 

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    Okay. Agostino was definitely very engaging, I sat down and just read the entire thing in one go. Granted I did have to entirely stop reading, like I mean fully close the pdf and just take a second a few times because just- what? As coming of age novels go, it was definitely not what I was expecting. My first thought as I began to read was of Freud. I have never taken a psychology class and I don't really know much about his weird, weird theories other than this particular one about young boys wishing to be their mother's lover in place of their father or another man. Strange concept, but the idea was painfully obvious in the first parts of this book. As he met the group boys, and, not to be dramatic but, had his childlike innocence ripped from him it seemed his view on his mother changed. He went from taking pride in her and her beauty to being uncomfortable around her, perhaps partially due to jealousy of the man who took her attention away from him but also because of his new knowledge about sexuality and how this changed how he saw women, including his mother. I can't really summarize it well but the change in attitude Agostino had was entirely due to his new friends. 

    The other thing I would like to comment on is the situation with Saro, Homs and Agostino. I don't remember if Saro's age is mentioned but it is obvious he is respected by the group, sort of like a father figure. This is what made the scene with he and Agostino in the boat so uncomfortable. It was honestly pedophilic in nature and Saro obviously was trying to prey on Agostino's lack of understanding or experience with what could become a sexual encounter. All the rest of the boys knew what was happening but none seemed to care about or likely even understand the issues with it, instead the teasing Agostino, and Homs because it was another boy. I wasn't expecting to see any mention of queerness in this book, and seeing it paired with pedophilia was kind of depressing, mostly due to how true that still is today.

    Agostino was definitely coming of age throughout this novel. So much happened very quickly which I suppose, once again, is very realistic to how it often happens in real life. The book ended with him getting turned away from a brothel (thank god) and then falling asleep next to his mother who he asks to stop treating him like a baby, she agrees but then kisses him on the forehead. This to me shows she doesn't really think he is ready to be a man yet, nor will he be soon. Because the story ended before he actually matured and grew up, my biggest question is what now? What sort of person did Agostino grow into after these experiences?

That's all the nice analysis words I have to say. I quite enjoyed reading this, wasn't what I was expecting but definitely was interesting. 

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Agostino by Moravia caught me by surprise, to say the least. At first, I found myself enjoying the book on... read full post >>

Since Alberto Moravia’s novel, Agostino, was a relatively short text in comparison to the past novels we have read, I thought it would be light reading. However, upon beginning the book I quickly came to realize the heaviness of the text and how packed it was in its lesser pages. Agostino’s relationship with his mother […] read full post >>

This week I decided to read Agostino by Alberto Moravia. It was a short and easy read as advertised. Though this was definitely the easiest read so far, I have mixed feelings on this story. In short summary, this story follows 13 year old Agostino throughout his summer vacation at a beach in Italy. The young teen sees his widowed mother move on with a new man, all while exploring a brand new friend group that seems to revolve around violence and behaviours that stem from poverty. I would call this reading something along the lines of a coming-of-age story, as Agostino discovers sexuality and straddles the line between childhood and manhood. 

While I honestly did quite enjoy this story, i found parts of it mildly disturbing. For a while the young 13 year old talks about his mother as a beautiful, inspiring and nurturing role model. For the first few pages he speaks about her with such innocence, and even refers to her as "mamma" plenty of times throughout the novel. However, when Agostino finds himself hanging out with the boys from Vespucci beach, he is introduced to the idea of sexuality, an idea that had never previously crossed his mind. With this new knowledge, he starts to view his mother as a subject of sexual desire. This quite honestly confused me at first. As disturbing as it sounds, I couldn't tell if the author was trying to imply that the young boy genuinly found his mother sexually appealing, or was simply just using her as a general example to display the sexual awakening the Agostino had undergone. Regardless some of the wording and ways Agostino would describe his mothers body seemed inappropriate. 

Another thing that I thought was interesting about this story, was Saro's relationship with the group of young boys. From what I understood, he was a 50 year pedophile. Other than the hand holding incident that occurred on the boat, the author only alluded to other experiences the boys had had with him. I feel like that storyline was a bit incomplete and i would have liked to have known why he was hanging out with them in the first place, as well as what the other boys had experienced with Saro, and why they continued to hang around him knowing what he does.

My question to you: Did you find Agostino's thoughts about his mother inappropriate? or do you think this is a normal thought process for a 13 year old to have when discovering sexual identity. 

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This week I decided to read Agostino by Alberto Moravia. It was a short and easy read as advertised. Though this was definitely the easiest read so far, I have mixed feelings on this story. In short summary, this story follows 13 year old Agostino throughout his summer vacation at a beach in Italy. The young teen sees his widowed mother move on with a new man, all while exploring a brand new friend group that seems to revolve around violence and behaviours that stem from poverty. I would call this reading something along the lines of a coming-of-age story, as Agostino discovers sexuality and straddles the line between childhood and manhood. 

While I honestly did quite enjoy this story, i found parts of it mildly disturbing. For a while the young 13 year old talks about his mother as a beautiful, inspiring and nurturing role model. For the first few pages he speaks about her with such innocence, and even refers to her as "mamma" plenty of times throughout the novel. However, when Agostino finds himself hanging out with the boys from Vespucci beach, he is introduced to the idea of sexuality, an idea that had never previously crossed his mind. With this new knowledge, he starts to view his mother as a subject of sexual desire. This quite honestly confused me at first. As disturbing as it sounds, I couldn't tell if the author was trying to imply that the young boy genuinly found his mother sexually appealing, or was simply just using her as a general example to display the sexual awakening the Agostino had undergone. Regardless some of the wording and ways Agostino would describe his mothers body seemed inappropriate. 

Another thing that I thought was interesting about this story, was Saro's relationship with the group of young boys. From what I understood, he was a 50 year pedophile. Other than the hand holding incident that occurred on the boat, the author only alluded to other experiences the boys had had with him. I feel like that storyline was a bit incomplete and i would have liked to have known why he was hanging out with them in the first place, as well as what the other boys had experienced with Saro, and why they continued to hang around him knowing what he does.

My question to you: Did you find Agostino's thoughts about his mother inappropriate? or do you think this is a normal thought process for a 13 year old to have when discovering sexual identity. 

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I realise this may be a somewhat unconventional way to start a blog post that is meant to be part of the course content however, my reading of Agostino was made of up of confusion and feeling unnerved. Whenever I open a new book to read, whatever the reason may be, my first thought is […] read full post >>

 There is so much to think about after reading Agostino. Although I'm confused, not confused in the way where I don't understand the story, because I definitely understand why this story was written, but confused in the way where I have never seen a book take on growing up, sexuality, etc.. the way this one did, and it leaves me with many thoughts. 

I may have said The Shrouded Woman was my favourite so far, but this one now takes the lead. Out of all of the novels I have read so far this one felt the most modern in a way, in terms of writing style and overall content which made it very easy to understand and almost felt like something I picked up myself and started reading, not something for an assignment. 

After the first few pages of this novel I could already catch on to what the themes of the story were. There are a couple things that I don't know necessarily if they have the correct take on, but I'm not one to say they aren't correct either. We've seen these concepts in Psychology courses, specifically the Freudian Oedipus Complex. 

This coming of age novel takes ideas from inside of a young boys mind and sees how growing up and going through puberty may really feel. There is such an interesting relationship described with his mother. It is mother son love presented in a way that almost sexualizes it, which left me very confused but also curious to read on and see how Agostinos mind is perceiving this love for his mother. Although I can't say that this is really how things are growing up, I think the book did a really good job at thoroughly explaining these sexual and jealous feelings that Agostino was feeling to help readers understand

There was one part where Agostino mentions this "hatred" for his mother that leaves his cheeks burning is what he lives for. Like he waits for this burning jealousy to be lit in him everyday, and as much as he despises it and wants to hate his mother so bad, he almost loves it. He hated his mothers love.

This is a sense of passionate jealousy that I have personally felt in past relationships, mostly very toxic ones, and it makes you wonder if this view he has on his mother is really is just a part of growing up or if it is something unhealthy. 

Another part to mention was when Agostino described how when he is alone with his mother, "a strong woman, had no need of assistance in climbing back on the boat... apparently indulging in a feminine clumsiness...", "the mother, a large and dignified woman... and her dignity, a boring habit that she now needed to replace with some awkward playfulness". I thought these quotes displayed the reality behind a lot of romance, how women can almost make themselves feel small to appeal to the man they are in love with. This isn't true in every romance but I thought it was interesting how the book touched on this, as I never seen be portrayed before. 

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 There is so much to think about after reading Agostino. Although I'm confused, not confused in the way where I don't understand the story, because I definitely understand why this story was written, but confused in the way where I have never seen a book take on growing up, sexuality, etc.. the way this one did, and it leaves me with many thoughts. 

I may have said The Shrouded Woman was my favourite so far, but this one now takes the lead. Out of all of the novels I have read so far this one felt the most modern in a way, in terms of writing style and overall content which made it very easy to understand and almost felt like something I picked up myself and started reading, not something for an assignment. 

After the first few pages of this novel I could already catch on to what the themes of the story were. There are a couple things that I don't know necessarily if they have the correct take on, but I'm not one to say they aren't correct either. We've seen these concepts in Psychology courses, specifically the Freudian Oedipus Complex. 

This coming of age novel takes ideas from inside of a young boys mind and sees how growing up and going through puberty may really feel. There is such an interesting relationship described with his mother. It is mother son love presented in a way that almost sexualizes it, which left me very confused but also curious to read on and see how Agostinos mind is perceiving this love for his mother. Although I can't say that this is really how things are growing up, I think the book did a really good job at thoroughly explaining these sexual and jealous feelings that Agostino was feeling to help readers understand

There was one part where Agostino mentions this "hatred" for his mother that leaves his cheeks burning is what he lives for. Like he waits for this burning jealousy to be lit in him everyday, and as much as he despises it and wants to hate his mother so bad, he almost loves it. He hated his mothers love.

This is a sense of passionate jealousy that I have personally felt in past relationships, mostly very toxic ones, and it makes you wonder if this view he has on his mother is really is just a part of growing up or if it is something unhealthy. 

Another part to mention was when Agostino described how when he is alone with his mother, "a strong woman, had no need of assistance in climbing back on the boat... apparently indulging in a feminine clumsiness...", "the mother, a large and dignified woman... and her dignity, a boring habit that she now needed to replace with some awkward playfulness". I thought these quotes displayed the reality behind a lot of romance, how women can almost make themselves feel small to appeal to the man they are in love with. This isn't true in every romance but I thought it was interesting how the book touched on this, as I never seen be portrayed before. 

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I decided to go with this book to challenge myself and I’m glad I did. I really enjoyed reading this week’s read of Laforet’s Nada. I was really intrigued by the title because I vaguely remembered that  “nada” means nothing in Spanish. Then I read the transcript confirming my thoughts stating, “[a]fter all, a narrative …

Continue reading "Carmen Laforet’s Nada"

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The first thing I want to recognize is something I said in a discussion group during my class last week. It was along the lines of whether these texts (that I’ve chosen) will all follow the theme of memories, past experience, or just past tense writing in general. This is the fourth book to do […] read full post >>