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Moravia’s Agostino
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Alberto Moravia’s Agostino: The Immature Conformity in Adolescence
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My thoughts on Alberto Moravia’s “Agostino”
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Agostino
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Alberto Moravia, Agostino
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This week's reading Agostino by Alberto Moravia was an interesting and easy read that gave voice to sexuality, class, and maturity. I was slightly uncomfortable with the relationship between Agostino and his mother and how he viewed her. It definitely did not help the situation when his mother welcomed a young man, Renzo, who had the same friendly and spontaneous ease that characterized her relations with her son. The thought of sharing his mom or not having his mother complete desirable attention made him extremely jealous. This betrayed behaviour made me think that he had a hard time accepting his family dynamics. The betrayal was hard for him to take since he may have thought she was not just leaving him but also moving on from his dead father.
Agostino seems to have lost his childhood and is confused with growing up. He seems confused with his true identity. He explores brothels, experiments with risky behaviour, like smoking, and sneaking out to hang out with his friends. It is definitely not easy for a thirteen-year-old teen during this stage of life. We all went through these fragile years of coming to maturity and handling all the emotions and questions that came with it. Alberto Moravia did a great job setting the scenes and the feelings felt by Agostino coming to face the separation he was getting from his mother. I think this confusion and loss of innocence Agostino feels has a lot to do with his father not being there. I believe as a growing boy with all these emotions coming in, it's more difficult without a father figure present to help guide the situation. I sympathize with the narrator as he is going through a significant milestone in his life and does not have any guidance or support. His new friends are not quite the mentors as he is repeatedly humiliated for his weakness and ignorance regarding women and sex.
I could not stop making connections to Freud’s Oedipus Complex throughout reading this novel. Everything that I learned in psychology made me wonder how much Freud would love to dive into Agostino's mind and make sense of his secret unconscious thoughts and desires on his mother since many psychoanalysis were present.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was an easy and detailed read. It was easy for me to be captivated within the book, feel the confusion from the narrative, and visualize the imagery and scenery of the beaches and boats of Tuscany. My question for the class is: How would a father figure have helped Agostino navigate these difficult changes?
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Alberto Moravia, Agostino
Posted by: feedwordpress
This week's reading Agostino by Alberto Moravia was an interesting and easy read that gave voice to sexuality, class, and maturity. I was slightly uncomfortable with the relationship between Agostino and his mother and how he viewed her. It definitely did not help the situation when his mother welcomed a young man, Renzo, who had the same friendly and spontaneous ease that characterized her relations with her son. The thought of sharing his mom or not having his mother complete desirable attention made him extremely jealous. This betrayed behaviour made me think that he had a hard time accepting his family dynamics. The betrayal was hard for him to take since he may have thought she was not just leaving him but also moving on from his dead father.
Agostino seems to have lost his childhood and is confused with growing up. He seems confused with his true identity. He explores brothels, experiments with risky behaviour, like smoking, and sneaking out to hang out with his friends. It is definitely not easy for a thirteen-year-old teen during this stage of life. We all went through these fragile years of coming to maturity and handling all the emotions and questions that came with it. Alberto Moravia did a great job setting the scenes and the feelings felt by Agostino coming to face the separation he was getting from his mother. I think this confusion and loss of innocence Agostino feels has a lot to do with his father not being there. I believe as a growing boy with all these emotions coming in, it's more difficult without a father figure present to help guide the situation. I sympathize with the narrator as he is going through a significant milestone in his life and does not have any guidance or support. His new friends are not quite the mentors as he is repeatedly humiliated for his weakness and ignorance regarding women and sex.
I could not stop making connections to Freud’s Oedipus Complex throughout reading this novel. Everything that I learned in psychology made me wonder how much Freud would love to dive into Agostino's mind and make sense of his secret unconscious thoughts and desires on his mother since many psychoanalysis were present.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was an easy and detailed read. It was easy for me to be captivated within the book, feel the confusion from the narrative, and visualize the imagery and scenery of the beaches and boats of Tuscany. My question for the class is: How would a father figure have helped Agostino navigate these difficult changes?
read full post >>
Moravia’s Agostino – Week 5
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Week 5: Moravia’s “Agostino”
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A Reflection on Moravia’s Agostino
Posted by: feedwordpress
While reading Agostino I was disturbed by the relationship between thirteen-year-old Agostino and his mother. It quickly became clear that Agostino had a less than innocent attraction towards her. I think Moravia was direct with regard to Freud’s Oedipus Complex as Agostino was entering a reality where he realizes that he unconsciously desires a sexual union with his mother and spends the remainder of the book trying to repress it. When his mother starts to spend time with her new love interest Renzo, Agostino feels neglected and jealous. The summer was the start of his sensual awakening, not only did he feel pride for being associated with his mother’s beauty, but with the association of his new friends, he learnt what his desires meant and why he didn’t like his mom spending time with Renzo.
Agostino’s shame later turns to anger towards his mother for example on page 69 “unable to bear his mother’s unawareness or his own attentions, he wanted to shout, “Cover yourself, stop showing yourself to me, I’m not who I used to be.” He uses his new friends as a distraction from his situation with his mother, but the more time he spends with them the more he comes to realize how naive and childish he is. They expose him to rough behaviours, a perspective on the low-income class, and gave him a strong male presence that he had been lacking since the death of his father. They viewed him as weak and sheltered, so he had to work on being the person he thought they wanted him to be. His newfound sexuality paired with his new friends gives him an overwhelming escalation into manhood. The change that happened within him this summer had already been a source of suffering for him and getting kicked out of the house of prostitutes gave him the idea that he was still young and how he was not yet a man “and many unhappy days would pass before he became one.”
Overall I thought the story was well written and an easy read. It had a number of well presented themes that I enjoyed, including class, sexuality, and coming of age. I thought the author’s psychoanalytic approach illustrated Agostino’s agony of his position and attraction to his mother. My question for the class is how do you think Agostino’s relationship/attraction to his mother will affect his future relationships?
A Reflection on Moravia’s Agostino
Posted by: feedwordpress
While reading Agostino I was disturbed by the relationship between thirteen-year-old Agostino and his mother. It quickly became clear that Agostino had a less than innocent attraction towards her. I think Moravia was direct with regard to Freud’s Oedipus Complex as Agostino was entering a reality where he realizes that he unconsciously desires a sexual union with his mother and spends the remainder of the book trying to repress it. When his mother starts to spend time with her new love interest Renzo, Agostino feels neglected and jealous. The summer was the start of his sensual awakening, not only did he feel pride for being associated with his mother’s beauty, but with the association of his new friends, he learnt what his desires meant and why he didn’t like his mom spending time with Renzo.
Agostino’s shame later turns to anger towards his mother for example on page 69 “unable to bear his mother’s unawareness or his own attentions, he wanted to shout, “Cover yourself, stop showing yourself to me, I’m not who I used to be.” He uses his new friends as a distraction from his situation with his mother, but the more time he spends with them the more he comes to realize how naive and childish he is. They expose him to rough behaviours, a perspective on the low-income class, and gave him a strong male presence that he had been lacking since the death of his father. They viewed him as weak and sheltered, so he had to work on being the person he thought they wanted him to be. His newfound sexuality paired with his new friends gives him an overwhelming escalation into manhood. The change that happened within him this summer had already been a source of suffering for him and getting kicked out of the house of prostitutes gave him the idea that he was still young and how he was not yet a man “and many unhappy days would pass before he became one.”
Overall I thought the story was well written and an easy read. It had a number of well presented themes that I enjoyed, including class, sexuality, and coming of age. I thought the author’s psychoanalytic approach illustrated Agostino’s agony of his position and attraction to his mother. My question for the class is how do you think Agostino’s relationship/attraction to his mother will affect his future relationships?
