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.
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.
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 […]
Pretty much every moment of Agostino made me very uneasy. The (possibly) Freudian undertones of Agostino’s feelings towards his mother were definitely somewhat disquieting to me; and the mother’s lack of focus on her son’s wellbeing may have been even more so. However, I think the part that stood out to me most was the […]
Overall this was not a favorite of mine compared to what we have read so far. Agostino is a story of adolescence and growth centered in early 20th century Italy (I think not entirely sure if the location is specifically … Continue reading →
Moravia’s Agostino was definitely a unique read. The novella managed to pack a rich amount of detail and plot into a hundred pages, and I ever once felt that the writing was rushed. Honestly, it was quite difficult to read some portions of the book, especially when the narrator was discussing Agostino’s newfound perspective of viewing his mother. According to the lecture, Moravia’s work draws largely from realism. I found this evident in his descriptions of the town and the stereotypes associated with the social classes but was unsure how it applied to Agostino’s view of his mother.
The transformation of Agostino’s relationship with his mother throughout the book was jarring. It was unsettling to read how he, a thirteen-year-old boy, viewed his mother. It was quite similar to how a grown man would view his lover as his property, as an object that would invoke envy in other men. The depiction of women throughout the book is quite sketchy, and I am not sure how intentional that is. Throughout the book, women mainly serve as objects of desire and do not have any other layers to their identity as the boys do. This influences Agostino’s view of his mother and her womanhood. His descriptions of his mother and her wardrobe and body felt highly intrusive and inappropriate, definitely alluding to the Freudian Oedipal complex theory.
Moreover, we can see how this discomfort (initiated by the boys he meets) fuels his desire to break away from his mother to create his distinct identity from her. He is desperate to hide his naivety from the street-smart boys, but his pampered upbringing doesn’t allow him to do so. He allowed them to take advantage of him just so that he could be included. When this starts happening, Moravia points out how “he found that he had lost his original identity without acquiring through his loss another.” I found this quote to be quite poignant because of how it relates to the experiences of adolescents in their teen years.
Overall, I found Agostino’s character to be intriguing but unsettling. The realism in the book is definitely one of its winning points, as the descriptions did seem very realistic. The visual imagery made the settings easy to imagine. My question to the class would be: Do you think that the Oedipal complex factor added to the realism Moravia wanted to portray in the book?
Moravia’s Agostino was definitely a unique read. The novella managed to pack a rich amount of detail and plot into a hundred pages, and I ever once felt that the writing was rushed. Honestly, it was quite difficult to read some portions of the book, especially when the narrator was discussing Agostino’s newfound perspective of viewing his mother. According to the lecture, Moravia’s work draws largely from realism. I found this evident in his descriptions of the town and the stereotypes associated with the social classes but was unsure how it applied to Agostino’s view of his mother.
The transformation of Agostino’s relationship with his mother throughout the book was jarring. It was unsettling to read how he, a thirteen-year-old boy, viewed his mother. It was quite similar to how a grown man would view his lover as his property, as an object that would invoke envy in other men. The depiction of women throughout the book is quite sketchy, and I am not sure how intentional that is. Throughout the book, women mainly serve as objects of desire and do not have any other layers to their identity as the boys do. This influences Agostino’s view of his mother and her womanhood. His descriptions of his mother and her wardrobe and body felt highly intrusive and inappropriate, definitely alluding to the Freudian Oedipal complex theory.
Moreover, we can see how this discomfort (initiated by the boys he meets) fuels his desire to break away from his mother to create his distinct identity from her. He is desperate to hide his naivety from the street-smart boys, but his pampered upbringing doesn’t allow him to do so. He allowed them to take advantage of him just so that he could be included. When this starts happening, Moravia points out how “he found that he had lost his original identity without acquiring through his loss another.” I found this quote to be quite poignant because of how it relates to the experiences of adolescents in their teen years.
Overall, I found Agostino’s character to be intriguing but unsettling. The realism in the book is definitely one of its winning points, as the descriptions did seem very realistic. The visual imagery made the settings easy to imagine. My question to the class would be: Do you think that the Oedipal complex factor added to the realism Moravia wanted to portray in the book?
While reading Moravia’s Agostino, the raw sexuality of the novella, and in particular, Agostino’s relationship with his mother stood out. Even when Agostino is confronted with his new friends, and the altered worldview which he learns and takes from them, it seems as if it is the mother who is still most important in his coming-of-age arc. The book begins and ends with sexualized descriptions and encounters with his mother, where he begins a boy, and leaves a “man”, or at least understands that he is beginning to become one.
While the boys he meets on the vacation further this newfound “manhood”, it’s catalyst is his mothers romantic “young man” who takes them out to sea on his boat daily. The jealousy, and unexpressed sexual tension between the three of them is characteristic of puberty and the sexual transformation Agostino is embarking upon.
The choice that Moravia makes to centre this around his mother is interesting, but not altogether novel. I knew of the Oedipus myth (where the son is prophesied to kill his father and marry his mother), and Freud’s “Oedipus Complex” (which follows a son’s rejection of his father over his mother), which is interesting, with no father in the story. Carl Jung took this further, writing on “Don Juanism”, where the son sees his mother in other women (as Agostino does in his encounter with the tempting women in it’s final scenes).
It is interesting, as the nurturing mother-son bonds which develop in childhood must be addressed and altered in puberty. Moravia attacks this head on, and Agostino attempts to navigate these changes as he grows. In this innocent relationship, it becomes clear that sexuality, lust, jealousy, and anxiety also blossom during Agostino’s coming-of-age, especially as the “real world” is opened up to him throughout his vacation.
Finally, to link it back to other American coming-of-age novels, I find this extremely interesting as American novels, such as Catcher In the Rye, or The Perks of Being a Wallflower, concentrate heavily on the friends and self dynamic, whereas this novel combines the three of Agostino, his friends and his mother. This creates a more complex growing period, and ultimately more complex and confusing themes of self and maturation, which I found to be more dynamic and interesting.
Questions:
Did you feel like the novel differed from “classic American” coming-of-age stories, and in what way?
While reading Moravia’s Agostino, the raw sexuality of the novella, and in particular, Agostino’s relationship with his mother stood out. Even when Agostino is confronted with his new friends, and the altered worldview which he learns and takes from them, it seems as if it is the mother who is still most important in his coming-of-age arc. The book begins and ends with sexualized descriptions and encounters with his mother, where he begins a boy, and leaves a “man”, or at least understands that he is beginning to become one.
While the boys he meets on the vacation further this newfound “manhood”, it’s catalyst is his mothers romantic “young man” who takes them out to sea on his boat daily. The jealousy, and unexpressed sexual tension between the three of them is characteristic of puberty and the sexual transformation Agostino is embarking upon.
The choice that Moravia makes to centre this around his mother is interesting, but not altogether novel. I knew of the Oedipus myth (where the son is prophesied to kill his father and marry his mother), and Freud’s “Oedipus Complex” (which follows a son’s rejection of his father over his mother), which is interesting, with no father in the story. Carl Jung took this further, writing on “Don Juanism”, where the son sees his mother in other women (as Agostino does in his encounter with the tempting women in it’s final scenes).
It is interesting, as the nurturing mother-son bonds which develop in childhood must be addressed and altered in puberty. Moravia attacks this head on, and Agostino attempts to navigate these changes as he grows. In this innocent relationship, it becomes clear that sexuality, lust, jealousy, and anxiety also blossom during Agostino’s coming-of-age, especially as the “real world” is opened up to him throughout his vacation.
Finally, to link it back to other American coming-of-age novels, I find this extremely interesting as American novels, such as Catcher In the Rye, or The Perks of Being a Wallflower, concentrate heavily on the friends and self dynamic, whereas this novel combines the three of Agostino, his friends and his mother. This creates a more complex growing period, and ultimately more complex and confusing themes of self and maturation, which I found to be more dynamic and interesting.
Questions:
Did you feel like the novel differed from “classic American” coming-of-age stories, and in what way?
Reading Moravia’s Agostino brought me a new perspective towards the transition between youth and adulthood. While I was trying to empathize the situation Agostino was going though, such as him witnessing his mother’s relationship with the young man, I could not understand – by heart – what Agostino could have felt in those moments. […]
Posted in Blogs, Moravia | Tagged with Relationship, Sensuality
