Reflection, Alberto Moravia’s Agostino

 I do not think a book has ever made me feel more uncomfortable than Alberto Moravia’s Agostino. The novel follows a young boy Agostino who comes from a wealthy family and how a loss of innocence completely changes his relationship and how he views his mother. The novel explores coming of age, sexuality, and class.

In the beginning, young Agostino has a sense of pride as he loves being seen with his beautiful mother. He notices that every time they go on their daily boat ride together, everyone at the beach seems to stare at them, which he takes great joy in. However, one day his mother invites another man to come with them on their boat ride much to Agostino’s surprise as she usually rejects their advances. Agostino is upset about this; he feels like she had accepted this stranger “with the same friendly and spontaneous ease that characterised her relations with her son” (6), which he thinks should only be reserved for him. Agostino also realises that when around this man, his mother, who he describes as a strong and dignified woman would act more playful and clumsy around him.  After this day, the daily ritual between mother and son was now shared with a stranger who she seemed to act differently around. Agostino has now started to hate these boat rides as he feels like his feelings are of no concern to the two of them. Agostino becomes jealous of this young man and feels humiliated because he has been cast aside so easily and the sense of pride he used was taken from him.

Agostino starts to view his mother differently as he becomes friends with a gang of lower-class children, who tell him what is truly going on between the young man and his mother. Agostino no longer wants to view her as a mother but as a woman like his friends do. He now has an “impure curiosity that his continued respect for family made intolerable” (68). Agostino tries to fix this by resolving his curiosity by using the image of another woman (by going to a brothel), then his mother would “regain the motherly significance she once had”. In the end, this plan fails and we are left with an ending implying that things will not change for a long time. 

Agostino also finds himself trying to fit in with his new friends as someone of lower class by wearing different clothes. He even at one point lies to someone saying that he is unable to attend school and is forced to work at thirteen, when in reality that isn’t true. I found this a bit odd because before, Agostino would often boast a little about his family’s wealth and he would act poor when it benefitted him or for his own enjoyment.

One thing I noticed was that Agostino’s relationship with his mother was similar to one of the narrators in Proust’s novel, Combary. They both initially seem to be dependent on their mothers in both novels, however, they start to differ as the novel progresses and Agostino starts to gain more independence. The relationship between the son and mother in  Proust’s novel is more like Agostino's before he loses his innocence and I don’t think he views her in the same way that Agostino does.

My question for everyone, in the novel Agostino pretends to be a young worker and while a father is trying to teach his son a lesson about how fortunate he is, Agostino replies with perfect answers setting himself as a very good example for what the son should be like, when in reality Aggostino is just as or if not more fortunate than the son. Why do you think Agostino does this? Is it because he playing out a fantasy he wishes was true?