The pain of Ari's mother
Ari’s mother is deeply saddened by her sons and daughter having moved out because she “broods, cries about it, holds her head low sometimes, sighing deeply, lamenting her boy’s betrayal of her.” Ironically, she does nothing to ease her pain; instead, she “nurses the betrayal, cultivates it, makes her pain ecstatic because it adds a sheen of tragedy to a boring life.”
Alex and Ari's mother
Alex realizes that her mother seems depressed because her father has gone out without her. She seems to show genuine concern when she encourages her mother to have fun as well: “Go Mum, Alex says, what the hell are you going to do on your own on a Saturday night.” However, it is ironic that she withdraws from the conversation as soon as her mother tells her that she would like her children to stay with her to make her feel better: “Alex makes a face and gets up from the table. I don’t want a lecture, she says, and goes off into the lounge.”
Labels
On the one hand, Ari does not like being labeled: “You're either Greek or Australian, you have to make a choice. Me, I'm neither. It's not that I can't decide; I don't like definitions.” On the other hand, he deliberately chooses to display some stereotypical wog behavior to anger two white girls: “This hippie woman hates me and I play up to it. I look her up and down and then just stare at her.
Ari's real interest
During a conversation with his friends Kristin, Stephen, and Spiro, political systems are discussed. Ari keeps looking at Kristin and Stephen frantically debating, but ironically, he is not interested in the topic at all. Instead, his focus is entirely on sexual possibilities: “Communism, the degenerate state of the Soviet Union may be dead, but not Marxism. He looks around at me and Spiro for support. I avert my eyes. He’s talking politics and I’m thinking how hot he looks.”
Ari's ethics
Ari postulates, “People deserve contempt. Or, as Johnny says, I may see no future but I got ethics,” which is ironic because ethics are associated with high moral standards, whereas Ari’s “ethics” are based on hate.
