Same-sex love seems to be an impossible theme in the novels City of Night by John Rechy and Aristotle and Dante Discover the secrets of the universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. The two protagonists of these novels have different attitudes towards being gay, one is involved in homosexual acts but clings to his heterosexual masculinity, making him seem different from a stereotypical homosexual while the other resists and buries his feelings deep until they no longer exist. Although the unnamed protagonist of City of Night and Ari in Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe share the same inability of not being able to love another person, what sets these novels apart is the reality system that plays between the two protagonists, and juggling themes such as masculinity, identity, love, and homosexuality in the 1960s and 1980s. Not only do these novels have different approaches to the protagonist's sexuality, but they also have different attitudes different with regard to masculinity. In City of Night, masculinity is seen through the act of hustling. In Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, masculinity is viewed through Ari's expectations of what it means to be a man. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In City of Night, Rechy allows readers a glimpse of how, to be desired, a hustler must be manly. The inner view is shown through images of idealized masculinity between hustlers and buyers. The unnamed protagonist first becomes aware of this type of behavior when he is in the apartment of a man he met in Times Square. “ “Do you read books?” » he asked me dryly. “Yes,” I replied. “Then I'm sorry, I don't want you anymore,” he said; “Really masculine men don’t read!” » » (p. 32). Not only do the scammers have to be young, good-looking and tough, but they also have to act illiterate. The protagonist learns this quickly and must quickly adapt to this behavior. “And I would discover that for many people on the street, a hustler became more attractive in direct relation to his apparent callousness – his 'toughness.' I would wear this mask. (p. 33) Protagonists and other scammers protect their masculinity by making the scammer-buyer relationship only go one way, in their minds they are still heterosexual. “Whatever a guy does with other guys, if he does it for money, that doesn't make him queer. You're still straight. It's when you start doing it for free, with other young people, that you start to have wings. (p.40) The act is not considered homosexual because men perform this act on them and they are also paid for it. Without the money, they wouldn't be in this situation. They have to pretend to be heterosexual so that others don't get the wrong "ideas." They would do this either by complaining that if they didn't need money they would be with women, or by making sexual comments about women. “Standing in the street, Pete always talked about the young girls who passed like flowers, the wind shyly licking their skirts…” (p. 40) Not only do these men deny their sexuality, but they use their sexuality for business. But for the protagonist, it was a little more than that. “How incredibly difficult it seemed to explain to him that it was the simple offer of sex money that mattered; unrequited sex: the manifestations that I was truly desired. (p. 348) The protagonist seemed to be attracted to the process of.