Homosexual 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. Both protagonists in these novels have different attitudes towards being gay, one is involved in homosexual acts but maintains his heterosexual masculinity, making him seem different from a stereotypical gay man while the other resists and buries his feelings deep down until until they no longer exist. Although the unnamed protagonist of City of Night and Ari from Aristotle and Dante's Secrets of the Universe share the same inability of not being able to love another person, what sets these novels apart is the system of reality that plays out between the two protagonists , and the themes juggling masculinity, identity, love and homosexuality in the 60s and 80s. These novels not only have different approaches to the protagonist's sexuality, but they also have different attitudes towards 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 seen 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 Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In City of Night, Rechy allows readers an inside look at how, to be desired, a hustler must be manly. The internal gaze is shown through images of idealized masculinity among hustlers and buyers. The unnamed protagonist has his first awareness 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 sharply. “Yes,” I replied. “Then I'm sorry, I don't want you anymore,” he said; “truly masculine men don't read!”” (page 32). Not only do the scammers have to be young, handsome and robust, but they also have to act illiterate. The protagonist learns this early and must quickly adapt to that behavior. “And I would discover that for many people on the street a trickster became more attractive in direct relation to his apparent insensitivity, his “hardness”. I would wear that mask. (pg.33) The protagonists and other hustlers protect their masculinity by making the relationship between hustler and buyer only go one way, in their minds, they are still heterosexual. “Whatever a guy does with other guys, if he does it for money, it doesn't make him queer. You're still straight. It's when you start doing it for free, with other young guys, that you start to grow wings. (p.40) The act is not considered homosexual because men perform it on themselves and also get paid for it. If it wasn't for the money, they wouldn't be in that position. They have to fake their heterosexuality so that others don't get the wrong “idea”. They would do this by complaining that if they didn't need the money they would be with women, or by making sexual comments about women. "Being on the street, Pete always talked about the girls who flew away like flowers, with the wind timidly licking their skirts..." (p.40) These men are not only denying their sexuality, but they are using their sexuality to business. However, for the protagonist, it was something more. “How incredibly difficult it seemed to explain to him that what mattered was the simple offer of sexual money; unrequited sex: the manifestations I really wanted.” (p. 348) The protagonist seemed to be attracted to the process of sexual acts, not the end result; the money. Furthermore, by not reciprocating, a rule he follows, the protagonist feels more desired, which is a.