chelsea --- Curious incident
If I had to choose one important part of the book that combines all of the different factors that Mark Haddon brings to light about autism in Christopher's case, it is the scene where he is in the train station. It is a mixture of his internal conscious, but also the outside physical world he is buried in. The impact those two things play out in this part of the story is intense, clearly imaged, and monumental in Christopher's growth as an individual.
When he is in the kitchen about to take his dad's credit card and hears a car it made me hold my breath because I felt his nervousness when he said," I felt my skin cold under my clothes...and the pain in my head got much worse."(135) Chris who does not like metaphors much uses one to describe the way it felt to hear a car, shows how out of character it is for him to be sneaking around getting his dad's card out. It gives the first push to a cart rolling downhill of "first (scary) adventures".
It was also super intense when he was in the train with the police man, I felt the rush you feel when playing tag, "so I started to run away, but he grabbed me and I screamed."(159) Then the game changes to hide and seek. When he is in the bathroom in the cabinet and hears the police man looking for him, Christopher intentionally stays hidden instead of telling the truth and coming out because he "could see his walkie-talkie and his truncheon on his belt and I could smell his aftershave, but he didn't see me and I didn't say anything because I didn’t want him to take me to father...I didn't want the policeman to find me."(163) I thought another chase was going to happen when a different cop, "was looking under the seats" and his logical thinking was, "I decided that I didn't like policemen so I got off the train."(168) which was a phew moment.
He ran into a situation where what was familiar became unfamiliar. " and a man came up to me...I took out my army knife and he said whoa. Whoa. And held up both his hands like a fan..because he wanted to say he loved me, but he did it with both hands not one like father and mother."(171) I took this as a foreshadow because shortly after he began getting closer to London. It told me about the situation he would be in when reuniting with his mother. A familiar face but a different view on who she is a person because she did leave for another guy and lives with him. He knows his mom physically, but internally it is something new to him.
The idea of her being dead, and is actually alive is like he buried her in his mind and meeting her is like making her alive again. With a totally new mother.
Overall going on that adventure on his own showed his bravery, and from the way it is illustrated I don’t think Christopher was even aware of how courageous that actually was.
Comments
Post a Comment