The Curious Incident...

By -
      Reading other students post about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time I am content to know that my negative feed back is not alone. As a future teacher that could possibly have students with ASD in my classroom it was interesting to have a story told by the point of view from a teen with ASD. I will say that although this was refreshing and positive and was really hard to keep up. I understand that what the author, Hannon , was doing with adding the detailed and dragging each of Christopher's experience he was showing the reader how he felt and it made it more authentic. The book was not long in itself, I feel that the details made it seem longer since it described every meltdown, every new experience, math problems etc... As a reader I would have like a little less and Haddon could have left it to the readers imagination.
                   Like Diary, Hannon, added a lot of illustrations of what Christopher used as coping mechanism. My favorite example of this is on pg (195). Not only does this show us yet another way Christopher mind works in the aspect of his math ability but how he used math and connects it to the "real" world. This also made the reader know that he did have a heavy emotional side within. I just love how he took this timetabled and talked about the past, future and present. It might have been a small part in the book but it really fascinated me. Although Danny, our classmate makes a valid point I enjoyed the ending of the story. As a mother, future teacher, and just fan of a great book I loved seeing Christopher leaning towards a new life. I enjoy the idea of a "happy" ending. As Carolina mentioned, maybe he is not outgrowing ASD but getting a better grasp and learning new ways to cope with what he has. Although I have not seen situations where someone completely outgrows a disability I have seen people cope and do their best with what they have. This book brought to mind a student we had a couple years ago, Ryan Sturgill, I use his name because his story made it to national news. The headlines read, student with downs got accepted to Clemson! He did not complete a normal 4 year degree there but was enrolled in a special 2 year program. The point is that it is possible to in ways suceced in way that other think is impossible. I love how at the end he had earned all this self confidence. He felt that he could go on and do better things because of all of the great things he had accomplished. He had solved the mystery, traveled alone and found his mother.

Comments

  1. chelseaSeptember 27, 2017 at 11:27 AM

    Yes I am on the same boat with you on how much over loaded information is just handed to us rather than the reader actually having time to imagine their own insight. I also thought the book ended on a positive note and I was expecting that because Christopher went through so much negative situations. As a mother as well I think it is important for out kids to know their is always a light at the end of the tunnel even if they cannot see it from where they are standing. Positive vibe- positive life!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe...
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm...
Read more

Postmodernism in Curious Incident

By -
Before I start writing, I first want to acknowledge that I just really loved this book! It seemed like a lot of the class had trouble enjoying or appreciating the novel because it's so different stylistically, which is understandable, but all of those unique elements helped make the novel more authentic. The main topic I want to focus on (also what I'm writing my paper on) is how a lot of postmodernist elements were used in the novel to make Christopher come to life. While obviously not every postmodern novel is about an autistic kid, I think Haddon really used a lot of these elements to his advantage and they ended up working out really well to characterize Christopher. One of the major postmodern elements which helps this book really craft an authentic portrayal of autism is the fact that it's metafictive. Basically, this means it's a "story within a story." Readers would be extremely limited just reading the parts of the novel which are meant to be C...
Read more