Blog Post #4

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The novel by Mark Haddon, the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, was an easy and very interesting read. I was probably most intrigued by Haddon's extremely realistic depiction of Christopher. Writing or attempting to display a character with ASD is not an easy job to tackle because the disorder is such a broad spectrum and looks very different on a case-by-case basis. However, I feel as though Haddon did a wonderful job finding a median that depicts common traits in ASD that anyone who is familiar with can relate to.

For example, without even looking at the content you notice unique characteristics about the structure of the novel, the most obvious being the chapter layouts. Christopher is particularly gifted in numbers and counting so therefore the novel is broken up by prime numbers in their chronological order. In addition to the structure of the novel, Haddon has Christopher explain his reasonings behind a few of his quirks and this gives us, as the reader, a greater understanding into his mind and why he thinks the way he does. For example, in the very beginning of the novel Christopher says point-blank that this will not be a funny book because "I cannot tell jokes because I do not understand them." He explains himself further claiming, "If I try to say the joke to myself, making the word mean three different things at the same time, it is like hearing three different pieces of music at the same time which is uncomfortable and confusing, not nice like white noise" (pg, 8). This insight into Christopher's logic and way of thinking was ingeniously written out by Haddon to make it easy for the reader to understand ASD and the reasons they will sometimes act or do things in unorthodox ways.

This book is very important for both middle level and high school students to read and be taught. ASD is becoming  amore well known and understood behavior so it would very beneficial to begin spreading that knowledge to the younger generations. After all, many students will interact with peers who have Autistic tendencies in their classrooms and it only makes sense to help them better understand how their classmates might think and how to work with them in a supportive way.

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