How Divorce Affects Christopher in Curious Incident

By -
Divorce plays a major role for Christopher in Curious Incident. Parenting a child with Autism seems tough for two parents working together, but Christopher's father has to parent by himself after the mom leaves for London. I think the fact that the mom gets burned out by the stress of raising a child with Autism shows just how tough it can be. One thing I have learned from the book and other research in class is that parents must show patience in these situations. Christopher is hard to deal with at times throughout the book, but his father tries to understand why is he is acting the way he is and work with him.

It was very sad to see Christopher not understand the dynamic at play when his father lied about his mom's death. Even though it wasn't a great decision, the father probably didn't know how Christopher would take the news of his mom leaving. He knew he wouldn't fully understand it, but it was tough to read the latter part of the book when the father was unable to win back his son's trust initially. I was glad that Christopher was able to kind of start trusting his father again by the ending.

My parents divorced when I was a child, so I connected with that aspect a little. I remember my mom and dad both being stressed out while they were raising me and my brother as single parents, so I think it's a challenging situation for any adult in that situation. When you add in Christopher's Autism, it really makes you respect the sacrifices his father makes in the book. One question I had when I was reading was wondering why there was so much cussing in the dialogue. Christopher's father curses at him a lot, and I wondered how that would affect a child with Autism. I think the purpose was to show how stressed out his father can get, but I still thought the amount of cursing was a little excessive.

The author does a pretty good job at portraying adolescence in this book, despite the fact that the circumstances aren't normal. Christopher has to discover himself in a way along his journey to London. He is put into a lot of uncomfortable situations, but he shows a lot of courage in overcoming those obstacles. He stays determined, and I think the reader can see that transformation by the end of the book. On page 221, Christopher says "And then I will get a First Class Honors degree and I will become a scientist. And I know I can do this because I went to London on my own, and because I solved the mystery of Who Killed Wellington". He is able to overcome some of his fears, and this gives him a new outlook on his own identity for things he can accomplish. 

I really liked this book. The text was sometimes hard to read whenever Christopher would go off on tangents about random tidbits of information, but showing his thinking process also helped to better understand his character. This was the first book I had read with an Autistic character, so it was an interesting read for me. I think I would consider teaching using this text, because I think it would help students to better understand how things work inside the head of someone with Autism.

Comments

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