Curious Incident Reflection

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In all honesty, it was very hard for me to maintain a motivation to read this book. The story of The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-Time takes readers through a journey of ups and downs as we see the main character Christopher go on an adventure that tests him in many ways and unveils some heavy things in his life his father had kept from him. This was a hard book for me to get into because of my prior lack of exposure to anyone on the spectrum. We get to see a lot of moments in the book where Christopher struggles with many things that naturally can come easy to many of us. He struggles with not having a basic understanding of how to read situations and people. In one example, we see Christopher in the train station say, "And when I am in a new place, because I see everything, it is like when a computer is doing too many things at the same time and the central processor unit is blocked up and there isn't any space left to think about other things" (pg 143). This was enlightening for readers to hear Christopher explain his situation like that because it shed some light on how hard it must be for him to cope with his struggles. It's not easy for people who don't have autism to truly understand how someone on the spectrum might feel like but this book does a great job of putting the readers in Christophers' shoes.

 I think that this was a very hard book to get into because it started off really slow and at times it was hard to see where it was going. There was a lot of time spent on insufficient details with Christopher rambling on about things that didn't seem relevant or very important to the story. I think this would be a good book to read for someone who would like to learn more about how autism can affect someone. It's always very educational and interesting to read about characters who may not think or act the same way as what can be perceived as usually "normal." It was hard to also see how the parents in this book treated Christopher compared to the other parents in the past books we read. It was obvious that his mom did not know how to handle Christopher's disability so she turned to be a little neglectful. The book sheds light on how important it is for parents to get the right education on what their child may be going through so that they can be the best support system possible for them.

Comments

  1. Tiara A WintonSeptember 25, 2019 at 7:14 PM

    I personally can relate with you about not being able to enjoy this novel as much as the other selections, but i still enjoyed some aspects of the novel. One thing that i did enjoy about this book is the chance to understand the thought process of Christopher. I am not able to relate because i have little knowledge in this area, but at least this was an eye opener for me. In class we talked about mainstreaming children with autism in with normal classes , and as a future educator this novel showed me how important it is to actively try to find material that would help both me and any students that i might have. I did not particularly care for this novel but and i cant help but think that children on the spectrum feel passed along as well. And because i personally want to change that i encourage all my peers to research more about this topic.

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  2. Carter McGillSeptember 25, 2019 at 8:59 PM

    Eva,
    I love how you explain Christopher's struggles throughout the entire novel. The one part in particular you analyzed is when he has arrived at the train station, and his mind is filled with everything around him. He can hear anything that makes a sound or see anything that moves because that is how his brain works. He becomes overwhelmed when he is in busy or crowded places, and his brain wont allow him to think about anything else. Also, this is where this book excels because it's very hard to make the audience feel what a child with autism feels or even thinks; Especially sense the author isn't autistic himself. Great points!

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  3. Logan FowlerSeptember 27, 2019 at 7:48 AM

    I said this to Tiara as well, but I'm sorry for the late response, I thought our responses were always due two days after our blog posts were due. But anyway, I love how you pointed out how this book would be perfect for educating people about autism (and less so as a "down-time" book). In my adolescent development class, we were asked how we could educate students on different kinds of people and just broaden their understanding of the world and what not. I mentioned how in this class, over the past month I already feel that I know so much more about different cultures and races, adolescence determining their sexuality, and now autism. I suggested that teachers, no matter their focus, should incorporate literature such as what we have read into their curriculum or at least have them suggested in the library.

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