Curious Incident

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After reading The Curious Incident I have to say that I did not really enjoy this book. I did not think that the book was bad, but I did not like it. I had a very hard time getting into the novel. After reading the other two novels this one did not seem exciting. It was like there was no climax in the novel. One thing that I noticed about this novel was the parenting style.

I think that over all Christopher's father loved him. He had his flaws but overall I think that he always did what he thought was right. I could tell that he was worried about Christopher whenever Christopher was taken in for hitting the police officer. Whenever his father gets to the police department he asked to see his son and when he got to Christopher he held up his hand to show that he want to hug him, but Christopher does not like being touched. His father messed up by hitting him, by hiding the letters from Christopher, and also by lying to Christopher about his mother being dead. I could see his love for Christopher whenever he came to get him from his mother's. He told Christopher "Christopher, I'm really, really sorry. About everything. About Wellington. About the letters. About making you run away. I never meant...I promise I will never do anything like that again. Hey. Come on, kiddo." Then he started to cry because he knew that he had upset his son. He wanted his son back even though they had been through tough times and that is what a loving parent does.

I also think that Christopher's mother loves him too. I think that she was selfish for leaving her son, but I believe that she loved him from a distance. Considering that she wrote to him everyday I would say that she never wanted to lose touch with him, but she also did not want to have to deal with the struggles of having an autistic child. I could tell that she loved him by the way that she reacted after finding him at her house in London. She was so happy to see him that she hugged him which made Christopher so uncomfortable that he pushed her away. Another time that I was able to see her love for him was when Mr. Shears said that he could stay a few days and Christopher's mother said "He can stay as long as he needs."

The parents in this novel are similar yet different from the parents in the two previous novels. The one good thing that I got out of this novel was the differences in the parenting styles. The other books had both parents being "present" in the adolescent's life, unlike this book in which only one adult was present the entire time in the child's life. I think that was a good experience even though I wasn't a fan of the book. 

Comments

  1. Eva YoussefSeptember 23, 2019 at 10:17 PM

    I agree with you that it was very hard to stay motivated reading this book after the last two great novels we read. I think that you bring up good points talking about the parenting Christopher receives from his mother and father. We see them both treat Christopher in two very different ways. Do you think that having both his parents constantly in his life growing up would have changed Christopher a whole lot?

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    1. Anna GilfillanSeptember 26, 2019 at 10:25 AM

      Yes I think that if both of them had been present and putting forth their best effort then Christopher would have had a less stressful life. His dad would not have been as angry if his mom would have stuck around and I think that would have made a big difference. Do you agree? Or do you think that Christopher would have been the same?

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