Reflection: Last Quarter of Curious Incident

After finishing the last quarter of the book, I have a few thoughts to share. I think the ending of the book was a little abrupt. At the end, Christopher's mother takes Christopher back to Swindon and lives in a seperate apartment. When Christopher's mother goes to work, however, Christopher would need to stay with his father. Near the end of the book, Christopher's father and Christopher agreed to start trusting and start spending more time with each other. Personally, I thought that there will be a greater revelation or conflict that Christopher or his parents will experience in the process of their deepening trust and friendship. The book also does not seem to go into detail about the relationship between Christopher's mother and Mr. Shears. However, I think the author, Mark Haddon, has a great mastery over the portrayal of autistic traits. Christopher thoughts on different subjects like religion and god, Christopher's dreams, and his actions expertly convey a possible perspective from an autistic person. Many of Christopher's thoughts seem reasonable on the surface, but when more thought is spend deliberating on many of Christopher's views on differing subjects, sometimes, I feel that Christopher's opinions on things are incorrect or oversimplified (like the thought that showed similarities between a human mind and a computer). Also, I really love the way Mark Haddon conveys Christopher's thinking in a vivid manner. On page 198~199, for example, talks about Christopher's dream that people that are not autistic all die out, leaving people like Christopher living in the world. He expresses how carefree he could be. He could go anywhere, knowing no one will talk to him or ask him a question. He could take anything from the dead and make their possessions his. He could be alone. This dream clearly shows that Christopher still long to live in his own world of isolation. Overall, I think I had an interesting read. This book goes deep into the mind of an autistic person, and it think that it particularly helps our understanding of how autistic people percieve things. This is practical, since it gives you another perspective of how other people look at things.