Monday, May 15, 2006
unhappy ending?
While the book ended on a seemingly positive note (Christopher and father are getting along, Christopher gets a dog), I was still feeling sad when the book ended. I thought if Christopher had been 12 or 13, the reader would be able to excuse away his present issues as something he could still "grow out of," in part, or his school would still have more time to teach him life skills. Instead, the intense supervision he needs at 15 seems unlikely to change. Did his plan to be a scientist seem realistic, or is that as far-fetched as his dream to be an astronaut?
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3 comments:
I got the feeling that he was going to be a scientists and do all the things he said.
Sort of the same way he kept stating he was going to get an A on his A-level Maths.
It wasn't necessarily a happy ending, but it wasn't really unhappy to me. At the end he's got a dog and his mom's back in his life and he got an A on his math exams, so he was in a better spot than where he was when the book started.
I know what you mean, Christy. Even a happy ending with autism isn't very happy.
I have heard of people with Asperger's becoming scientists and mathematicians, though. If they can find a job where they don't have to interact with other people, they can be quite successful. Christopher seems to have more severe problems than some people with Asperger's, but I feel like he could probably function well in an isolated laboratory environment.
I think it was a happy ending. I don't think there's any reason to believe he won't become a scientist, and that's what he wants more than anything.
The main thing is that he has more self-confidence now. He has faith in himself to be more than he thought he could be? How could an ending be happier, really?
He has a different notion of happiness from most people, too. It's not a wife, two kids, a fancy car and vacations on the cote d'azure. It's solving math problems and mysteries, etc. I think he'll be very happy on his own terms.
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