Christopher’s peculiarity is that he has the Asperger’s syndrome, which is a form of autism. The emotionless, neutral style of the writing and simple subject-verb-object sentences, used to express Boone’s disorder, make the novel different and delightful. The narration from the point of view of an autistic teenager provides the reader with a different prospective on people’s weaknesses and imperfections, demonstrating that adults often act very childish and how insecure most of us feel in the world.
With the help of the unusual narrator Mark Haddon provides a funny and touching look at the universal themes like love or family relationships. Chapter 2, the first chapter of the novel, begins with a detached but precise description of the killed dog. In an unemotional way the narrator informs us that the poodle belonged to his neighbor, Mrs. Shears, and tells how he picked the dead and bloody dog on his hands, just because he “liked dogs”, and hold it to the hysterical and screaming Mrs.
Shears having bright-pink toenail polish. The scene may seem disgusting to someone, others perceive it as very funny indeed. Anyway, the reader is curious. He grasps at once that something is wrong with the narrator. “This is a murder mystery novel,” declares Christopher in Chapter 7, which is in fact only the fourth one, but all the chapters are numbered by prime numbers and not in the ordinary sequence. While the world of autistic people is static, the use of detective plot was the only way to move the novel out of the static.
The combination of autism and detective becomes a brilliant hook for catching the reader. Christopher’s just-the-fact, unorganized narration and his recount of his inability to understand emotions in Chapter 3 make the reader interested in learning more about the protagonist. Though the plot of the novel is intricate, it is the point of view, which makes the reader keep reading. As Christopher continues his detailed narration,
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