Love Bites

The relationships and intimate relations that Florentino Ariza partakes in play a large part in the theme of the novel because it shows how physical love is only a temporary solution to a broken heart.
Young Florentino, at a naïve part in his early life swore his virginity to be taken only by his true love, Fermina Daza; however, he quickly learns that promiscuity can temporarily curb his pain. Though there are many women in Florentino’s life, 622 to be more precise, there are only a few that are significant enough in his formation as a character to be mentioned in the novel. The first of these women has no name or face to be known, but she is the one who took Florentino’s naivety away and created a man disloyal to even his own promises. This began the promiscuity of Florentino that encompassed his whole life. It is very important to the reader that this women is to remain nameless and faceless because it shows that the relations that Florentino will partake in from this moment on will be solely physical for the most part and hopelessly loveless. Her anonymousness brings the reader to comprehend that these physical relationships are ephemeral and unimportant to the character but they seem to temporarily relieve his life-long need for Fermina so that he can ease his pain in daily life. While his naivety was lost, his pain was seemingly eased, but the reader understands that these relationships are fleeting and unimportant in the long stretch of Florentino’s life.
In contrast, there was one relationship that did affect Florentino’s love life that was not in the least part promiscuous, and this may be the reason why the relationship was beneficial for Florentino. Leona Cassiani became a very influential woman in Florentino Ariza’s life for many reasons. She was one of the only women other than Fermina Daza that Florentino began to have true romantic feelings for. This may stem from the fact that Leona was one of Florentino’s only friends and he felt comfortable around her and was able to talk to her. Another reason she was very important in his life is because she is the only woman that he had feelings for which whom he never laid in bed. This is significant because the reader can see that physical relationships are not what attract Florentino to women, it is the personality and love that Florentino needs women for but he tends to get into bed with women regularly in order to save his true love for a woman who does not love him for his skills in bed. Leona is a demonstration to the reader that Florentino truly is a romantic, and that, while he does partake in promiscuous activities, his internal goal is to strive for a true love with a person that is his friend and emotional partner rather than a play thing to take to bed.
The women portrayed in the novel bring light to the truth behind the character we readers know as Florentino Ariza. From these women we learn that he is sensitive and romantic but yearning for a way to curb the pain of a heart break that was never cured. While he seems to trudge along every day in order to win the heart of his one true love, he partakes in promiscuous activities in order to forget his love as well. In a sence this seems ironic but mentally, the reader can see into the mind of a lovesick martyr-of-a-man who simply wants to hide his pain or overcome it by winning the one he loves. Florentino is a true romantic who only partakes in physical love to ease the pain that he has been experiencing for such a long period of time (630).

Cause and Effect of Women

Fermina Daza, in the novel Love in the Time of Cholera, can often be seen as the stereotypical woman. Her quick temper, undying love, changing mood, and using of her lover for personal amusement are all qualities that the stereotypical, confusing woman possesses and that are all shown through the character of Fermina Daza. While the reader comes to love this character as an interesting person, her stereotypical female attributes lead the reader to a further understanding of what love is to many females and the power that such a woman has over the males in her life.
Many of the frustrations in the marriage of Fermina Daza and Dr. Urbino stem from Fermina Daza’s uncontrollably quick temper which stand to explain how women can be immensely infuriating to men in times of argument. The scene where Fermina Daza took her anger out on her husband for reminding her of her forgetful ness and exaggerating the time in the process, caused a simple issue over whether there was or was not soap to be a great rift in their marriage. Because Fermina Daza was determined to be proven correct and would not back down, knowing she was fully wrong, she shows the unchangeable stubbornness that women possess. She uses this power to make her husband miserable and therefore his love for her overpowers his frustration. During this argument, the reader sees how frustrating women can truly be and how two sided their thoughts commonly are. Though it is obvious she loves her husband, her will power and anger get in the way of her love and she would rather control her husband than control her emotions, as many women seem to do. While it is infuriating to men to be put through the metaphorical washing machine in order to make up with the one they love, women consistently force men to compromise because women know the power love has over their husbands and lovers.
When a reader can see the truth behind a woman’s mind as she seems to fall in love but her mood and mind consistently changes, the reader can understand a man’s frustration and obsession with love and irritation with his lover. While Fermina plays with the heart of her lover, Florentino, thinking that she loves him more than anything in the world and knowing that all she needs is to marry things man, she pulls his heart and his emotions closer to her own. Even when a year and a great distance separated the two, their adolescent love kept them from being far apart. But at the moment when the two can legitimately be together and married, Fermina realizes, as it seems many women do, that she was in love with the idea of love and the idea of having an admirer, not necessarily in love with the man himself. Her obsession with adolescent love and her toying with a man in order to fulfill her own naive emotional needs sends Florentino into a state of irrevocable love for the woman he fell so madly for from the beginning. Her hops and leading aspirations for their future together never left his mind and he never recovered that part of his heart that he had lost. The mood change and feeling change of selfish women can terrorize a man’s life forever, though Fermina never intended this to be the case, she destroyed his love life forever.
Women are so highly influential in the lives of men that they can overpower men’s emotions and toy with heir hearts. Women have mood changes, mind changes and fluctuated feelings that lead men into falling for them and lead them into an irreversible trap known as love that even the conniving woman did not understand she was making. While these traps cause many men pain, they also cause turmoil and confusion in the mind of women who commonly do not even know the disasters they are causing, as in the case of Fermina (662).

Brotherly Pain

In the novel, The Sound and the Fury, the pride of the family in conjunction with the brothers’ love for their sister tears the family apart. Each of the characters in the story have many internal, mental issues with their positions in their family which are only heightened as a result of Caddy’s promiscuity. Both Benjy and Quentin suffer after Caddy lost her virginity because their love for their sister tears them each apart mentally, knowing that Caddy has changed and that they no longer can control the occurrences in her life.

Caddy’s promiscuity effects Benjy greatly and his reaction to her loss of virginity shows that Caddy’s actions changed the lives of those around her. When Caddy first comes into the house after she had been deflowered, Benjy senses that she has been with a boy and attempts to make her cleanse herself of her sins by washing them off as she had done before. Though, in his mind, this seems the sensible way to redeem herself, for Caddy the cleansing is not a possibility and she is aware that she is too far-gone from personal reconciliation. Benjy throws a fit that Caddy will not give herself completely to him anymore, and though he does not fully understand Caddy’s actions, he seems to understand that he can no longer control Caddy’s actions and that he cannot be the only boy in her life any longer. We, as readers, can see that this is the beginning of Caddy abandoning her brother, whom she loved so dearly, and that she will only further isolate him from her life. The next time, chronologically, that the reader can tell that Benjy needs his sister but she is no longer there to support him is when he waits by the golf course, moaning when the golfers say “caddie”. This shows that Benjy still wants to wait by the gate for his beloved Caddy as he did when he was little, because to his adolescent mind, she comes home through the gate. He still hopes that if he is loyal to the sister who treated him so kindly that she will come back to take care of him as she used to. When Caddy lost her virginity, she bean to throw her brother, Benjy, who so idolized her, to secondary importance. This change effected Benjy, and his emotions took over so that Benjy kept trying to bring his sister back, unaware that she would not return to his side.

Caddy’s actions began to deteriorate the mental state of Quentin from the beginning of her changes and slowly, he began to lose all hope for the future. Quentin loved Caddy to the point that he would admit to the world that he had committed incest so that the world would reject them together. He is torn apart because he believes in the morals of the south and that women should be cautious with their bodies. He is proud of his heritage and wants to retain the stature that his family possessed in better times. When Quentin discovers the promiscuity of Caddy, it forces him to convince her that she never loved Dalton Ames and that she can overcome her promiscuity. Even after Quentin has gone back to Harvard, he cannot get his sister out of his mind, as shown when he fights a fellow Harvard student and loses, all to protect the names of sisters everywhere. Quentin tries, and fails to protect his sister from the real world, but realizes that he cannot keep her from something he, himself, does not understand. This realization drives him all the way to suicide because he cannot bear the disgrace of his family and the loss of his truly beloved sister because of her life choices. Caddy’s actions tears him to pieces to the point that death is a better outlet than fretting about every instance that had occurred when Caddy lost her virginity, became pregnant, and married a man she didn’t love in order to cover her pregnancy.

The Compson family is distraught over the choices that Caddy has made, and though they were not wholly normal before her actions, the knowledge of her losing her virginity and becoming pregnant out of wedlock is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Caddy was the finishing moment that tore the family to pieces and put her brothers out of their minds (733).

Caddy as a Postulate

As a reader trudges through the novel, The Sound and the Fury, she must make assumptions or formulate her own theories about the history of the characters. I myself, along with a few of my classmates have a few theories that involve the central character, Caddy, in conjunction with Quentin, the girl, and her marriage. These theories are nothing more than postulates about the novel, but they are scenarios that have intrigued me as details have been added to my understanding of the history of the characters in the novel.
My theorizing began when the female Quentin became a larger part of the story, as she was seen with her boyfriend in the yard by Benjy, which raises many questions about the origin of this young girl. Due to her repulsion from Benjy, I could assume that she was not one of Benjy’s siblings. As I realized that Caddy was no longer in the picture, had been married, and now lived far from the home of Benjy and her family, I started to believe that Quentin was her own child. As we read it seems that our knowledge of Caddy grows. We soon realize that Caddy was experimenting with boys and her body at seventeen years old, and that this made her ashamed to confront Benjy. In the second section of the story, as told by the male Quentin, he notes that she was sick and could not inform anyone. This is where I believe she was pregnant with Quentin, and therefore was going to have an illegitimate child. In the South, and in the timeframe of this novel, illegitimate children were looked down upon, and this would have scared Caddy into rushing into a marriage in order to keep the child from being illegitimate. This theory is one that seems to be collecting evidence as I read further in the novel.
Another reoccurring theme in the novel is the theme of incest, which has many potential outcomes for the family and for Caddy. Caddy’s older brother, Quentin, tells his father that he has committed incest, which sparks concern for the reader. While reading I have come to theorize that Quentin loves his sister very much, as all of the children in the family did, and realized that she was pregnant with an illegitimate child when she confessed to being sick. I think that he lied to his father about the incest in order to protect his sister and her illegitimate child. If he had truly committed incest then the family would be able to cover the illegitimate child as their own because there would be no outside father that needed to be dealt with. This theory is supported by the fact that Quentin lives with the family after Caddy is off married. It seems as though Caddy had the child, claimed it as a product of incest with her brother, and moved on to a new life. This would explain the appearance of the child, Caddy’s abandoning of everything associated with her family, and the family’s hesitation to talk of their daughter after she is gone. This theory, as well, seems to be getting the most support out of the other theories of the family incest as I read further in the novel.
The openness of this novel leaves many occurrences in the family to the imagination. Many theories have been concocted by the readers in the class, and some might be proven true by the end of the novel. Though none of these theories is positively the truth, maybe more evidence will be shown to sway my opinion or to prove4 my theories real (606).

Indesputable Failure

The short story, Shiloh, was intriguing to me because of the concept of marriage and failed relationships. As I read along in the story, I began to almost hope for that Shiloh would cure the marriage because it seems as though the two characters might have a deeper connection that they had forgotten. The ending of the story did not catch me by surprise, but I had hoped for the save marriage so it disheartened me.
As the story progresses, the characters become farther and farther apart from each other to the point that their relationship is destroyed. Once Leroy is finally able to be at home for his wife and to not go out onto the road on a usual basis, Norma Jean tries to get out of the house and keep their relationship distant as she is used to it being. It is as if their relationship had only held together because the two of them lived separate lives and didn’t have to deal with each other on a regular basis. In this way, both of them could be cordial and intrigued by each other because they did not know each other well enough any more to have a true relationship or to argue. As Leroy makes many attempts to get to know his wife better and to progress in their new relationship, the reader begins to feel the fruitlessness of his efforts and almost pities his position. It seems as though Norma Jean does not even want to make an effort to renew their relationship or to make it last with the ownership of the house. She does not want to make the relationship permanent because living with her husband and seeing him on a regular basis makes her realize that she has not lived life because she married so young. As the reader cannot see the thoughts of Norma Jean as we can see the thoughts of Leroy, we get a skewed idea of the patterns of the relationship. It seems as if Leroy is the caring and thoughtful one in the relationship and that he is only trying to make life better for his wife. Once Mabel convinces the couple to go to Shiloh to make their relationship better, the reader sees that there is to be a turning point in the relationship. I, however, believed this turning point would be for the better because of the scene of them both laughing at their own stupidities. From here is seems as though the couple has gotten past their dislikes of each other and are headed to make things work. But Norma Jean’s plans had never changes and the couple was doomed to fail. Norma Jean’s touchiness to the subject of her life at 18 shows that this failure was a long time coming and that, had the two not conceived a son, The relationship never would have been finalized. Because the two have nothing to keep them together, Norma Jean finally ends a relationship that was never meant to be.
This is a story of relationships and discontentedness with life in general. The couple was obviously never completely functional after the death of their son, and because of the work of Leroy. The trigger that set off the complete separation of the married coupe was that Leroy’s accident forced the two to deal with each other on a regular basis which only showed how incompatible and forced the relationship was (575).

Competition Rules All

The short story, Harrison Bergeron, was more focused upon the theme than on the plot or the characters. There are many themes that are prominent to the reader while reading this story and others that are more below the surface. The different themes that surround this horrible distopia of a nation are all a reflection of the loss of individuality and uniqueness.
The background of the story, as we discussed in class, shows that the demand of perfect equality inhibits progress. People in the novel are not able to move past the era in which they live because nobody is allowed to be better or achieve more than any other person. In essence, this is the perfectly politically correct nation. From a modern perspective, this theme of perfect equality and limited competition is a step up from the extreme necessity of political correctness that our nation is pushing at this moment. This is crossing the line of the need to make everyone content with who they are and make the world one in which everyone fits snuggly. Because there is no competition and no one person is better than another due to the handicaps given to them, the world ceases to progress while every one believes they are happy with the correctness imposed upon them.
The theme of a relationship in this egalitarian setting is a theme that lies below the reader’s radar until the story is read multiple times. From what the readers know of George and Hazel, the couple is not actually suited for companionship. It seems as though Hazel has no brain of her own, to the point that she needs no handicap to keep her from over thinking a situation. George, on the other hand, has a severe handicap in order to keep him from thinking rationally because he is naturally highly intelligent. The government is keeping him from being an intellectual in this equal society and he is therefore as unintelligent as his wife. Without his handicap, he would realize that he is much more suited to an intellectual setting than to that of simplicity and forgetfulness. In this sense, everyone in the nation is suited for each other because, if they are all truly equal, no one person is a better match for another and anyone would be able to marry another person just as happily as if they had married their perfect mate. With the knowledge that everyone is the same then there is no hope in looking for a sole mate or need to succeed in life in order to live well. If every person would succeed or fail in the same way because competition is eliminated, the education, progress, and life purpose would cease to exist.
There is also the notion, brought forth by Hazel and Harrison, that people are able to cheat their handicaps and therefore, the seemingly equal society is not always as equal as the people seem to hope. While there is a fine and jail time for removing or not using your handicap, many people would most likely tire of wearing all of the debilitating devices and would often remove their restraints. If this were true, then many people would most likely cheat the system because people are naturally curious creatures who are competitive. While George imagines the prospect of taking off the handicap will bring the society back to a “dark age” where competition rules people, many people most likely attempt to show their true worth while they are in their homes. Therefore, the society is, in body equal, but in mind as unequal as society is meant to be.
Because this story is an explanation of the horrors of true equality, the modern reader can understand where competition is truly a good concept, even when I can harm others. This story was written in the early 1960’s and therefore written by a different generation than my own, but as a modern reader, I can understand the purpose that the themes in the story convey. Competition and inequality are what make a society, a family, and an individual unique. Progress, purpose, and life pondering stop when there is not drive to succeed or punishment for failure. Society needs competition in order to thrive (707).

Indecent Pride

As the story "A&P" progresses, readers find themselves focusing on many different aspects of the scene. The primary aspect that is seen is of the girls in the supermarket, but as we read, our attentions is not on the girls, through they are the main focus, but rather on those surrounding the girls. The theme of monotonous settings and ordinary people--the "sheep" described by John Updike--rule our perspective and divert us from thinking thoroughly about the girls and their place in society. As a reader, I feel that more attention needs to be drawn to the girls themselves and their perspective on the situation in the supermarket.

The setting is the same for all of the characters in the story, but the plot seems to surround the girls in the mind of the narrator. Therefore, we must look at the incentive that the girls must have in entering the supermarket so promiscuously. Sammy comments that “Queenie” seems to be showing the girls how to flaunt themselves and to make themselves the centers of attention. In this way, Queenie is successful; the entire supermarket notices and brings attention to their presence. The prospect of being observed does not go unnoticed by Sammy, who understands that the supermarket is nearly five miles from the beach, and the girls, therefore, had plenty of time to properly dress themselves before entering the store. Also, the reader observes, at the end of the story that they circled the entire supermarket in order to find one item, herring snacks. While they could have been in the supermarket for only moments and made a brief appearance in the store, the girls chose to make a display of themselves and wander through the majority of the aisles in order to retrieve their purchase. The girls seem to enjoy being gawked at and act as though everyone staring at their almost-bare bodies is commonplace for girls such as these.

While this scene, to the modern reader, would seem almost common and uninteresting if the same situation had happened today, the outright disregard for proper dress is a very exciting prospect in this story. This may be because the story was set in the 1950’s and the girls in this time were supposed to be much more proper than these girls seemed to act. There is almost a blend of modernism that is mixed into the monotonous supermarket scene. The girls are not only wearing very little clothing in a public place, but they are wearing 2-piece bathing suits—which are seemingly offensive to Mr. Lengel and force him to confront the customers about their behavior. In this scene, we face the fine line between the modern ideas of the customer’s always being right, and of decency in public places. As a reader, I feel that Mr. Lengel had a right to ask his customers to practice common decency because he knows as well as Sammy does that between the super market and the beach, the girls had plenty of time to put on clothes and make themselves more publicly presentable. He seems to notice that rather than simply shopping as the rest of the sheep do, that the girls are purposefully flaunting their bodies and making themselves the “dynamite” in the store. Because of this obvious tension that the girls create among the employees and the customers, Mr. Lengel has a right to keep his store pure and respectable and to ask the girls to remain decent while in his supermarket.

The scene that the girls create in the supermarket is intriguing through the eyes of Sammy, and the attention of all involved are on this girls, but readers seem to focus more on the people surrounding the girls. Readers are more intrigued by the way that the “sheep” react to Queenie’s whit shoulders and the girls’ bare skin. While the story itself surrounds the girls, the commonality of the store and the setting create more intrigue for the reader than does the blunt indecency of the girls in the supermarket. This is an interesting prospect to see that the intrigue of the reader is different that that of the characters in the story. As readers, we are experiencing the way that Sammy feels toward the freedom the girls have to express them selves and the mundane feeling of the supermarket as a whole. The characters though, have a plot shaped by the unexpected appearance of the indecent girls. John Updike does a good job of creating a scene with almost different plots for the characters than for the reader (762).

Teenage Wasteland

In Teenage Wasteland by Anne Tyler, the narrator shapes the story into a format so that we, as readers, can see the whole picture without fully understanding all of the author’s intentions. The limited omniscience of the narrator leads us to feel specific ways towards the individual characters in the story. Daisy is the only character with whom we have a total connection and, as a result, our perceptions of the story are shaped by her actions and thoughts.

Through the limited omniscience of the narrator we are able to comprehend every aspect of Daisy’s experience in relation to the suffering of her son, Donny. To the reader, Daisy is fully understood and her thoughts, actions, and feelings towards certain situations and people are completely clear to us, the readers. The narrator has a limited view, though, and forces us to miss certain portions of the story. We merely see the actions of the other characters in the story rather than emotions and thoughts as we experience from Daisy. Because of this one-sided view of the story, we are able to make certain judgments about the story as skewed by Daisy. As the story begins, we see Daisy speaking to the principle of the school about Donny’s grades slipping (4). We feel the power of her urge to help her son and to make things better. Her confusion about the way in which she raised her child brings us to pity her situation and to even want to help her, even though it seems Donny would be the one who needs the help. Even as it seems Daisy is growing more confident in her son, he falters again and her loss seems to be our loss as well (8). Because we can not see another person’s perspective on the mounting situation with Donny, we cannot seem to get a connection with the other characters in the book as we do with Daisy.

Even her perspectives on other characters in the story impose upon the perception that we, as readers, get of the characters that are presented. Through the story, Daisy has fluctuating feelings about the way that she feels about Cal. She, at first, is comfortable with placing her extra funs into the hands of an unknown person in order to save her son (33). But as Donny seems to get better in the eyes of his mother, the simple monetary loss is an evident gain to Daisy because she sees her son succeeding by raising confidence. The reader feels the roller coaster of emotions that Daisy feels through the situation with Donny. Since we never see any emotions of any other characters, we can understand where her fluctuations of confidence in the situation begin. Towards Cal, we feel as Daisy does; concerned with the welfare of her son, hopeful that confidence in Cal is confidence in her son, and fearful that she is relying too much on an outside source of which she has no control. Because we cannot see the occurrences in Cal’s house, we understand Daisy’s trepidation towards Cal’s methods and Donny’s advancement in his psychological help. Even when Donny begins to heighten his interest in Cal, we are aware of the origin of Daisy’s hesitation toward Cal’s methods because, just as she does, we have no control or awareness of the happenings or outcome. As the mother of Donny, Daisy feels compelled to stay out of the situation in order to help his self-confidence and inspire trust in her son, but as readers we feel as she does. We feel, through her emotions, the fear of letting a child make his own decisions. Once Donny gets expelled, it is logical to us that Daisy would blame Cal because, as it is to her, we cannot see what had been occurring during the lessons Donny attended. Our lack of ability to comprehend other character’s actions put us in the same situation as is Daisy. We, as readers, are seemingly uncomfortable with the situation that Donny goes through because we are part of Daisy’s mind and are unconnected with any other emotions in the story.

Anne Tyler presents us with a limited omniscient narrator in order to describe emotions rather than a setting. We are able to feel the story rather than simply read it. She gives us a means to feel sorry for and to comprehend Daisy’s actions and to misunderstand the actions and intentions of the other characters. Because the author told the story in such a way, it is closer to home for the reader and evokes emotions rather than simple intrigue, as an omniscient narrator would have. In this way, we are able to interpret the story from a single angle and feel as one of the specific characters feel. This would not have been as possible if the story had been told directly from Daisy because we would have been given room to mistrust her narration. Because the emotions were described by an overseeing narrator, we are able to trust that the feelings presented are the truth and that we are meant to feel as Daisy does throughout the story (857).

Curiously Human

The novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, shows insight into the depths of a child’s true humanity and perspective on life. We, as readers, learn about the world through the eyes of a child who is paranoid and uncomfortable in the world in which he lives because of his autism. His humanity is apparent through his innate fear of the world, which is widely shown through his open likes and dislikes of the world, as well as through is obvious misunderstanding of human nature in general. In a sense, his human traits are highlighted by his eccentric behavior and through his behavior we further understand humans.

Through his eyes we, as readers, see the world through a scope not previously known to our one-dimentional minds. Each person in this world has experienced fear and uncertainty about the unknown and are concerned about our individual paranoia, but never have I experienced fear so explicit and engrained that every detail of the experience seems real. In the novel, the main character invokes his feelings with elaborately detailed desciptions of everything around him. Christopher explains that he does “not like people shouting at [him]. It makes [him] scared that they are going to hit [him] or touch [him] and [he] does not know what is going to happen (Haddon, 4).” Rather than explaining the way he feels in general, the most important part to his story is explaining the way he feels about touch, colors, and numbers. Every person in the world attributes good and bad qualities to certain aspects in life. People have favorite colors and hate certain smells. The aspect of pain versus pleasure that sets Christopher apart from a typical human being who simply feels good or bad by these qualities, is that he forms his mood and decisions around the appearance of certain colors, numbers, and feelings. Through out the novel, Christopher is very specific about his likes and dislikes, such as his hatred for yellow and his love for the color red. He even goes as far as dieing his food red in order to make it more favorable to him. The examination of numbers and colors and specific descriptions that seem minute and unimportant to the majority of the population are brought to central attention by Christopher. Human attributes of dissatisfaction and gratification are displayed in larger view because his personality constraint brings both of these daily notices into central observation so that the reader understand how Christopher’s mind is filled with the most minute details.

Christopher attempts to interpret humans around him in order to gain a fuller understanding of life. He does not understand human beings because they lie, and they express their ideas and feelings through expressions rather than words. The main character embellishes upon human nature by placing it into a realm of misunderstanding. To Christopher’s autistic mind, expressions and moods have no validity, and words are the only sourse of truth and understanding between individuals. Christopher Boone explains how he believes humans are overly complicated by describing why he likes dogs. He says “ You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating (Haddon, 3-4).” Because of this alternate perspective on human issues that seem obvious and normal to most of society, reading this novel shows a reader that all people do not think as he or she does, but rather, all people see the world through differently colored lenses. Christopher simply possesses a more defined lens. He even goes as far as drawing different happy faces in order to compare people’s expressions to his paper so that he can verify what their expressions mean. Because of his lack of understanding of human moods and expressions, Christopher listens very closely to words and takes all words to be truth. He cannot understand why people say things that have no place in reality when he cannot even imagine something that has not occurred to him. Because his mind thinks differently from the majority of the world’s minds, through this novel we learn a great deal about the effects of autism on a family and a child.

Every portion of the novel reflects the main character’s feelings and experiences. We, as readers, see through his eyes and feel what he feels because we are told only the portions of the scene most important to him. We see and understand his emotions and pain because, most people understand that humans, in general, are confusing creatures, but most of us accept the human flaws of lying and acceptance of our dislikes where Christopher, avoids all contact with those things of which he loathes. Christopher is a symbol of humanity because he shows the flaws and confusions that humans innately possess (796).

Ask me to Read Again, Please?

When I was very young, I read very little outside of what was assigned in the classroom. This behavior was not for lack of love of books, I enjoyed what I needed to read very much, but rather because I had not yet found a genre that interested me. I had tried to read many different types of books but never had become immersed in the reading. It was not until I decided to follow my Dad’s reading habits did I finally become an avid reader.

When I was about eight years old I began to read the children’s version of the Star Wars series. I then fell in love with science fiction novels and could not put the series down until the seventeenth in the series was over. Soon, I began to expand my reading to different kinds of fiction, which included my all-time favorite, Harry Potter. As I grew into my love of reading I discovered many other types of genres could capture my interest, and that I did not need to stick with science fiction and fantasy novels. I have begun to love murder mysteries since my freshman year under Dr. Allison as well as historical fiction, my new-found joy, under Mr. Martin. I am hoping that as I grow in my love and admiration of books I will be able to find even more genres that intrigue me, but for now I have plenty of novels in which I may immerse myself in order to remain occupied in literature.

Since I have found my love in books, I read quite often, possibly to make up for my lack of reading when I was very young. Typically I read about six books in the summer, and when I have no schoolbooks to occupy my reading time before bed, I am always in the middle of a good, newly released fiction novel. I often prefer novels with higher thinking involved, usually including math and reasoning in order to further understand the ending, but at times I find that a simple comical book can keep my attention for two or three days just as well as any other novel. More often than not, though, novels with little thinking tend to lose my attention more quickly than a bad horror movie and are easily discarded, never to be read again.

My writing style is a bit more sparse. Generally, I write for scholarly purposes, and my best writing is done in those subjects of mathematics or researching. I am a very literal person and writing a research paper, to me, is much more intriguing and a more useful way to use my brain waves. As much as reading fiction is more interesting, in writing, my my brain tends to understand researched material and place it together coherently. At times, I wish I were able to write fiction, but often I am much more useful in a research-oriented setting for my writing needs (492).