Sunday, November 14, 2010

The film, Autism: The Musical, helped me to better understand Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in many ways. The Film talked about Autism as a neurological disorder that sometimes made sounds and colors seem more intense for the people who have it. It said that some of these people are non-verbal while others are highly verbal and it can cause children to "be in their own world." The film's description of the disorder helped me to understand why, in the book, Christopher did a lot of the things he did such as groaning when it is too loud for him. Henry, from the film, reminded me most of Christopher. The film stated that Henry has Asperger's syndrome, a form of Autism, that is possibly the same form of Autism Christopher has. Henry did not like loud noises and doesn't really like to socialize. Henry also is very smart in specific things such as reptiles and dinosaurs. Christopher also doesn't like loud noises and does not do much socializing. Christopher says that he does not like chatting, which he describes as "Where people say things to each other which aren't questions and answers and aren't connected" (Haddon 40.) Also, Christopher is very smart when it comes to maths and sciences, just like Henry is with dinosaurs. The other children in the movie also did things similar to the things that Christopher does. Adam, an eight year old from the film, screamed when his mom tried to grab him, and then he ran to hide. Christopher also does not like being touched, as demonstrated when the police officer tried to grab him to pick him up. Overall, the film didn't necessarily help me to understand exactly why people with Autism do the things they do, but seeing real children with Autism helped me better understand some of the things Christopher does.

No comments:

Post a Comment