The Garden

On pages 67-69, Christopher goes into the garden and contemplates the importance of description in the book he is writing. His teacher Siobhan told him "the idea of a book was to describe things using words so that people could read them and make a picture in their own head" (pg 67). What is the effect of reading Christopher's extended description, which begins, "I decided to do a description of the garden" and ends "Then I went inside and fed Toby"? How does this passage relate to a quote Christopher likes from The Hound of the Baskervilles: "The world is full of obvious things which nobody by chance ever observes" (pg73)?

Behavioral Problems

On pages 45-48 Christopher describes his "Behavioral Problems" and the effect they had on his parents and their marriage. What is the effect of the dispassionate style in which he relates this information?

People

PART I: Christopher likes the idea of a world with no people in it [p. 2]; he contemplates the end of the world when the universe collapses [pp. 10–11]; Later, he dreams of being an astronaut, alone in space [pp. 50–51] What do these passages say about his relationship to other human beings? What is striking about the way he describes these scenarios?

PART II: In addition to answering the above question, today we discussed how Christopher associated Prime numbers with people's names. What number does your name correlate with? (see page 25 for assistance) Read other students' responses to this part of the question and see if you match up with anyone. Also, indicate whether or not your name is a prime number.

Introduction

After researching Autism, Asperger Syndrome, Savant Syndrome, and the author Mark Haddon, discuss 2-3 findings that intrigued you, or that you found interesting and explain why they piqued your interest.