There are several themes portrayed in this book, the most powerful theme is that somethings are better left unknown. First of all, Christopher’s curiosity gets him into some serious trouble with the police. When he first discovers the dog, he goes into Mrs. Shears yard and is discovered by the police shortly afterwards. The police officer confronts him, “The policeman squatted down …show more content…
People who have Asperger’s syndrome struggle to understand other people’s emotions. Christopher’s father gets upset with him, “He said ‘What is this?’ but he said it very quietly and I didn’t realize that he was angry because he wasn’t shouting” (Haddon 81). Christopher doesn’t understand body language such as raising eyebrows or sarcasm; this makes it harder for him to communicate. Also, they get frustrated because when they tell him to do something he doesn’t understand what they mean. Christopher explains, “This is because when people tell you what to do it is usually confusing and does not make sense” (Haddon 29). Last, he doesn’t understand language that isn’t verbal. For example, “He also has difficulty with nonverbal forms of communication, such as body language, facial expressions, and even the tone of voice” (Sparknotes 3). Constantly having to explain things to Christopher is difficult on the ones who are around them the most. This motif of frustration with Christopher is carried out throughout the whole …show more content…
First, Christopher decides if he will have a good or bad day based on the color cars he sees that morning. He explains why he does not like the color yellow, “Yellow flowers (because I get hay fever from flower pollen…)” (Haddon 84). This is one of the many examples of yellow things he does not like; he explains why yellow cars are bad luck. Next, he also doesn’t like the color brown based on a bad experience. In another list he explains “Melissa Brown (Who is a girl at school…she tore my big astronaut painting into two pieces…)” (Haddon 84). Because Melissa was mean to him and her last name is brown, he refused to like that color. However, he does like the color red. The day after he found Wellington, he was riding on the bus and found out he would have a good day, “In the bus on the way to school next morning we passed four red cars in a row, which meant that it was a good day, so I decided not to be sad about wellington” (Haddon 24). Even though emotionally he was upset, he went passed that because he saw the color red. This is because Christopher has a psychological past with these different colors that determines how he