Third Book Discussion

In this discussion, we rehashed some of the old topics: the consequences of Christopher's disability and what he actually has.  Also, we brought up new topics of how Christopher's adventure will affect him later, if he will ever forgive his father, and whether or not he would have a compatible partner.  

I talked about how the self confidence Christopher gained after he traveled to his mother would help him in the end.  In the end, Christopher stated that since he wrote a book, discovered the killing of wellington, and taveled to mother, he could do anything. i think this is very important because earlier, we talked about how Christopher holds himself back because he looks down upon him self by setting rules.  for example, the color of the cars technique of whether or not the day would be good or not, i think, is an insult to himself, because he purposely limits his own ability to feel the day for himself.  Also, we discussed why his he was afraid of his father.  Throughout the story, Christopher displayed his feelings towards his father as fear because he killed Wellington, but on the other hand, I think his real feeling was that his was hurt that his father had lied to him about his mother’s death.  This is very significant because he is covering up his feelings, not because he doesn’t want to share them, but because he doesn’t truly understand them.  We then moved on to the point of whether or not Christopher would ever forgive his father.  i believe that it will eventually happened, because his father will try relentlessly, and Christopher believes he can do anything, and once he realizes how important his father is to him, he will conquer his fear and battle through it, and eventually forgive him.  We spoke about if Christopher met a person alike him, they would be compatible as friends or even a couple.  Sam brought up that they wouldn’t touch each other at all because it would make both of them uncomfortable, and they would understand to explain everything very clearly for the both of them to understand (like Siobhan does).  They would overall just understand each other and be good for each other. 

Final Discussion 2

In our second discussion of our final, we spoke about whether or not Christopher’s father made the correct decision of telling him that his mother died when she left.  Also, we discussed whether or not his father lied to Christopher on purpose or not, and whether his mother left for selfish reasons or to protect Christopher. 

Sam thought that his mother’s choice for leaving was the correct one, and was selfless because she wasn’t a good mother to Christopher at all.  She didn’t have the patience to take care of an autistic kid, and she often hit him when she lost her temper.  Also, he stated that Christopher’s father wasn’t very helpful towards his mother’s problems with temper.  He didn’t help her through it, but instead, he blamed her for being angry at Christopher.  I sort of agreed but I actually thought this:  I think that his father pushed his mother away by criticized her for yelling at Christopher.  She then sought refuge in Mr. Shears. She then fell in love and left, using her parenting issues as an excuse.  I also thought that his father lied to Christopher as a spur of a moment accident.  He just couldn’t accept the fact that his wife left him so he lied in order to avoid the subject.  He then continued with the lie because he couldn’t tell Christopher that he lied to him. And I think he regretted that one lie for a long time, but he couldn’t tell Christopher. 

We then moved onto the fact that Christopher is super smart.  He does a game that requires great imagination and concentration and intelligence to do.  IT consists of moving squares around like checkers and moving them from the bottom half to the top.  It is really interesting how he can imagine this and do it.  He said that he cant imagine things but he did this, which requires much imagination. He also remembered the whole scheme which is really, really impressive.  He is quite smart, much smarter than other people are, but people still look down upon him (including himself) just because he is different, and they don’t understand what goes on inside his brain, which, in my opinion, is much more developed than any average people.

Discussion one summary and improvements

In our first discussion on Friday, we began by observing Kathy, devin, and jesse's group.  One thing I noticed was that their questions were mostly about plot, asking why one person did one thing or another.  I'm not if it is just because of the story that makes it difficult to come up with more in-depth questions or it was just a lack of effort, but that's what I noticed.  The best commentary I heard was about whether or not the "unwinding" of humans was humane.  It was very interesting to hear the discussion but I am extremely worried that there will be spoilers because I want to read that book, but they will be discussing it before I get a chance to do so.  Plus, I can't really stop them from discussing spoilers, because they must do so in order to discuss, because they are all at that point, and I am just an observer.

In our discussion, we. Talked a lot about what disabilities Christopher has.  We talked about autism, which is what he clearly has, but I wasn't sure what that really meant.  Sam cleared it up, saying that it is the disability of not knowing what people's emotions were.  I also questioned whether or not he had OCD because he liked everything perfect(I.e. When he went to his jail cell, he liked it because it was almost perfectly a cube, he also won't eat foood unless they weren't touching each other)

I brought up the thought about how his mother may still be alive.  We had a quick discussion about this but it was very frustrating because without ht elicited amount of time we had,we were all rushing to get our ideas ion, cutting people off, and changing the subject much too quickly.  We spent roughly two minters on this, when we should have spent at least 10.  That went for almost every single topic we discussed.  I think that we Should split this time into two days, doing one hroup's discussion one day, and the other's the next.  Just one day for tow discussions just simply isn't enough, especially for one third of a whole book. I know that we are limited on time two just two weeks left, but I really don't mind reading faster, if that means more discussion time.

Response to Sam's thoughts on Christopher's mother

During this discussion, we started off slowly, basically talking about plot.  I brought up the point that Christopher   John Francis Boone's mother may still be alive and well, but with another man:

One very interesting part of the discussion was when the question that Christopher’s mother might still be alive.  If you think about it, it make since because Christopher was not allowed to see her in the hospital, and she was cremated, making it so there would b no actual opportunity to see a body.(excerpt from Sam's Blog)

Christopher, as Sam stated, never met his mother in the hospital. Also, his father didn't know the type of heart attack that she suffered from, something that one usually finds out from the doctor.  She was cremated, and Christopher didn't go to the funeral, and he didn't know what happened to the ashes.  I don't think that there is a question on whether or not his mother is dead, or living.  Our whole entire group(Sam, Bassam, and myself) agreed that we think that christopher's father lied to him when he said his mother was dead.  It is just a question on why his father did lie to him.

I have two ideas: his father just couldn't get himself to say/admit it, or he didn't think that with christopher's disability, he could handle the awful news.  The first idea seems far fetched because the whole neighborhood knew about the affair of mr. Shears and christopher's mother.  It may be possible because rumors could have been started, or mrs. Shears could have been the one who told everyone, not christopher's dad.  It seems far fetched, but It is possible.

The second idea seems more realistic.  With christopher's disability, he doesn't fully understand how to let out his emotions.  His father didn't know how safe it would be if he let christopher know that his mother lied to him.  N body knew how christopher would react to the news, so they kept it a secret to them, in order to protect him, and the people around him(he could get violent once he hears the news).  One thing I know for certain is that his father never kept this secret for being mean, it was just the way it was.