This is where narrative empathy comes into play. Lauren gives us this description of Bankole. We do not know what the others think of him. The story could have been read differently if we knew what Natividad, Travis, Zahra, and the others thought of him. This is a small flaw that I would like to point out that affects the novel and the reader’s empathy. It is good that we are told the positive qualities of the Bankole but it would be more effective to find out more about him. If we are told other opinions of him, we would understand what the whole group feels about him, and whether they trust him to join them or not. How does Christopher relate to Lauren in this type of situation? Well just as Lauren, he writes in his perspective and he is
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Let us say that there is an autistic reader and they know exactly what Christopher is going through. There would be no blockage between the autistic reader compared to the reader who does not have autism. People are not exposed to the study of autism because it seems that people reject people with autism because they are much different than “normal” people. I say normal because people believe that people with autism have some kind of problem with them. Not calling them normal is the same as saying they are not human. People with autism are regular people but they have a social disorder. There are many intelligent autistic people and even in the novel, Christopher is an extremely intelligent fifteen year old boy who is studying at a college level. The discrimination of people who are autistic should not challenge the reader to continue on with the book. Hirvela and Helkama “have also pointed out that there is a growing body of research which suggests that autistic individuals may show less impairments in affective empathy, and that the capacity for moral agency among this population deserves critical attention” (Hirvela 564). This is why people should be aware of autism in literature. If people with autism can read novels where they feel …show more content…
By giving detailed explanations of Christopher’s thoughts, the novel allows the reader to empathize with Christopher. Pointing out the actions, behaviors, and thoughts of “normal” people, such as Christopher’s father’s habit of putting his pants on before his socks, the novel implies that Christopher’s thoughts and actions are normal to a certain point. As a result, the reader is able to take on Christopher’s perspective as his own and to understand Christopher’s reasons for behaving as he does. Christopher’s point of view loses its “strangeness” and seems unique at some points. “As used commonly in cognitive studies today, Theory of Mind refers to a mostly unreflected process; the ‘theory’ component of the term may be something of a misnomer, since there generally is no prolonged conscious theorizing going on about other minds as we interact with one another while employing this faculty. As Lisa Zunshine summarizes, Theory of Mind is ‘effortless in the sense that we 'intuitively' connect people's behavior to their mental states although our subsequent description of their mental states could run a broad gamut of mistaken or disputed meanings’. In the case of protagonist Christopher Boone, however, Theory of Mind seems to require more deliberation, as he relies on educated guesswork based on past experiences to
Let us say that there is an autistic reader and they know exactly what Christopher is going through. There would be no blockage between the autistic reader compared to the reader who does not have autism. People are not exposed to the study of autism because it seems that people reject people with autism because they are much different than “normal” people. I say normal because people believe that people with autism have some kind of problem with them. Not calling them normal is the same as saying they are not human. People with autism are regular people but they have a social disorder. There are many intelligent autistic people and even in the novel, Christopher is an extremely intelligent fifteen year old boy who is studying at a college level. The discrimination of people who are autistic should not challenge the reader to continue on with the book. Hirvela and Helkama “have also pointed out that there is a growing body of research which suggests that autistic individuals may show less impairments in affective empathy, and that the capacity for moral agency among this population deserves critical attention” (Hirvela 564). This is why people should be aware of autism in literature. If people with autism can read novels where they feel …show more content…
By giving detailed explanations of Christopher’s thoughts, the novel allows the reader to empathize with Christopher. Pointing out the actions, behaviors, and thoughts of “normal” people, such as Christopher’s father’s habit of putting his pants on before his socks, the novel implies that Christopher’s thoughts and actions are normal to a certain point. As a result, the reader is able to take on Christopher’s perspective as his own and to understand Christopher’s reasons for behaving as he does. Christopher’s point of view loses its “strangeness” and seems unique at some points. “As used commonly in cognitive studies today, Theory of Mind refers to a mostly unreflected process; the ‘theory’ component of the term may be something of a misnomer, since there generally is no prolonged conscious theorizing going on about other minds as we interact with one another while employing this faculty. As Lisa Zunshine summarizes, Theory of Mind is ‘effortless in the sense that we 'intuitively' connect people's behavior to their mental states although our subsequent description of their mental states could run a broad gamut of mistaken or disputed meanings’. In the case of protagonist Christopher Boone, however, Theory of Mind seems to require more deliberation, as he relies on educated guesswork based on past experiences to