The Reason I Jump Summary

The basis of the book The Reason I Jump is based on the first hand experiences of a thirteen-year-old Japanese boy named Naoki Higashida who has autism. The focus of the book is to give an in depth understanding as to why people with autism may act a certain way in a given situation or even how they react to different social situations to make themselves feel at ease. What the author is primarily trying to communicate to the audience is that people who are autistic are really not that much different from you or me, but rather they have their own unique ways in which they approach life. The way the author brings about the viewpoint of Naoki is by simply asking him various questions as to why he acts in peculiar ways as a way to further explain the reasoning of a person with autism. For example the author ask Naoki why Naoki wonders from home where he answered, “Turning back was not permitted, because roads never come to an end” (95). This quote is merely an …show more content…
One way to view this is to notice that Naoki is an extremely intelligent human being, but unfortunately is hindered by the condition of autism. By directly connecting Naoki with autism and not recognizing his positive attributes of which that allow him to fit in with normal society this puts a negative label not only on Naoki, but all human beings that are autistic. Another way Naoki advances the positive view of autism is to observe how interesting Naoki’s language is, which as I said before contributes to the understanding that he is an intelligent human being. With that being said before reading this book I myself suffered from viewing people with autism naturally by their condition rather than by their personal characteristics, which make them more normal than would be