In 2012, a survey assessing children born in 2004 discovered that 1 in 68 children had been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (CDC). This statistic shows how unlikely it would be for someone to go their entire life without meeting at least one person diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Yet despite these high numbers, autistic individuals are rarely present in modern media. There are few books and movies that depict autistic characters, and those that do often use the disorder as a gimmick by depicting the characters as little more than caricatures. However, there are two novels that do an excellent job of portraying realistic and complex autistic characters. These two novels are The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
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In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, the mystery comes to a logical conclusion half-way through the book. Though clues regarding the identity of the murderer are scarce, an invested reader could potentially guess the correct answer before it is revealed. This allows the book to be more engaging to the reader, and creates a very effective mystery. This does not happen in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Though the plot is solved by the end of the novel, the reader is never given any clues throughout the novel that would allow them to try and solve it alongside Oskar. Though this creates a less engaging story, it is also more reminiscent of classic Sherlock Holmes stories, in which the reader has no chance of solving the mystery before the protagonist does. In addition, the end solution of the mystery is disappointing to both the reader and to the protagonist. This allows it to end on a very realistic and mundane note, which is certainly not the emotions the reader feels when learning Christopher’s father killed Wellington.
Both the The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close portray a child protagonist with an autism spectrum disorder. These novels were both published in the early 2000s, and since then many other books have been published that contain character on the autism spectrum. This literary trend appears to be growing, and with our growing knowledge of autism we will likely see many more realistic books in a variety of genres with autistic
In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, the mystery comes to a logical conclusion half-way through the book. Though clues regarding the identity of the murderer are scarce, an invested reader could potentially guess the correct answer before it is revealed. This allows the book to be more engaging to the reader, and creates a very effective mystery. This does not happen in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Though the plot is solved by the end of the novel, the reader is never given any clues throughout the novel that would allow them to try and solve it alongside Oskar. Though this creates a less engaging story, it is also more reminiscent of classic Sherlock Holmes stories, in which the reader has no chance of solving the mystery before the protagonist does. In addition, the end solution of the mystery is disappointing to both the reader and to the protagonist. This allows it to end on a very realistic and mundane note, which is certainly not the emotions the reader feels when learning Christopher’s father killed Wellington.
Both the The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close portray a child protagonist with an autism spectrum disorder. These novels were both published in the early 2000s, and since then many other books have been published that contain character on the autism spectrum. This literary trend appears to be growing, and with our growing knowledge of autism we will likely see many more realistic books in a variety of genres with autistic