Mark Haddon Mystery

Although Christopher is quite aware of his behavioral problems and deficits he is shown to use a some of his restricted behaviors and fixated interests as an advantage throughout the story such as his incredibly accurate memory in order to find his way around, his astounding talent with calculating numbers, which he sometimes used as a coping mechanism when he was in undesired situations like when he was surrounded by a lot of loud people he didn’t know, and his interests with Sherlock Holmes which overall helped him solve the mystery. I personally believe this was Author Mark Haddon’s way of placing a message within the story that I perceived as despite his developmental differences, Christopher, just like normally developed children, has talents and deficits that can be used as an advantage in life and seeing how much he has achieved independently he should not be underestimated due to his uncanny perception of the world around him regardless of his condition.

However, after all he independently accomplished within the story, such as revealing through his consistent detective work that his father killed Mrs. Shears dog wellington, discovering his mother was alive all along and traveling all the way to London, an entirely new environment for him, to successfully search for & find her and in the end still passing with an almost perfect score on his A level math exam he had been working hard to pass, his story shows Christopher had determination in not letting the social fears, limitations and self proclaimed behavioral problems of his disorder get the best of him in the end leading him to successfully achieve what he set out to