Irresponsibility In Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident

It is important to be educated about sensitive topics before writing irresponsible literature. The Curious Incident, written by Mark Haddon is a novel about a teenage boy, Christopher, who is ignorantly portrayed as autistic, based off of common stereotypes. Christopher finds a dead dog in his neighborhood and later learns that his father is the murderer. He then goes on a dangerous adventure to find his mom in London by himself. In the novel, The Curious Incident, Mark Haddon inaccurately and irresponsibly represents autism by doing no research before writing the book, putting Asperger’s on the book jacket, and stereotyping a mental disorder whilst having no knowledge of it.
The original copy of the novel claims that Christopher has Asperger’s

Although, since Haddon did not do any research on the disorder before writing and originally falsely claimed him as having Asperger’s, this makes his writing irresponsible. Christopher states that his “memory is like a film. That is why I (Christopher) am really good at remembering things, like the conversations I have written down in this book” (Haddon 96). Christopher has an astonishing memory which leads readers to think he is autistic. He can remember things word for word, and describe things perfectly in detail. This makes readers think he is autistic, which is a stereotype. Mark Haddon, having done no research on autism, perceives autistic people to have a great memory and this is how he displays Christopher in the novel. In various instances in the novel, Christopher wishes “to look out of a little window in the spacecraft and know that there was no one else near me for thousands and thousands of miles…I can pretend I'm in space” (Haddon 66). This is an example from the book when Christopher describes wanting to be in space alone. He dreams of being an astronaut, and the thought of being all alone in a place far away from Earth calms him. Once again, this is a misinterpretation of how autistic people act. People, including Mark Haddon, stereotype autistic people and assume they want to have no social interaction. Haddon misguides readers into thinking all autistic

When writing about a sensitive topic, it is important to understand the topic so that the behaviors of the characters can be appropriately displayed. Mark Haddon denies writing about Asperger’s while having no knowledge of it. The book cover “identifies him as an autistic savant, but Christopher tells us all we need to know about his condition without reference to medical terminology” (McInerney) The book jacket labels Christopher as autistic, although he does not want to be specified under a `disorder. Christopher recognizes that he is different from normal people, and his brain works by numbers and he does not fully understand emotions. Although, Christopher never specifies having a disorder. It is wrong for the cover of the book to identify him as autistic, because Christopher does not represent autism as a whole. It is ok for writers to use their imagination and creativity, but it is not acceptable to label the book about a sensitive topic that the author has not done research