The End

His arrival at his mother’s doorstep signals the end of the novel, and shows more closely the trials that parents of autistic children must go through. His father finds out where he has shown up and the resulting clash between the two parents and Mr. Shears clearly not wanting to have to deal with Christopher results in Mr. Shears leaving Christopher’s mom. The dream Christopher explains after he rejects his father is especially chilling after the emotionally powerful scene that came before it. Christopher’s perfect world is one in which the only people left alive are people like him, people who will never talk to him, touch him, or ask him questions.

His stay at his mothers is not as happy as he’d hoped. As a result of his trip it seems he will be unable to take his Math A-levels, which he’d wanted to do, and as a result of his mother’s split with Mr. Shears, they will have to go back to living in his home in Swindon, with his father. The book ends on somewhat of a high note. Christopher’s teachers allow him to take his A-Levels, and his father begins working to repair his relationship with his son, even buying him a dog. Christopher leaves us with a message of confidence. He will become a scientist. He knows he will he “went to London on my own, and because I solved the mystery of Who Killed Wellington? and I found my mother and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything.”

The family isn't reunited, but this adds a sense of realism to the story. This is a novel that does not get caught up in sentimentalism, and doesn't fall into the trap of making everything right again in the end. Stuart Murray's article below on autism and contemporary sentimental fiction celebrates this fact.

http://muse.jhu.edu.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/journals/literature_and_medicine/v025/25.1murray.html

Too often do stories with disabled characters at their heart end with melodrama. The real world is rarely so saccharine, and a bit of reality when dealing with disability shows a respect that these fairytale endings cannot.

Travel

Christopher’s decision to run away from home meant he had to decide where to go. Through the process of elimination, he decided the only place he could go was his mother’s home in London. His fear of the unknown was matched only by the fear he had of his father, and it was this fear that propelled him on his trip. His adventure in the subway serves as an excellent example of just how much all these new experiences were frightening him, and just how much information he can take in. Every sign in the station, as well as the sign that showed each stop in the Bakerloo Line, was presented to us, each of them written in a different font, or in a picture. This influx of information, combined with the sound of the trains themselves were enough to force Christopher to sit down and close his eyes for five hours.

The Inadequate Narrator

The below essay, by Stephan Freißmann goes into a little more detail as to what the “I see everything” quote and the memory as film analogy means for the novel, and fleshes out an observation that was made in an earlier post. It explains much better what I was trying to convey, when I called into question Christopher’s memory. Read the second section, titled “The Curious Incident as Narrative Thinking.”

http://muse.jhu.edu.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/journals/partial_answers/v006/6.2.freissmann.html

Another source that can help us understand both the above article and my own thoughts is the first installment of an analysis of the book by John Mullan, a senior lecturer in English at University College London. In his piece for the UK publication The Guardian linked here http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/apr/24/fiction.markhaddon

he calls Christopher an “inadequate narrator,” a term he uses to replace the term “unreliable narrator” which he says doesn’t fit. Christopher is, after all, a very reliable narrator. He writes about the events that happen exactly as they happen. However much he remembers about the events, he will often misunderstand them. While the reader can piece together what these events actually mean, Christopher is left in the dark.

I See Everything

On page 140, Christopher says, “I see everything.” For this reason, he does not like new places. He explains this by saying that when he is in place he knows, all he has to do is look at the things that have changed or moved. That is, he has to look at everything, but in places he knows, most things (except those that have changed) he has seen. In new places, he is forced to look at and take in every new thing. This calls back the memory as a film analogy. His vision takes in everything, and just like a video camera it is preserved exactly as is for later use. This is different from normal people, because he says they only glance. Their vision bounces off of things without taking them in, and thus they are not overwhelmed with new information like he is.

Further Revelations

On page 120, the mystery that began the novel is solved. Christopher’s father admits to the murder of Wellington the poodle. Christopher wonder’s if it a joke at first, because, as he says, he doesn’t understand jokes, and “when people tell jokes they don’t mean what they say.” Christopher cannot believe that his father could mean what he just said. His father explains his reasoning, but the result is not as he’d hoped. Christopher is frightened by this revelation. His father had not only lied to him on such an important issue as his mother’s death, he had murdered Wellington. Christopher tells himself that he cannot trust his father, and thinks that if his father had killed Wellington; he could kill Christopher as well. He decides to run away from home.

Revelation (For Christopher)

Six days pass until Christopher is able to return to the letters. He counts forty-three of them, and begins reading them. He makes it through three. The fourth letter we are shown is left unfinished, because Christopher does not make it to the end before he realizes he has solved the mystery of the letters, and revealed an awful truth. His mother was alive. She is living in London. She had been sending him letter since she’d split up with Christopher’s father. Christopher goes catatonic with the shock of his Father’s lie, and vomits on himself. When he comes to, his father is back from work. His father tries to explain, but Christopher is still too shocked. He is aware enough to remember his father’s words, but he cannot respond. It's clear that his father did this to protect Christopher, but one wonders what would have been the better choice. Clearly Christopher's mind does not work like the neurotypical's. Would Christopher have minded at all if his mother suddenly moved out? On a moral level, his Father was wrong, but what consequences would simply letting Christopher experience the events of his parents' separation unfold naturally have had?

Revelation (For the Reader)

The event that brings about the climax of the novel is when Christopher’s notebook is taken from him by his father. On page 80, Christopher forgets his book on the kitchen table, and his father finds it and reads it. Seeing that Christopher has broken his promise, the two have a fight, and it appears that Christopher’s book is thrown away. Christopher, not wanting this to be true, looks for it around the house. When he finds it, it is hidden in his father’s closet. He also finds letters addressed to him. He reads the first, and though the reader is aware that this letter is from his mother, and that she is still alive, Christopher is woefully unaware. Tragically, Christopher’s first reaction is excitement. Not that his mother might still be alive, but that “When I started writing my book there was only one mystery I had to solve. Now there were two.” The second mystery was who this Christopher was that the letter was addressed to. It could not be him, he thought, unless the letter had been stuck in an envelope with the wrong date, because clearly, his mother had been dead for eighteen months as of the date written on the envelope.