In chapter 229 of Mark Haddon's book, we are introduced to Christopher's dream.
It is a world where nobody but people 'like' him exist. He describes it as a world where "special people like me" (pg 199) are the only ones left in the world and the people who have emotions (described with an array of faces displaying emotion) are gone.
This chapter made me feel very disconnected from Chris' world. The world Chris described is an envisionment of a post-apoacalyptic world, to us that is. This is the difference between me and Chris, we have different dreams in life (literal and figurative).
The funny thing I observed about Chris' world is that his 'dream' world would also be a sort of reality in terms of achieving utopia: people without emotion or 'wrong' judgements is the only case in which, I believe, a utopian society could work.
The fact that I judged Chris instinctively upon reading about his dreams shows how flawed our minds can be. Just when I thought I was figuring out Chris' persona and his humanly qualities, we are introduced with this chapter then again puts us out of Chris' 'shoe'. In fact, I find it a relief that I can't see through Chris' eyes, it's still a horrible thought to find an apocalyptic world as 'heaven'.
This is what I reflected from this short chapter.
On a side note... I had a question that got stuck in my head: is Chris' mind an evolution of humanity's flaws? I mean, if nature saw it fit... Wouldn't Chris' almost primal and alien mind be the answer to the problems we, as humanity, caused on the world?
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This is actually really interesting, because I kind of had an opposite reaction to the dream chapter as you. I felt that this brief glimpse into the deeper, subconscious workings of Christopher's mind gave me a better understanding of who he is and also, I felt, brought me closer to his character. Sometimes I also feel like the world would be perfect if there were no one else around, just for a few days. To be able to be free to do anything you have ever wanted to, without regard to society's acceptance of your actions or lack thereof, would be very exciting. To be able to peek into other peoples' lives without them noticing; to not have to worry about traffic or annoying crowds or seeing people you would rather not... it would be rather pleasant, I think. However, I agree that this pleasantness could not last forever, and therefore is definitely not a utopia. Loneliness would eventually set in in a negative way, which is where we differ from Christopher. I don't think this loneliness would particularly bother him like it would us. However, I think even he would prefer to have at least those he is close to around him in the world, such as his family (while he trusts them, anyway). Thus I do not believe that Christopher really fully thought out this hypothetical utopia of his, and why should he be expected to? In any version of any person's "heaven", there are probably hidden flaws in our perfect imagined world that we fail to see on the surface, but they are ultimately there.
ReplyDeleteAs for your side note, I had never thought about the story in that way... but I definitely think you're onto something. It occurred to me fleetingly that perhaps the simplicity of Christopher's mind might be symbolic for some sort of ultimate perfection that society might someday re-realize. However, I think that to pinpoint Christopher's mind as being a symbol for just one thing would be ignoring the whole other range of themes that could be drawn from him. In a postmodern perspective, I suppose there could be an infinite number of explanations for what Christopher's simplicity is supposed to mean. For example, two conflicting ideas (to highlight deconstruction for my benefit) might be your thought of Chris' mind being the answer to humanity's problems, but on the opposite side, could it also be that Christopher's condition and mindset is a product of humanity's raging desire for progression? (Ex: autism is thought by some to have been increasing due to the excess of mercury used in some vaccines and set free in the production of some energy sources such as coal energy...) Could Christopher's state of mind be, not the answer or the goal of humanity (to revert back to simplicity) but instead as the warning sign of what NOT to progress towards?
This might not make any sense at all, and I realize this is very long, but it's just something to think about...
I actually like what you brought up about my side-note, seeing it as a warning rather than a sign of 'evolution' of human kind is a much more positive take on the whole issue... Yeah, I sometimes like seeing things with the 'glass half empty'.
ReplyDeleteFor your interpretation of Chris' dream... Well, again, we would never know what Chris would really want. Is his dream flawed in some way? maybe... perhaps that is why he has several different versions of his 'good dreams'.
I was stating the utopia as something that 'I' think would be the only way utopia would work: a world without emotions and decisions, a world where everyone lives like a machine. I just brought this up as something I thought of while reading.