Author's note: Earlier this school year, I took part in a literature group discussing the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Our conversation shifted to a philosophical discussion debating the differences between logic and emotion and the relationship with love. My writing is a response to Madeline's.
“This makes us ponder how anyone could possibly live without emotion. My conclusion? It is impossible; emotion brings us closer to the things that make life worth living.” The thesis statement written by Madeline portrays her belief of the perceived disillusion of Christopher, a boy with autism. Emotion certainly has its place in abstract feelings and love, but stating that he lacks genuine empathy and emotion is unequivocally wrong. Christopher has emotions, but what he feels is emotion through logic.
Christopher understands emotions. He just sees emotions through a logical eye. For the sake of this argument, we will look at one of the most powerful emotions – love. Love has multiple definitions. Love can be used to describe unconditional feelings toward a spouse or a child I love my wife, to describe the joy of participating in a sport or an activity I love playing and watching football, to describe the enjoyment of food I love Culver’s double butterburger cheese. However, his definition of the word differs from all these definitions.
Christopher uses logic as a lens to understand emotion. Can someone describe a relationship with a spouse as companionship, as comfort, and as support systems while honestly saying they are living without love? Just because the relationship is solely logical and may not include emotion does not mean that the logical person could care less if the relationship ends.
Although Christopher’s autism makes it appear as though he does not understand emotion, he just does not view emotion in the same light as you or me. Christopher did not want the dog to die. Does this mean he loved the dog? To you and me, no. However, using Christopher’s definition of love and Christopher’s mind, losing the dog left a void in his heart. He loved that dog.
