Parental Insight (Prompt 1, Chapter 127)

Chapter 127 was both disturbing and enlightening. Christopher had continued sleuthing when his father had told him not to. In this chapter, his father finds Christopher's notes, and explodes at him. Christopher describes the scene, "It was like someone had switched me off and then switched me on again. And when they switched me on again I was sitting on the carpet with my back against the wall and there was blood on my right hand and the side of my head was hurting. And Father was standing on the carper a meter in front of me looking down at me and he was still holding my book in his right hand, but it was bent in half and all the corners were messed up, and there was a scratch on his neck and a big rip in the sleeve of his green and blue check shirt and he was breathing really deeply" (83).
Earlier in the chapter, Christopher's father had been cursing at him and yelling in his face. My initial reaction to the entire scene was disgust with the father. How could be possibly blow up in Christopher's face like that? That's not an okay reaction for any parent, let alone the parent of an autistic child. However, after reflecting on the situation a bit, I have realized how Christopher's father must have felt throughout Christopher's entire life. He must become frustrated daily with having to repeat himself and constantly take care of his son. He didn't ask for any of this to happen, and it must be incredibly difficult for him to carry on each day without exploding. I still can't completely condone his actions in this chapter, but I perhaps understand why he acted the way he did.