Mohamed, Mohamed, Kenny

Christopher has different views on emotions than normal people. He got his teacher Siobhan to draw him every facial expression and carries it in his pocket. For example, Siobhan showed him a picture of a sad and happy face and he could identify it, but when she showed him a picture of a different facial expression he had no way to identify it (3). This shows that he can’t identify facial expressions without some sort of visual interpretation. Another example was when his mother was in the hospital, and his dad told him she was ok he showed no facial expression what so ever. This explain when his dad told him that his mom was ok and he didn’t have to worry about anything even though his dad did not look happy (22).This shows that Christopher did not know how to tell people emotions just by looking at them, the only way he could tell their emotion apart is by their word.

Taylor, Ayan, Mhuktar

Christopher has trouble understanding human’s emotions. For example, he deals with laughing a different way than most people do. When Christopher was interrogating Mr. Wise about the case of the neighbor’s dead dog, Mr. Wise made a joke, “Bloody hell, policemen really are getting younger aren’t they?”, and laughed; Christopher says “I do not like people laughing at me, so I turned and walked away” (38). This shows that he has a harder time with judging whether or not the emotions are positive or negative towards him. Another example that shows he has a hard time understanding other’s emotions is that he was confused and shut down when his father confronted him about the book because his father slowly began to raise his voice, but at first he did not realize his father was mad because of his low tone (81). The way he interacts with other’s emotions is unusual. Christopher lacks good communication skills; him lacking communication skills not only affects the way he understands emotions but the way other people understand him.

John Penza, Farhiyo Dahir, Zhenyao Dong

In the book Christopher reacts emotionally different then other people in several different ways. For example, Christopher doesn’t understand other people’s emotions, as when his dad tells him that his mom is in the hospital and instead of feeling sad he is happy that his dad did not look him in the eyes and along with that he doesn’t not act sad and just acts caring. He instead says, “We will need to take her food,” and his reasoning was that he knows hospital food isn’t very good. He is very caring, but not sad and worried that his mom could be in danger or dying. (23) Christopher doesn’t understand death or what his dad is feeling, and with that he is unable to communicate with others and doesn’t feel the same as others do. Another key example is that he can only tell the difference between a happy face and a sad face. One of his teachers had given him facial recognition cards to help him out with this as seen in, “Then she drew some other pictures, but I was unable to say what these meant.” (3) He is unable to read other people and know when something else is wrong and when he should react to these emotions. Through all of this Christopher’s emotions put him on the outside of understanding for other people and this causes confusion for others. His emotions and his lack of being able to recognize when to react allows for him to be on the outside more and not fit in with the normal crowd.

Imran Salih, Chris McClain, tayler hill

Christopher thinks more like a child than a typical teenage kid. For instance, He has a wierd imagination that influences his believes about the after life. He does not believe in hell or heaven. Instead, he believes that we will leave earth in a spaceship after death and go to another world. And that's a way a 5 year old child would look at death (32, 33). He fought back with a police officer who, as he claims, was touching him, and that's more like a young kid's reaction towards someone who he doesnt like (8). The way Christoper thinks is irrational for his age, which makes him seem more childish.

Christopher struggles with being social with other people. His behaviors and social patterns reflect someone who lives outside of normal society. For example, Christopher hits the police officer because he does not like to be touched (8). He also strikes a girl named Sarah for pulling his hair on page 34. This shows that he handles conflicts differently than other people. He states that he does this because "Talking to strangers is not something I usually do...I do not like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before. They are hard to understand" (34). This shows that he struggles to understand other people, in the fact that he does not want to talk to strangers. Another example of this is that he will not even let his own father hug him. Since he doesn't know too many social skills, this often results into a different outcome than what would happen with any other person.
Max Meyer
Joseph Kpakra
Williamson Phan

Friendly People

I read Friendly People by Bill Bryson. He talks about how safe New Hampshire is and how everyone trusts everybody, no matter who you are. He claims that it is okay to leave doors unlocked, along with houses. He was very unfamiliar with this life style but began to get used to it. I disagree with this lifestyle because I believe you should trust no stranger, no matter where you are. I looked up crime rates, and New Hampshire was the safest state in the United States. Even though it is the safest state, crime does happen, mainly dealing with assault. Therefore, even though a place is safe doesn't mean something unsafe can't happen. I think you should always take precautions, especially when its dealing with safety.

IN chapter 20 Friendly People, Bill Bryson claims that all American neighborhoods are safe, and that the community and environment are very clean and trust worthy. I strongly disagree with him tho, he's right, there might be neighborhoods in the U.S where you can leave your car unlocked in the middle of the street and not worry about your items in the car, or leave the back yard door of your house unlocked encase you forgot your keys. but you cant just generalize the whole idea based on a single evidence that you've experienced. I believe at I have a very good reason to argue his point. I was born and raised part of my life in NY, and I've seen the complete opposite of what he's describing, and people can be misguided if they read this chapter. Ohio for instance, you can go to neighborhoods such as Dublin, Grove city, and even Hilliard, and find the safe-honest environment that he's talking about. But if u 10mins away from these neighborhoods, you'd be surprised with the difference between both neighborhoods.

In the article “Life's Mysteries,” the author, Bill Bryson, complains about how he doesn't understand most thing in life even the simple things. He admire people that talk knowledgeably things about their career (198). Bryson said he doesn't understand much of math beyond what is necessary, science, newspaper weather maps, and even his own body (198). He also forget that must things you do not have to think about it, common sense is the key to most of the things around us. He said if the maximum load that the elevator can hold is 1,200 pounds but at the sometime is just a warning so you don't have to ask everyone what they weigh (199). Bryson do not understand that America is the land of opportunity and if you put your mind to it anything is possible. I disagree with Bryson because most of the things that are made in my generation have a direction of a label to show people how things work and and how to use it and detail of it.