There are several lessons or morals to be learned, as
indirectly "stated" as they may be. One is that acceptance of
others helps one find self-acceptance as well. For example,
when Christopher forgives his father for having killed the neighbour's dog and simulated
his mother's death for the simple reason of convenience, he does not bear a grudge but
accepts his father's confession of fault. Father and son start sharing activites
together which they had not done before, and Christopher learns to be more optimistic
about his future, now that the shadows of an uncertain past have been
dissipated.
Another lesson is that
problems can be an opportunity to learn and
grow. Christopher would have never ventured beyond the
perimeter of his own neighbourhood had he not discovered letters from his mother and
gone to London in search of her. He learns how to cope with new and unfamiliar
experiences, such as riding on a train and not getting lost and finding his mother alive
and well after having thought she had died at
hospital.
Another theme which is an offshoot of the
previously mentioned one is that a person can turn a weakness
into a strength. Christopher's autism makes him
uncompromizingly blunt, but it his his straightforward nature which helps his father
escape the snare of lies and dissimulation. Mr Boone learns to be an honest person again
after a "snowball effect" of pretention.
According to the
author, the purpose of this book was not to moralize but to expose the personality of a
marginal type fragilized by both his handicap and his life experience. Christopher is
not an endearing character, he is not loveable or even that likable, but the reader
becomes "engaged" just the same. The reader lets himself, much as Alice, plunge into a
world where the rules and usual code of behaviour no longer apply. He learns to "think
different" and see the world from a perspective other than his own, and this is a lesson
in itself.
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