This idea to me seemed a little fairy tale like. From the beginning of the book Al Capone is treated almost like a fictional fantasy character. He is mysterious and the children living on the island are extremely interested in him. They want his autograph and share "stories" they heard about him with each other and friends at school. In fact they even sell his laundry services to their fellow classmates. They spend time spying on him and breaking the rules of the island to gain access to him. All in all, Al Capone the famous, mysterious, unaccessible, murdering con seems almost pretend. Why then does Choldenko decide to place him in the position of hero in the novel? To me it almost gives the impression to children that those who are different from us do not have a chance unless they know and appeal to someone with political and social influence as well as fame who is willing to speak for them. Don't get me wrong, I was happy inside when Mouse receives the note from Al inside his shirt sleeve which Al was able to identify as Mouse's that says he will agree to speak on behalf of Natalie. I may have been happy, but I wasn't convinced. For me it was too farfetched and ruined some of the authenticity of Autism as a real disease and as Natalie representing real people who really deal with this disorder and are unable to receive help because they are restricted by language, stereotypes, and labels.
The real hero of this novel is Mouse and while we can be proud of him for writing to Al, the book credits Capone for Natalie getting into the school. I question Gennifer Choldenko's decision to remove credit from Mouse, a character who she has spent 215 helping us connect to, understand, and build a relationship with to Al Capone who what little we know comes from Scarface and criminal records. While this book was a great piece of fiction with a happy ending I strongly feel that the glorification of Al Capone belittles the main message of the book which is to promote understanding and acceptance of those who are different from us and share that acceptance with others.
1 comment:
I may not be the brightest crayon in the box but I felt that Al Capone was more like a fairy godfather in the story then a real criminal. He was this constant person who everyone knew about but the reader never heard from him until he was needed. A sort of Cinderella type thing. I think by having him in the story, it over shadowed the message of Austism and how a young deals and overcomes it. For me, it completly wiped out this message. At the end, I still got the over happy and content feeling from the book, but I had no idea she had Austism until I read the articles. No joke, I thought this week class discussion was about something like knowing someone in prision and how to deal with that or how to deal with moving to new place. I agree with you. Al Capone's role is too big in the story and it changes the message. I doubt any child would realise that the story is really about Natalie the whole time.
Ps. GREAT BLOG!
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