House Rules discussion

In this novel, the author leads the reader to develop strong feelings towards the main character, Jacob. He is an eighteen year old boy with asperger's syndrome, who is constantly bullied at school and has an obsession of crime scene investigation. When he takes his interest too far and becomes involved in a crime scene, he becomes a suspect and must go to court, where his literal and blunt personality causes many problems. This book made me feel sympathy for him, because he sees the world as black and white and is unable to understand many situations. After being yelled at by his tutor and only friend, Jacob narrates, “People say things all the time they don’t mean, and neurotypical folks manage to figure out the message all the same. Take, for example, Mimi Scheck at school. She said she’d die if Paul McGrath didn’t ask her to the Winter Formal, but in reality, she would not have died-she would have just been really sad. Or the way Theo sometimes smacks another kid’s shoulder and says ‘Get out!’ when in reality he wants his friend to keep talking. Or that one time my mom muttered ‘Oh, that’s just great’ when we got a flat tire on the highway although it clearly was not great; it was a colossal hassle. So maybe when Jess told me to get lost on Sunday, she really meant something else”(Picoult 53). There are many moments like this where you feel sympathy for Jacob when he is unable to understand what’s happening around him.