Colin Stitt Blog - The boy in the Moon

English Blog
The boy in the Moon
By Colin Stitt


I thought that Ian brown’s perspective on L’arche was quite obvious and he gave reasons why he felt that Walker shouldn’t go there and couldn’t go since he was not an adult. I also felt that Ian Brown was very new to the whole way that people who worked with disabled people all day could react to them as if they weren’t going to ever change into a different type of person.

“They weren’t and option for Walker: the waiting list was twenty years long and they accepted only adults.” Pg. 187

“L’Arche had been founded on Catholic precepts (another reason I had avoided L’Arche as a possibility for Walker, though the organization has since widened its spiritual foundation).” Pg. 187

“No one at L’Arche talked about integration, the way staff sometimes do at conventional homes for the disabled: this community existed for the disabled and made no pretense that residents eventually would be part of the “normal” community.” Pg. 199




After reading the novel the boy in the moon I learned a lot about walkers specific disability and how people react to his emotions and how family members deal with his behavior. I feel like I could relate to walkers family because one of my uncle’s is mentally challenged, and sometimes he is a real handful for his brother and sisters. At the same time it is quite interesting to see how my mom and her siblings deal with him when he gets a little out of control, and is quite a handful when the full family get together at holidays and special events. But in walkers case he is more of a physically stressful child with his disease where he performs harm on himself, and needs to be restrained forcefully many hours of the day. On the other hand walkers disability gives him a very special personality with lots of ability to give the people around him insight into how much people take advantage of being normal, and privileged enough to have a great education and a social life. These things are some things that walker will never be able to experience as a functional child going to school every day and making friends.


Questions

1. Can walker ever understand that the things that he does is bad for him as life goes on, or is it a continuous cycle that he will need to deal with into his forty’s and still need to be physically restrained.
2. What was it like to find out that Walker was born with this disability, and did you need to make significant changes in your jobs and your surroundings?
3. Would you like for your daughter to take care of walker after you pass away, or do you think that would weigh her down, and limit her to a certain lifestyle.