Asperger's Syndrome and Pop Culture

The popular book and movie Dear John describes a father-son relationship when the father is believed to have a mild case of Asperger's Syndrome. I recently saw the movie and thought it was pretty good. My favorite part of the movie was how the relationship between the father and son played out. In my opinion, that was the best part of the movie. Of course it is a love story between a man and women, but the father-son relationship was more interesting to me. The audience gets to see how the father and son relationship plays out through the course of the son's life. It was interesting getting a visual and kind of seeing what a person with Asperger's Syndrome goes through on a day to day basis. It showed the routines people with this syndrome go through, how people with Asperger's feel awkward in certain social situations, and their lack of communication skills. After watching Dear John the movie, I was intrigued and bought the book to see if it was anything like the movie.

To my surprise, the book was even better than the movie! It goes into so much more detail than the movie and it is a lot easier to get into. The book explains more about Asperger's Syndrome and provides even more detail of the unique father-son relationship. While I was reading, I highlighted a passage I found that describes the difference between Asperger's Syndrome and autism. Part of the passage read, "A person with autism lives in his world, while a person with Asperger's lives in our world, in a way of his own choosing." I thought this was great information and a great way to describe the differences between the two disorders, especially since people usually think the two are the same thing.

All in all, this is a great book and movie. I highly recommend reading and watching the movie, especially if you know somebody with Asperger's. Dear John may really open your eyes and help you understand this commonly misunderstood disorder.