Being Different

The premise of the novel is that Don was different from the average person yet he still was able to maintain relationships. It was Don’s difficulty with relationships that set him up for a good deal of the conflict that he faces. While Don was decidedly different, his wife Rosie also has personality quirks that make her difficult to handle.

Don’s main problem was that he related to the world as if it were a science problem that needed to be solved. Although he thought things through very logically and did his research when coming to a decision about anything, he wasn’t able to easily relate to other people on an emotional level. As he says of himself: “I was crippled — challenged— incapable of the feelings needed to drive normal behavior” (p. 318). Because of this lack of emotional drive Don had trouble...