Stereotypes in Al Capone Does My Shirts

On Wednesday, we addressed issues in the book Al Capone Does My Shirts, by Gennifer Choldenko. One question I asked was: does Natalie, Moose’s sister with autism, solidify the common stereotype in this book that she is only a burden to Moose, his family, and society? I told my group to look at certain aspects of Choldenko’s book that could lead to stereotyping.

Firstly, we looked at how Moose constantly talks to Natalie using baby talk and refers to what is going on in her mind as “Natalie’s world.” It stereotypes how children with autism can only understand broken English and this is how we should talk to them so they can understand us.

Next, we looked at how Natalie’s mother always searches to find a babysitter, often delegating Moose for the job. Shifting the responsibility to others or even neglecting to find a responsible babysitter happens many, many times throughout the book when Natalie is on the island that it is hard not to generate the stereotype that children with autism will always need to have somebody by their side to look after them because they don’t have the ability to be independent.

Finally, we looked at how Natalie’s mother feels like the only way to make people to understand her condition is to pretend she is just five years younger than her real age. It seems like she has to hide Natalie behind false pretenses for her to be accepted in society and shield Natalie away from reality. Does this also suggest that children with autism should be considered biologically younger than “normal” children just so that others won’t question or be uncomfortable with their condition?

From reading Al Capone Does My Shirts, we can actually see how frequently stereotypes have the chance to form when Moose and Natalie’s mother treat Natalie differently and shelter her from the real world. Hopefully discussions framed from Gennifer Choldenko’s book can help to break stereotypes instead of formulating them, which I hope would accompany this book when reading it in the classroom.