2. "Don gets into fight at restaurant" - On Don's first date with Rosie, he gets into a fight with one of the bouncers at the restaurant they are going to.  They get into a fight because Don isn't wearing a jacket, and his yellow rain jacket is not sufficient for the dress code."Don puts The Wife Project on hold to find Rosie's father" - Don puts his wife project on hold to help Rosie find her father.  
Even though Don struggles to realize it, he begins to fall in love with Rosie while helping her.  This provokes him to continue on testing after she had long-given up.
"DNA tests show that none of Rosie's possible fathers are a match" - After going through every candidate they had, every possible father of Rosie turned up negative.  This drives Rosie into a depressed mood, as she has lost all hope in finding her father.
"Rosie reveals the truth, it was all a bet" - In a fit of rage, Rosie reveals to Don that their date was a setup, and that she only went on the date in order to win a bet with Don's friend Gene.

“Did the symptoms remind you of anyone?”  While this quote may not seem like an allusion in this context, it is actually a major aspect of Don’s character.  Don had just recently given a lecture on Aspergers as a favour to Gene, Claudia’s husband.  The next morning, during their conversation, Claudia asks Don if the children with Aspergers reminded him of anyone.  She is trying to hint that he has Aspergers; however, in a fashion that only Don can pull off, the reference goes right over his head.

Choosing to use Don’s point of view to narrate the novel was a bold move by Graeme Simsion.  Don has Aspergers, so writing his thoughts must have been a challenge; however, it also made the novel more interesting and intriguing.  Writing like “I did not expect to hear from Julie again.  As usual, my assumptions about human behaviour were wrong” that occurs within Don’s thoughts adds another dimension to the novel, and lets us into the mind of a person with Aspergers.


Don at the beginning of the novel and Don at the end of the novel may as well be two separate characters.  Don at the beginning of the novel was a lamb, scared of change, wanting to find a partner exactly the same as him.  However, after he met Rosie, he transformed into a lion, who, while he may not have realized it at first, wanted nothing more than a lioness who was the exact opposite from him.
I used metaphors to compare Don’s character at the beginning of the novel to a lamb, and a lion at the end.

1."'Don, none of the other lecturers are as... vigilant... as you'.  It was unusual for the Dean to compliment me on my wide reading and dedication."
This quotation shows that Don often takes what people are saying in a different way than expected.  This is most likely because his is afflicted with Aspergers.  In this conversation, the Dean is trying to get Don to lighten up on his plagiarism policies; however, Don takes it the wrong way, and believes she is complimenting him.  Don is also very stubborn, and often has trouble seeing situations from other people's point of view, as seen in this quote.

"'So, you cook the same meal every Tuesday, right?'
'Correct'"
I chose this as my second quote because it shows how organized Don is.  He follows the same weekly routine, and he has his days scheduled out far ahead in advance.  He also treats everyone in his life as if they too have a scheduled routine.  He will often "book time" with them and would ask them not to "book any other conversation topics" other than the one that his has booked, as he believes you can only talk about one thing at a time, 

2. ONTIME - I chose this as Don's personalized licence plate because Don is obsessed with having every event in his life on schedule.  He follow the same routine every week, and has his days planned out months in advance.  I also chose this as his personal licence plate as a parody of the licence plate on the DeLorean (outtatime) from Back to the Future. 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/should-movies-with-cigarettes-be-rated-r/

1. "Professor Tillman.  Most of us here are not scientists, so you may need to be a little less technical" (Page 10)
This quote was said by an audience member, during which Don was giving a lecture on Aspergers to families with members afflicted with the disease.  This quote shows that Don is a professor, and that he is very smart, and as a result, he tends to over look and assume that people will understand what he is saying.  He can come off as being a little bit cocky, but in actual fact he too most likely suffers from Aspergers (it is implied in the book, but hasn't been explained upfront).

"Did the symptoms [of Aspergers] remind you of anyone?" (Page 24).  The quote is said by one of Don's two friends, Olivia.  This is where my theory that he has Aspergers originated.  The story is also told in first person, and Don's actions are quirky and odd.  Don also admits himself he has trouble in social situations, an example being that this quote is said after he showed up unexpectedly at 7:30 in the morning, while Olivia and her family was eating breakfast.


2. The questionnaire - The novel is about Don's quest to find his perfect match.  Since he is so obsessed with time, he constructs a questionnaire to save time and filter out all bad candidates.  The only problem with the questionnaire is that he has set the bar too high, and as a result, his questionnaire returns zero matches. 

Don's watch - Although this item is not mentioned in the novel, I chose Don's watch because it is essential to his daily life.  Don is obsessed with time, and he constantly plans his life out down to the minute.  He also dislikes it when events run long, or when people are late or early.  As a result, one of the questions in his questionnaire is about how late they are. The only acceptable response is "on time", although he does allow the response "a little early", after his questionnaire turns away every candidate.

Gene's schedule/diary - Gene is Don's only male friend, and as a result, Don constantly leans on Gene for help and advice.  As Don is such a control freak, he constantly changes and adds appointments in Gene's diary to make room for his own appointments.

Apricot Ice-cream - Don frequently refers to a horrible date as the "Apricot Ice-cream date".  This date caused him to rethink dating for a while.  The date went really well until he and his date went for ice-cream.  His date would only eat the ice-cream if it was apricot, however, the ice-cream parlour only had mango.  Don tried to convince his date that mango ice-cream tasted the same as apricot, "due to the chilling effect the ice-cream has on the tastebuds", and he even attempted to do a taste test; however, his date left.

Even though smoking is in a downward trend, it is appearing more and more in pop culture.
 
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