Difficulties with English class

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I’m a high school student who is currently having a lot of difficulties in English class. Like the rest of my classes it is a gifted and talented class, and though I’ve genrally had a decent grade on it (high B or low A), it has always been my worst subject. Last term I surprised myself by ending with a 95 (my second highest grade of that report card) and I was hopeful that my grade would stay there or even improve, but unfortunately it dropped to a 78 this term. We are currently reading “All Quiet in the Western Front”, which we have to thoroughly annotate and analyse, and I’m having a hellish time. In general I can identify figurative language, metaphors, syntax structure, etc; but I have some trouble understanding the effect it gives and the symbolism behind it. I need to write a paragraph analysing chapter 7 by tomorrow (it was actually for Friday but I get extended time) and I didn’t even finish annotating the chapter. I know I’m not going to finish in time, and even if I had the time I know it’d be rubbish. I’m planning on speaking with my teacher about it tomorrow before school, but I have been telling myself to do that for weeks and I always end up not doing it. Although the teacher is aware that I have Aspergers, I don’t really want to bring it up when I talk to her in case she perceives it as an excuse for my performance in her class. Any advise?

You've reminded me of my school days, and from what you've described, I wonder if you're having the same problem that I used to have - poor pragmatics.

Like you, I was great at English language; my spelling, grammar, understanding of figurative language, etc. were good. The teachers assumed that I'd therefore be good at English literature, and I was put into that class. I was hopeless at it. Pragmatics is the aspect of language that deals with how the meaning of words change according to the intent of the person speaking/writing them, and the effect that they wish to make on the listener/reader. This means having to have insight into how other people's minds work and social/cultural norms. I struggle with this in real-life conversations, and so I struggle with it just as much when considering literary characters, or the people who write and read them. I can enjoy fiction, but do generally prefer it to have quite simple interaction between the characters, otherwise I lose the plot very quickly.

To critique a book is even trickier, as it involves a very complex interplay between the mind of the writer, the "minds" of the fictional characters, and the mind of the reader; so the "theory of mind" factor can get very complex. Even if I can empathise with the written characters, which I struggle with often, putting into words why I do and how the writer achieved it is very difficult for me.

It's often assumed that those of us who are apparently fluent must have no language deficits at all, but because pragmatics relies on "theory of mind", it is an area of language that otherwise fluent autistic people can still struggle with a lot. In some diagnostic manuals you will see "lack of functional language delay" as one of the criteria for Asperger's Syndrome; the word "functional" is there to point out that it may not include aspects of language that are dependent on other skills, such as pragmatics.

If this does sound like you, then bringing it up with your teacher is not making excuses. Pragmatic deficit is an aspect of autism which can be a genuine handicap for that kind of literary analysis, and it would be totally reasonable to ask for some extra help.