38 pages • 1 hour read
Born on a Blue Day
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BetaChapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “School Days”
This chapter offers the author’s recollections of his time in primary school, which he attended in his community alongside children who were mostly neurotypical. There were aspects of school that he very much liked and others that posed significant challenges. For example, parts of the school day that were regular and ordered, like morning Assembly, were comforting and enjoyable. The unpredictability of other pupils, however, was distracting and discomforting. The author saw his peers as “something to cope and contend with, to navigate around” (48). While he mostly tried to remain aloof from his classmates, he says, “bullying was sometimes a problem for me because I was different and a loner” (71). The social world of school created a lot of anxiety for the author.
The chapter is not just about school but also about learning and life outside of school. In certain areas of learning, Tammet excelled. He began practicing more and more advanced computational skills in his head after his mother bought him a secondhand math puzzle book. He read encyclopedias at the local library and made many lists of facts and figures that he could memorize. He started learning how to read, write, and speak foreign languages he had exposure to. The first two he mentions are the ancient Phoenician alphabet and Finnish. His parents encouraged different types of experiences and learning, and one activity that worked well for expanding his physical skills was skipping rope: It was rhythmic and solitary while also good for coordination and health.
The author briefly describes other pastimes from his childhood, like collecting large amounts of certain objects he periodically fixated on (chestnuts, leaflets, coins, etc.) and spending time alone in his room. There were clearly many things that routinely made the author comfortable, happy, and fulfilled as a child, even though he often felt anxious and uncomfortable at school. Home was his sanctuary, and his many younger siblings were easier to understand and interact with than children his own age at school.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Odd One Out”
As the author approached puberty, he noticed the differences between himself and his peers more acutely, and they weighed very heavily on him. He started to yearn for friendship and companionship outside of his family, but it was very difficult for him to master the social interactions that build friendships. Some of the children at school bullied him aggressively, while others attempted to include him but did not know how to interact with him in a mutually comfortable way. Tammet says, “it soon becomes a running joke and it is perceived as common knowledge that Daniel talks to the trees and that he is weird” (73).
The author imagined at least one complex imaginary friend, an old, cloaked woman named Anne who patiently listened to and encouraged him, but one day Anne told him she was dying and had to leave. He mourned her loss but realized later that she “was the personifications of my feelings of loneliness and uncertainty. She was a product of that part of me that wanted to engage with my limitations and begin to break free from them” (80). With a lot of practice and trial and error, Tammet did learn how to converse with peers, make eye contact, listen, and alter behaviors that might intrude on others’ personal space.
The author’s siblings helped him learn how to play with other children. He recounts a game in which all of them carried out an assembly line to pretend to iron and then fold and organize clothes. Together, they learned how to be inclusive and have fun.
Even though the learning process was difficult and frustrating, breakthroughs in new skills, whether personal like tying shoes and keeping his head up while walking, or interactive like using eye contact and controlling emotions, boosted the author’s confidence. As he entered adolescence, he said, “my body was finally beginning to do the things that I wanted it to” (88). Many of these things seemed to come easily to other children—riding bikes, swimming, even brushing teeth—but they took a lot of practice and perseverance for the author to master.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Adolescence”
This chapter covers the challenges and changes of the author’s teenage years. Some of these changes took place in school. The author started attending a secondary school that he reached alone by public transportation. His sole friend, Babak, attended a different school, and Tammet again struggled to connect to peers and make meaningful friendships. He did, however, keep practicing social skills and made a new best friend—Rehan—who brought him around London on the Underground and shared his love of history and language.
Tammet touches on the development of his sexuality, saying “From the age of eleven I knew that I was attracted to other boys, although it would be several years before I considered myself ‘gay’” (109). He experienced his first crush at 16, and though the object of his affection was kind and gentle in his rejection, the experience was frustrating and sad for Tammet, who said that “dating was never a possibility” for him (109), given his social struggles.
Other major changes took place at home. Tammet’s mother gave birth to a few more siblings, bringing the total to nine. This meant another move to a bigger home. For a stretch of time in the author’s young adolescence, his father suffered from mental illness that caused him to occasionally be hospitalized for months at a time. The author did not like the absence in the home these departures left behind.
For a while, Tammet became engrossed in chess. He practiced and played on his own and in a local club, and, for a while, competed in tournaments. He eventually abandoned the tournament setting because distractions broke his concentration and he lost games that he had been dominating until his lapse in attention.
In general, this was another difficult and often anxious time in Tammet’s life. Teasing continued at school, making the author self-conscious and isolated. He ends the chapter by saying that he had one question steadily on his mind at the end of secondary school: “What now?”
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
At the outset of the section, the author still possesses few social skills and regularly reflects on his disconnect from peers his age. Though he initially did not yearn for closeness to them, he occasionally suffered at their hands. On a class trip to a wilderness center, for example, a classmate pushed him into shallow water, and the author had to cope with his shock, discomfort, and ”sudden loss of control” away from his home and parents (71). He says that “such experiences reinforced the perception that I was an outsider and did not belong” (71). He uses the word “loner” to describe himself as well. Outside of school, however, the author steadily forged positive relationships with other children. He recalls certain moments when he assisted a younger sibling (like buttoning up a baby sister’s outfit) or undertook activities with his brother Lee (collecting chestnuts, practicing large computations in their shared bedroom, etc.). He practiced some Finnish words with a young girl in the neighborhood. These opportunities came in the comfortable and familiar setting of the author’s home and immediate circle of familiar family members and acquaintances.
Things began to shift when Daniel was around 10 years old. He started to want friends, and, though the process was difficult and characterized by setbacks, he was ultimately successful. He had learned a lot of valuable interpersonal and interactive skills by playing with his siblings at home, but his first true friend outside of his family was a refugee classmate from Iran named Babak. Babak was popular among the children at school but connected with Tammet over their shared “love of words and numbers” (88). Tammet says Babak “was the first person to make any real attempt to look past the things that made me different” (88). This friendship and the author’s efforts to expand his social world marked a significant turning point in his life.
Progress, however, was not linear. Entering secondary school meant going to a new and very differently structured school—one Babak did not attend. The author made efforts to avoid his classmates, like eating alone and spending time reading in the library during breaks, but also took an interest in some of his peers. He forged another close friendship like the one he had had with Babak, and he reflects that his friendships might have been the result of two outsiders teaming up in their shared alienation (102). Other types of social desires—like physical closeness—posed significant challenges for the author, who didn’t understand the concept of personal space and still had trouble understanding nuances in others’ body language and conversations.
In each chapter, the author makes progress towards enduring happiness even as he experiences various types of frustrations and traumas. He regularly deals with discomfort, anxiety, and other emotions that he often has trouble interpreting or controlling. The section ends at the cusp of adulthood, and as is typical of young people in their late teens, the author wonders what new challenges and opportunities await him.
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