• English & American cultural studies
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.63-88
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• 2017

Al Capone Does My shirts is a book that received the Newbery Honor Award in 2005. The novel is set on Alcatraz Island, where the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary housed the most dangerous and heinous criminals during the Great Depression era, and is centered on autism. The purpose of this study is to analyze the living conditions of a family with an autistic child in Al Capone Does My Shirts and the family's spiritual growth through conflict and pain. This study finds that the parents' and siblings' pain from the autistic child is certainly a negative experience, but such pain can help grow the family's love and spirit. Moose, the protagonist, grows into a mature teenager who truly understands his autistic sister and attempts to remedy his mother's wrongdoing. The mother also lays down her unreasonable expectations for her children, learns how to wait and observe from a patient's point of view, and mends her relationship with her son. This novel thus conveys a hopeful message: the family of disabled children can overcome difficulties stemming from the disability through continuously trying to understand each other.