Do you have a significant other and love them? A crucial part of a relationship is to have love. However, do you ever wonder if your girlfriend or boyfriend became disabled? Would you choose to keep loving them, or would you change your attitude and abandon them? Christopher, the main character in the novel The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, has autism. Due to his disabilities, his mother left him at a young age, leaving his father to care for him. Due to his specific condition, many unordinary situation happened to him. He has been sent to a special school, which is only available to those with disabilities. He exhibits difficulty in comprehending person’s facial expression and cannot eat food which is touching each other. …show more content…
Is his behavior different from the healthy person? The answer is yes. “I kept the piece of paper in my pocket and look it out when I did not understand what someone was saying” by Christopher (Haddon 3). According to this sentence, he cannot understand person’s expression, he always brings a paper that has picture with all different expression in order to check and understand what emotion when people talking to him. For example, in the novel, when he arrived to his mother’s house, he told his mom he has to come back to his school to take his A level math exam. However, he did not quite understand why his mom refuse him at that time, and he kept convincing his mom to come back. As a result, his action broke the relationship between his mom and Mr.Shears, and forced his mom gave up her new job. Although he felt happy because he can take his A level math exam, he cannot understand what is the feeling that his mom had, and he will not realize he is the reason for this problem, due to his autism. From this example, we can see the behavior that Christopher did is different from what a “normal” people usually do. Due his disabilities, he would not realize his action made a shadow for his mom. This is a sad story of his mom, and this has also been the reason why his mom thinks he is special, treat him as a “special” child, and choice to leave him at the
In the book, Christopher was trying to solve the murder of Wellington, Mrs. Shear’s dog. He wants to go find out information about whom the suspect could be, but he has difficulties talking to strangers. His anxiety holds him back and makes him awkward around all strangers. While questioning his neighbors about what they know about Wellington he said, “‘Do you know who killed Wellington?’ I did not look at his face. I do not like looking at people’s faces, especially if they are strangers. He did not say anything for a few seconds”(36). This quote demonstrates Christopher’s severe social problems. He is withdrawn from the conversation and appears to be uncomfortable. While Christopher may not realize it throughout the course of the novel, his disability is a conflict to himself. When Christopher was trying to make his way to London to reunite with his mother, he had to travel through a train station. This situation could have been overwhelming to anybody who had never traveled alone, but Christopher didn’t handle his unease like most normal people. “And there was sweat running down my face from under my hair and I was moaning, not
“Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of the dynamic and creative intellectual activity”.- (John F. Kennedy). This focus on mental capacity and dynamism is clearly seen through Christopher Boone's character in Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Diagnosed with autism, Christopher is a very unpredictable character who grows dynamically throughout the novel. The emphasis on Christopher’s various abilities highlights his different skills rather than fixating on the fact that he is on the autism spectrum. Christopher’s personality signifies his unique character as well as being able to do many things beyond readers imaginations. In Haddon’s Curious Incident of
Christopher- In the beginning of the novel Christopher finds a dog dying in Mrs. Shear’s yard when she looks to see Christopher on top off the dog she calls the police. When telling them his innocent he launches an investigation to find the person that killed the dog. Christopher and his father were very close ever science he was a child. Christopher was told that his mother died, but really the mother and the neighbor Mr. Shears had an affair. Which lead his father to tell him that she died from a heart attack. His mother has always been alive and sending him letters which his
“I got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant, I kept the piece of paper in my pocket and took it out when I didn’t understand what someone was saying. But it was very difficult to decide which of the diagrams was most like the face they were making because people’s faces move very quickly. (Haddon 3).” This quote reveals that Christopher was unable to understand facial expressions, until Siobhan had taught him them. This was a very difficult challenge Christopher had faced because he was unable to understand other people’s thinking, because he is not able to understand facial
When Christopher receives his ticket at the train station, he says, “I didn’t like the ticket being half yellow but I had to keep it because it was my train ticket” (153). This shows that even though Christopher despises the color yellow, he is able to see past it because he knows that without the ticket he won’t be able to get on the train, and if he doesn’t get on the train, he will not get to London and find Mother. Another time when he allows himself to consider the long-term benefits of pushing through his tendencies is when Christopher becomes confused and apprehensive at the ticket machines and the crowds of people around them, but he stands back and notices, “I watched 47 people [putting tickets into gray gates and walking through them] and I memorized what to do” (173). Despite the fact that Christopher was unsure of how to go about this situation, he picked up the pattern by watching others until he was able to do it himself. This is a skill that would greatly benefit him if he lived by himself. Christopher also shows the readers that when he becomes overwhelmed, he can push through it. When he is on the train and begins to feel scared, he says, “The trains coming in and out of the station were in a rhythm, like music or drumming. And it was like counting and saying, ‘Left, right, left, right, left, right...’ which Siobhan taught me
Christopher’s struggle with asperger's causes tension and frustration with unfamiliarities and large crowds. I believe that it is hard for Christopher to function in a bigger group because he doesn't understand some aspects of people's emotions. I think that for Christopher to focus on something he has to concentrate on isolating himself and that's what calms him. I think that Haddon thinks the same way. That he isolates himself so he can calm himself, kind of like a fresh start.
Christopher is not like many other kids his age he thinks differently, acts differently, and presents himself differently. The only people he feels comfortable around are his dad and his teacher Ms. Siobhan. Unlike most people
“And I was shaking and I wanted to be back at home, and then I realized I couldn’t be at home because Father was there and he told a lie and killed Wellington, which meant that it wasn’t my home anymore, my home was 451c Chapter Road, London NW2 5NG, and it scared me, having a wrong thought like, I wish I was back at home again, because it meant my mind wasn’t working properly” (Haddon 176). While Christopher is at the train station about to go to London he realizes how lost he is in his world and that he cannot go home because his father has betrayed him, and that he must keep going but he cannot escape the thought of going back, which makes him feel like his mind is betraying him. The fact that I had let people have such control in my life and emotions and to see that they could honestly care less about my well-being made me feel like anything they did or said didn’t mean a thing to me, it grew to the point where I feared heartache and I thought it was easier for me to block out everything, which lead me to distrust everyone but one thing I did not realize was that I would also cause myself heartache. Thus, it is clear that in difficult situations Christopher and I felt betrayed by our own minds and feeling like that makes you feel insecure. Your mind is one of the most important part of you and if it
Supporting reason 1: In the story, he soon finds out his mother that he thought was dead, was alive and his father had lied to him about his mother's whole new life because of an affair that separated the two. Christopher, instead of jumping to conclusions decides to wait and keep him calm until he had all the pieces put together. Chris would often say things as “I didn't have enough information “ or “i decided not to think about it anymore that night...could easily leap to the wrong conclusion” (Haddon, pg.99) whereas most would have immediately gone ballistic. Or when he agreeing goes on the walk in the park with Mrs. Alexander even though he feels uncomfortable around unfamiliar faces. He does just as John Roush discusses in “college should be an adventure” Roush establishes one must keep an open mind to even while being faced with the struggles college kids will face. He explains “Adventure is an attitude” and, “be mindful that whatever the activity, you are preparing yourself for an opportunity yet to be discovered.” (Roush, pg. 1)
His developmental disability causes many conflicts for his family, such as; his parents getting divorced, his father having to adapt and be persistent while taking care of him, and also the neglect of a physical connection. As the story
In literature, it is hard to have a character that is completely truthful; there is usually at least one scenario where the protagonist would be required to tell a lie to get out of a situation. Even in real life, the average person is guaranteed to tell at least a few lies in their lifetime. In the book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, the protagonist is a teenage boy by the name of Christopher. He suffers from a type of autism, and this is why he is physically unable to tell lies. This has a large impact on the plot because of the way Christopher deals with the problems he faces in the book. Instead of telling strategically placed fibs to get the information he needs, Christopher can only be brutally honest, which can be either helpful or harmful to his cause depending on the situation. Christopher being honest throughout the book is a major key to how the plot progresses.
The mind of an autistic person is fascinating and frightening because usually their actions can’t accurately express what their brain is thinking. It is frustrating to try and determine what a child with autism is trying to say, and often results in them being misunderstood. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, tells the story from the perspective of Christopher Boone, a fifteen year old boy with autism. Chris is brilliant at math and science, but is unable to understand or express emotion. His difficult home life further contributes to his illness; he doesn’t have anyone at home who supports him and tries to help him. His teacher, Siobhan, is his only friend and the only person who tries to help him learn to
Christopher was born with Asperger’s Syndrome, which limits his communication skills, interaction with others and his ability to read emotions that other characters portray. In addition to dealing with this, Christopher also struggles to come to terms that his mother “died of a heart attack and it wasn’t expected”. (P. 36) This dialogue between Christopher and his father
The first quote I found explains how Christopher doesn’t really understand people, “I find people confusing. This is for two main reasons. The first main reason is that people do a lot of talking without using any words…The second main reason is that people often talk using metaphors…”. The second quote I found shows how Christopher isn’t really like the other children and doesn’t fit in with them, “All the other children at my school are stupid. Expect I’m not meant to call them stupid, even though this is what they are. I’m meant to say that they have learning difficulties or that they have special needs. But this is stupid because everyone had learning difficulties because learning to speak French or understanding relativity is difficult and also everyone has special needs…”. Lastly, Christopher doesn’t really go anywhere by himself and somewhere he doesn’t know anyone but throughout the novel he gradually talks to his neighbors trying to find out who killed Wellington and later on goes to London to live with his mom.
The curious incident of the dog in the night time- Mark Haddon The book the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime is written by Mark Haddon and upon first glance of the book and reading the blurb, it looked like it would be a thought provoking book about the murder of a dog. The book is written in the perspective of a young boy (the main character)