You’d be surprised to know that The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is barely about a dog at all. This 2003 Whitbread book of the year is filled with twists you wouldn’t expect. The story is narrated by Christopher Boone, a teenage boy with autism, who has a passion for maths and science and lives off of routine and structure. His good days and bad days depend on the number of red or yellow cars he counts on the way to school and he particularly hates being touched. Christopher’s 'murder mystery' investigation turns out to be the foundation to solving the real secrecy in this thrilling fictional novel.
Right from the beginning Mark Haddon had me hooked on Christopher. I was curious as to how I would enjoy the story from the perspective of a boy with autism. As the story continued, more and more mysteries emerge, until a certain point where Christopher begins to wonder if everything he's been told is
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Parts of his writing is borderline insignificant, yet necessary to channel Christopher’s thought process. The story is spaced with chapters of math puzzles and science problems that Christopher explains in detail and solves in attempt to calm himself down when certain situations become too stressful. His style of writing, using long run-on sentences is a key aspect to demonstrate Christopher’s character and disability.
It was easy for me to develop empathy towards Christopher whenever he ran into trouble. His strange habits such as his obsessive list-making nature and his accurate memory of details when he enters a room, made it easy for him to panic whenever something was out of order. Although, his observations can be quite funny at times, he has a very authentic view of what other people worry about, like trying to remember if they left the cooker on at home instead of important things like catching their train on time. At certain points in the novel, it seemed as if Christopher was already a grown
The author Jon Krakauer and other investigators truly did a great job connecting the plot to make a time line of Christopher’s trip. Jon information is therefore based on witnesses and facts rather than being based on the complete truth, which nobody knows nor will know. Jon uses important facts such as how Christopher did a lot of insane things to be basically erased from the map: “He changed his name, gave the entire balance of twenty-four-thousand-dollar savings account to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet”. (Krakauer. 1995). This facts not only helps Jon construct a Theme, but they will also help him construct this personality of Christopher that will eventually engage the
Raising a child like Christopher is very difficult. Christopher often disappears in the middle of the night to go out for walks and quickly becomes overwhelmed in new environments. For the better well-being of Christopher, Ed tends to be very overprotective of him. An example of this is shown when Christopher wants to do detective work to find out who killed Wellington. This idea suggests that Christopher has to talk to strangers which he is not comfortable with.
I chose this passage because I found it to be very interesting the way it shows high level characteristics from an autistic kid. It is interesting by the fact that Christopher depends on cars for the day to become either positive or negative. This is something that only mental handicapped individuals do to feel organized and have some order in his life. This passage not only shows that he needs order but it also shows that he is very smart due to the next paragraph that is incorporated with mathematical equation as well as knowing many prime numbers by adding the number that corresponds to the letter such as “Doctor Watson” -167 which forms a prime number.
And yet this concealment of emotion dissuades those who would offer friendship in spite of his lineage, leaving him alone. Despite his attempts to ignore his solitude, to not let this loneliness affect him, he is human after all, and Christopher does not know how to simply turn off sentiment. This incapability frightens him, it is a weakness and in his world of darkness, a weakness can simply not be afforded. So he hides it best he can, holding it tight between his fingers and never letting go. It grows within him as he matures, and the stinging seed of loneliness grows into a bitter flower of resentfulness as those around him leave him seperate from their games and
When he leaves for Alaska, the man that has been helping him, Franz, asks to adopt him as a grandson. Christopher tells him that he needs to travel to Alaska alone first and when he gets back they can talk about it. This proves that Christopher needed to do things on his own to truly understand the world. Finally, he realized that nature can be harsh and uncaring as well. When he started running out of supplies to survive he came to that conclusion because he was soon not going to have anything.
Christopher’s Distorted Emotion We all have different viewpoints and the past few months have been crazy with the recent election season. Many people are very sturdy in their beliefs and can 't seem to think what the other person sees in the opposite candidate. That 's how Christopher see the entire world, in a totally opposite view point than others. In the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time author Mark Haddon writes about a boy named Christopher who is trying to solve the mystery, of who killed his neighbor 's dog Wellington. Along the way he runs into problems that occur because of his emotional disorder.
That is because his brain works so uniquely that I get surprised by the way he thinks about things. Sometimes there are long sentences and train of thoughts, which emphasize how difficult life and things are for Christopher. The frustration of the adults is reinforced by
He is our protagonist and as we come to learn he isn't the nicest one out there, but this is mainly for his autism coming into play during most of his adventures. Near the end of the book christopher is forced to learn how to get over his fears to be able to go to his mothers but in his own unique way, “And it was like counting and saying, ‘Left, right, left, right, left, right. . .’ which Siobhan taught me to do to make myself calm. And I was saying in my head, ‘Train coming. Train stopped.
On the contrary, he also deals with problems and issues that are felt by every human on the planet, allowing the reader to feel empathy for him. His social tendencies show that he may suffer from a social disability. Despite this, Christopher goes on a journey, displaying courage and the benefits and the new beginnings that will happen. In addition, Christopher becomes much confident and a better and stronger person than he ever was. During his search he meets new people who become his friend resulting in unexpected answers to be brought to light.
In the novel, Christopher goes through a lot of incidents that shape his character until he realizes that he can do anything. Christopher is a brilliant boy as he is interested in math and science, but due to his disability, he finds it difficult to be in stressful situations, and thus, he sometimes thinks about irrational matters so that can simplify the world around him. Because Christopher can’t handle stressful situations, he creates
Throughout the book Christopher overcomes all obstacles, big and small. Though some obstacles are small it still shows the reader that Christopher is willing to make the necessary changes for a positive outcome. One small obstacle that made a big impact on the readers
He made a shocking discovery, his mother was not dead. She left him and his father and was living with her significant other in London. Christopher got very emotional and was angry with his father because he lied to him. After a tedious trip, he reunited with his mother and was ecstatic to see her. He wanted to form a relationship with his mother and trusted her to keep him safe.
Christopher grew up without knowing much about the world and life it self. He acts as what many would say a child. This is due to his Aspergers. In the beginning of the novel Christopher explains what he thinks of life.
Christopher finds spoken language difficult when too many things are being discussed at once, which can be seen from his reaction to the police interrogating him at the crime scene of the dog’s murder. As the questions were being asked, Christopher had difficulties processing all of them. He reacts to the multiple questions with this line in the book: “He was asking me too many questions and he was asking them too quickly.” Another line to note is “I make this noise when there is too much information coming into my head from the outside world.” These two lines show that he had a very difficult time keeping up with the pacing.
III. b) Opportunities of Skill-Based Learning in the Novel The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-time The novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time appeals to a wide range of readers. It allows to develop empathy for people who are living with a version of autism.