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Beyond What Meets The Dog In The Night Character Analysis

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Beyond What Meets the Eye

Many define observant as being “quick to notice things.” (Vocabulary.com) Something very frequent among highly perceptive individuals. Being capable of seeing beyond what meets the eye. However, observancy isn't possible without having a natural sense of curiosity. The novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, follows the story of a 15-year-old boy who’s dealing with autism and family problems. He finds it difficult to maintain a positive relationship with his parents. Christopher is left to fend for himself after his mother abandons him and his father. He is fortunate to have Siobhan, his teacher, who supports him through his challenges. Since Christopher falls on the autistic spectrum, …show more content…

He gains a deeper understanding of the world around him thanks to his keen observation of people's behaviors and outward appearances. Christopher is portrayed by the author as being observant through the use of physical description and visual imagery.
Christopher’s subconsciousness allows him to often doze off into his own mind and perceive every small detail around him. “My memory is like a film. That is why I am really good at remembering things, like the conversations I have written down in the book, and what people were wearing, and what they smelled like” (76). His ability to remember nearly every event in his lifetime helps us understand how he’s capable of describing his surroundings with such precision. People who are adept at having a good memory are frequently considered intelligent. Christopher uses direct characterization through his speech. He consistently remembers little and unusual details that most people wouldn't notice. However, it also enables Christopher to connect his inner thoughts and pick up on social cues from those around him. Additionally, he frequently forms speculations about people based on their appearances, which helps

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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

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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.

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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.

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Christopher doesn't understand sarcasm or metaphors, and he can't read people's facial

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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

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“I looked out of the window in the dining room to count the cars in the street to see whether it was going to be a Quite Good Day or a Good Day… I saw 5 red cars in a row and 4 yellow cars in a row, which meant it was both a Good Day and a Black Day, so the system didn’t work anymore.” (chap 233, pg 205) Christopher would try to predict if his day would be a Good Day or a quite Good Day by looking at the color of the cars. This evidence shows Christopher's observant trait because we can see how well he uses his trait to try to predict his day. The evidence and the character trait relate to change because he realizes that his “system” won't work anymore.

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The novel shows Christopher’s growth throughout the story and how he gains maturity. By showing the many hardships

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Christopher explains that he has difficulty figuring out people’s emotions from their facial expressions. He can easily recognize sad and happy faces, but when his therapist, Siobhan, draws some pictures of other emotions, he finds the faces are confusing and is “unable to say what these meant” (3). So he has to memorize the exact meaning of each face and quickly determine what face others are making when they talk to him. When his father lies to him about his mother’s death, he tries to figure out what he means how and his father feels: “I can't tell what [people] are thinking. It is like being in a room with a one-way mirror in a spy film''(22).

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This also shows that Siobhan, Christopher’s mentor, has done a good job guiding Christopher through the process of how to write a book. If it wasn’t for Christopher to start writing a novel

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A similar way the author helps us understand Christopher’s thought process is by telling the readers everything that Christopher does and his reasoning behind his actions and

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After this statement Christopher goes on to explain every detail that he noticed within the countryside, and even told us that there were 31 other details that he did not put into his book! The

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For example, Christopher remembers when Siobhan tells him "This is what Siobhan says is called a rhetorical question. It has a question mark at the end, but you are not meant to answer it because the person asking it already knows the answer. (Haddon 81) This proves that the things that Siobhan helps him learn helps him in many situations and when to speak and what to say. All of this says how much help Siobhan has been to Christopher and why he does the things he does.

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Character strengths and weaknesses- Christopher deals with many strengths and weaknesses throughout this novel. He is actually really smart and we can easily see this because “[He} knows all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,057” (Haddon 2). Even though he is mentally really smart, he has a lot of weaknesses in the common sense and social area.

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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.

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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.

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