Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Essay

In Mark Haddon’s book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Night-time, the protagonist Christopher, who seems to be on the spectrum, writes about his deranged life. One of the challenges Christopher faces is the fact that he does not like being touched. This makes Christopher feel unsafe and makes him feel that he needs to yell or take a violent action. Throughout the book, Christopher uses different ways to control his anger towards the people who touch him. Thesis: Although Christopher can connect with animals and other simple things in life,it is a struggle for him to connect with people. This is because he doesn't have the feelings or patients to cope with others. The first time Christopher shows his dislike of being touched is when Christopher is on the ground groaning because the

It shows that his hate of being touched makes him have no real control over his body or his mind. “I like police. They have uniforms and numbers and you know what they are meant to be doing.” (Page 6) This does not make it an accident, though. He still meant to hit the police officer even if he may or may not be on the spectrum. His intentions could and should have been better. Instead of hitting the policeman he could have used words to solve his problem like do not touch me I don’t like it. Another time being touched influences his life just because he dislikes being touched is when he has to touch his fingers in a fan-like way to his parents instead of being given hugs. This isolates him from his parents and makes it harder for his parents even if it symbolizes love. “He held up his right hand and spread his fingers out in a fan. I held up my left hand and spread my fingers out and defend and we made our fingers and don't touch each other. We do this because sometimes father wants to give me a hug, but I do not like hugging people so we do this instead, and it means that he loves me.” (Page 16) This is challenging because he and his parents use a