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The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time By Mark Haden

856 Words4 Pages

‘It is an individual’s personal experiences that shapes their perspective and values’. This can be proven by analysing the book; ‘The curious incident of the dog in the night time’ by Mark Haden. Which I will now be referring to as ‘The Curious Dog’.Good morning class, today I will be talking about how this book shows how a person’s experiences shape their perspectives and values; We can see this in the text because of how Christopher’s experiences with people cause him to develop new perspectives with help to develop empathy for others, and how his experiences with stressful situations caused him to develop coping mechanisms. ‘The Curious Dog’’ uses Christopher’s experiences with people which caused him to develop new perspectives and help …show more content…

The author makes use of characterisation to not only tell us about how Christopher is someone who likes to be left alone while sad, but this also shows us how his experiences with being sad and wanting to be left alone cause him to have empathy for his dad. Throughout the book he also encounters experiences which help him to gain empathy, like when he said "I also felt sad because I realised that animals and people who are frightened and hurt can sometimes do bad things when they are trying to protect themselves.". The author utilises a motif to continue the theme of Christopher encountering characters who are frightened, or in pain and Christopher can’t understand them. This quote shows however that Christopher’s experience with how the dog reacted to being hurt caused him to understand that people can sometimes do bad things when they are …show more content…

This can be shown through when Christopher said "I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.”. The metaphor used is meant to truly show us why Christopher likes it when it rains. This also shows us that Christopher’s experiences with being on the autistic spectrum and having to deal with a lot of unwanted sounds caused him to find comfort in white noise. We are made aware of another coping mechanism Christopher uses when he said "I know all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,057, but I don't know how to be normal. It's like I have to keep on remembering to breathe; it's like I have to keep on remembering to live.". The simile here is used to show how being trying to be normal is like having to remember to breathe or remember how to live. This shows to us that Christopher’s experiences with not fitting in caused him to rely on facts, and remembering these things to give him some

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In conclusion, Christopher likes being by himself. Haddon makes us look through Christopher’s eyes in the book. We learn a lot about ourselves because of this. I realized that everyone is different and has a different point of view on everything. In the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time it says “‘Special needs!

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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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Mark Haddon's prose fiction, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time brings forth the view of a different world and also expands our understanding of human experience. The novel is an autobiographical murder mystery narrated from the perspective of a teenager, Christopher Boone. This text allows the readers to see the life of a young man who is not comfortable with interacting with others in his society. Christopher's autism spectrum disorder (ASD) shapes our understanding of experience. Haddon is able to portray interesting ideas within the text through the narrator, thus inviting us into a different world and allowing us to see a new viewpoint.

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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.

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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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Christopher's emotions may not be explicitly expressed, but they form an emotional appeal that resonates with readers, eliciting empathy for his

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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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So when he disobeyed, the original plan of Christopher’s maturing came to an unexpected turn of events. He should have grown naturally, learned quietly and at his own pace and not bit off more than he could chew. A lot of the secrets uncovered, especially with his mother, would have been better off left alone until Christopher was older, more mature to be able to understand them properly. When Christopher stated “He was asking too many questions and he was asking them too quickly. They were stacking up in my head like loaves in the factory where Uncle Terry works” it highlighted the heightened social anxiety that can be caused, both for someone who is autistic and for those who have general anxiety over social

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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.

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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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So his emotions prove the theme that when trust is lost, people can behave out of the ordinary. Christopher’s characterization is then built upon as he tries to rationalize the letters: “I tried really hard to think if there was any other explanation but I couldn’t think of one. And then I couldn’t think of anything at all because my brain wasn’t working” (Haddon 112). The effect on the text overall when Christopher explains how he can't think properly and can’t figure out a reason illustrates a drastic change in Christopher’s character. In the beginning, Christopher is always trying to solve a problem or mystery but because he is unable to figure out the reason behind this mystery he is left feeling lost

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The author also writes Christophers inner monologues in a very blunt manner to express feelings or thoughts, because he isn’t very good at showing when he cares about something. For example, when Christopher was at the train station, he said “And I thought the little station was going to collapse or there was going to be a big fire somewhere and I was going to die” (Hadden 276). Christopher is very good at using his words to fully show what he literally means, so the author writes like this. His fear is shown in a different way than others, because of the way he will say something like “I am scared” instead of just implying it.

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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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The novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time distinguishes Christopher’s independence and autarchy by portraying Christopher communicating with individuals who made him apprehensive in the beginning of the novel, controlling his behaviour and lack of emotion in public, and his vast improvement of having certainty towards others. Mark Haddon, the novelist of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, is characterizing the liberation of young Christopher Boone with situations he feels nervous with, which is teaching readers that taking risks that you may be uncomfortable with will eventually lead to one’s happiness and

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