The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time And A Separate Peace

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and A Separate Peace are alike in many ways. Both novels feature adolescents trying to find their place in the world with many struggles and challenges along the way. They also both have strong adult influences, as well as issues in certain relationships, all of which were eventually solved in the end. Apart from the things previously mentioned, they also shared many common themes and life lessons, which I’ll be telling you about in this essay. The first common theme I noticed in both novels was the journey to becoming independent. This is Christopher’s biggest challenge in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time because he’s autistic. He continually depends on his teachers and parents

In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Christopher had trouble figuring out who he was apart from his autism. He didn’t want his autism to define him, which is why he wanted to go to college, where no one would know he was “special”. By the end of the novel, however, Christopher had accepted the fact that he was different and was quite comfortable in his own skin, which is more that I can say for Gene and Finny. Unlike Christopher, they had more difficulty figuring out who they were, especially Gene. In a way, he had become an extension of Finny, both in his mind and everyone else's. So when Finny shattered his leg and left the Devon School for a period of time, Gene had to figure out who he was without Finny leading the way. Finny also had to reinvent himself and discover who he was after the accident. Since he was no longer able to participate in any athletic activities, all of which had been an important part of his life before, it was very difficult for him to find himself, especially without Gene at his side. He did eventually find his way though, when he discovered that he liked to motivate others, create games, and organize school carnivals. In both books, traumatizing events occurred, but it all payed off in the end when they found their identities and accepted who they

In my opinion, Christopher overcame the most fears, but he also had more to begin with, due to his autism. After he found his mother’s letters, he made the decision to find her in London. It was a long journey there and, along the way, he overcame some of his biggest obstacles. The first obstacle he faced was learning to talk to adults. He had already accomplished this even before his visit to the train station, when he asked Mrs. Alexander for clues. Another challenge he overcame was his fear of new environments and situations. I would say this was definitely his biggest obstacle, especially at the train station. Because it was such a busy, noisy place, he had trouble concentrating and started to go back to his usual behaviors, like putting his head into his hands and groaning really loudly. He had also never been there before, so nothing was familiar and he had trouble digesting it all in such a short amount of time. Christopher did eventually make it through though, which was a big milestone in his journey to becoming an adult, able to live on his own. Gene and Finny also had to overcome many of their fears in A Separate Peace. They were both afraid of losing each other. Gene thought that once Finny knew that he had caused his accident he would lose him forever, so he did everything he could to make sure that didn't happen. Finny also didn't want to lose Gene because he considered Gene his closest friend.