Empathy is an attribute of human nature that allows humans to understand and communicate with each other. Stepping into other people’s perspectives enables individuals to understand how others feel and why they feel that way. This ability allows human beings to interact with other people in society effectively. “The curious incident of the dog in the night-time” written by Mark Haddon demonstrates the limitations and obstacles that the protagonist Christopher Boone faces due to his limited ability to empathize and understand emotions. Christopher’s mind is strictly bounded in logic and science hence he often misunderstands people and societal norms and values. The creative work which I’ve created demonstrates this theme based on three quotations from the text. I chose to create a sculpture using a transparent container, marble, black and white beads, colored sticky tacs, number stickers, and some colorful reflective candy wrappers. Each of the elements in my sculpture has a specific purpose to symbolize part of the theme.
The ability to empathize allows people to understand feelings and connect with others emotionally. Christopher lacks the ability to empathize because his mind is very logical; hence he finds it difficult to understand others. As a result, he resents communication with people. On page three of the text, Siobhan shows Christopher drawings of different moods and emotions which Christopher has difficulties interpreting, and Christopher said “I kept the piece of paper in my pocket and took it out when I didn’t understand what someone was saying. But it was very difficult to decide which of the diagrams was most like the face they were making because people’s faces move very quickly…and now if I don’t k...
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...nderstand it makes it seem black and white. Christopher only believes in logical truth, and this isolates him from the world around him.
My creative assignment gets to the centre of the topic because it represents Christopher and the world around him. It shows that Christopher is unable to free his mind from logic and science which is the very obstacle that prevents him from understanding others and having the ability to empathize and understand emotions. It shows that a strictly logical and scientific world view blocks out emotions and feelings hence they are two extreme polar opposites. The novel “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time” allows readers to empathize with Christopher and understand how he views the world in a logical world view; it lets readers understand how a logical mind limits Christopher’s ability to feel emotions and empathy.
is a murderer. When this occurs, Christopher begins to feel afraid, the only emotion he is capable of experiencing.
Christopher during the course of the text of the novel learns to disregard other people’s judgments.
Christopher is a fifteen-year old boy with Aspergers Autism whose life is full of uncanny surprises. His main focus is on school, and his ability to take the maths A level exams. Unfortunately, that was his focus until he finds Wellington dead on Mrs. Shears’ lawn. Christopher wants to know who killed Wellington and why. He investigates and finds out not only who killed Wellington, but he discovers secrets about his mother and father. In the book “The Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time”, the author, Mark Haddon, shows us how courageous Christopher is throughout his journey. According to Aristotle, a man is courageous when he sets himself free from his fears, pain, and poverty instead of running away from it. According to Aristotle’s theory, Christopher profusely shows courage when he investigates Wellington’s murder and travels to London to find his mom.
In his book review, “The Remains of the Dog,” Jay McInerney discusses how Christopher’s, “severely logical point of view,” draws the reader to question the, “common sense and the erratic emotionalism of the normal citizens who surround [Christopher].” Being put in Christopher’s shoes, on the receiving end of his parents’ aggression, highlights the difference between the “severely logical” Christopher and the average teenager, who would most likely yell back at their parents. His disorder causes him to analyze every situation but only act out when one of his triggers, like being touched, is set off. When he is left untouched he is able to diffuse his parent’s anger by calmly agreeing to their
After the murder of Wellington, Mrs. Shears’s dog, and being accused of having killed the dog, Christopher was determined to find out who had committed this crime. For this, he drew a simple map of neighbors’ houses and knocked house to house to find out who had killed the dog. The last house he went to was Mrs. Alexander’s house. She was gardening when he arrived and asked her information on the murder. She was aware of what had happened and knew more information than Christopher thought, but she did not tell him anything at this point, instead, she offered him tea and biscuits. As she went inside to grab the food, he left. His thoughts before leaving were that “she was inside the house for more than 6 minutes and I began to get nervous because I didn’t know what she was doing in the house. [...] And I thought she might be ringing the police and that I’d get into so much more trouble because of the caution” (Haddon 41). He aims at the decision to leave based on his intuition and distrust in people even though he had no rationale for that because Mrs. Alexander was a kind elder that lived on his street and the police knew he was not the dog’s murderer. His thoughts show how nervous he becomes when he experiences social interaction,
...though Christopher functions more like a computer than a human, but he possesses the ability to think independently, which over all else represents a human characteristic. No machine can operate efficiently without being instructed and following exact orders. Christopher also needs to be told exactly what to do because the vagueness of common phrases is confusing to him, but knows that people break rules and also knows that he can make decisions for himself. On his journey to find his mother, Christopher makes the decision to break away from all of his rules in order to find her. He is able to go to London against almost all odds, and does so by stepping out of his comfort zone and into a world of uncertainty. Even though he uses computer-like thinking to come to the conclusion of going to his mother, it is his underlying human qualities that make the trip possible.
At the beginning of the story, he told many incidents of the past of screaming in situations where mass amounts of people were in the same area as him. However, near the end of the novel we see him riding on a train and reaching his mother by himself. This realization of self-worth and ability to do anything he sets his mind to was a major lesson that throughout the book Christopher learned. Also, since Christopher is on the autism spectrum when he learned about complex facial expressions, such as worried or scared, it was an important lesson about human nature and communication. During the course of the novel, Christopher discovered his self-worth and the meanings of complex facial expressions. After reading this novel, I learned that the lessons you learn are based largely on where you start and the things you
...ic at the same time which is uncomfortable and confusing...It is like three people trying to talk to you at the same time about different things'. Christopher turns into a wonderful narrator through this device as he introduces us to a syndrome which we find alters all perspective of a person's life. Laughter, something many of us take for granted, sadly isn't really experienced by Christopher, another reason as to why readers would empathize with him, as the only enjoyment he would attain out of life would be on the notions of Mathematics and Science.
He will explain things that he doesn’t understand or simple things like a lie. For example he explains, “The word metaphor means carrying something from one place to another.” And goes on to give the readers examples of metaphors. Christopher tells the readers about how he doesn’t understand metaphors and how it should be called a lie instead. He says, “I think it should be called a lie because a pig is not like a day and people do not have skeletons in their cupboards.” Most readers already know what a metaphor is and don’t want to read a whole page explaining what it is. Christopher also explains, “A lie is when you say something happened which didn't happen.” Again, most readers already know what a lie is and find it frustrating to have the narrator constantly explain things to them that they already know. It seems frustrating because Christopher uses up at least one page every time to explain things to the reader that he doesn’t understand, but most readers already do. This frustrates the reader and makes them feel like their time is being wasted. It makes the reader want to stop reading the book because Christopher doesn’t understand a lot of things so he has to do a lot of
Empathy is imperative to teach kids from a young age in order to help them recognize mental states, such as thoughts and emotions, in themselves and others. Vital lessons, such as walking in another’s shoes or looking at a situation in their perspective, apprehends the significance of the feelings of another. Our point of view must continuously be altered, recognizing the emotions and background of the individual. We must not focus all of our attention on our self-interest. In the excerpt, Empathy, written by Stephen Dunn, we analyze the process of determining the sentiment of someone.
In the first place, Christopher becomes very thoughtful as he faces obstacles throughout the novel. There are various parts of the story where
Relationships can only survive through adapting to constant change. Without that aspect, they would not last. In Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a boy with Aspergers goes through life surrounded by mystery, dishonesty, and dysfunctionality. Because of this, secrets are revealed, relationships are changed, and the connection between family is brought into a new light. Through these events, the boy and his family discover and rediscover their ties with each other. In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the author demonstrates that the ability to adapt and change is the most essential characteristic in life because it strengthens relationships, as illustrated through Christopher, his mother
It is because I can’t tell lies. He simply cannot tell something that did not happen because then his mind is overwhelmed with all of the other possibilities scenarios that did not happen which Christopher explains on page 19. Christopher also does not understand emotion the same as others may because he believes if someone left then they do not exist. Therefore, how can he have feeling for something not real or have the ability to think of something that does not exist? To continue, on page 75, when Siobhan asked if his knowledge of his mother’s affair with Mr. Shears made Christopher upset, Christopher replied, “But I don’t feel sad about it. Because Mother is dead. And because Mr. Shears isn’t around anymore. So I would be feeling sad about something that isn’t real and doesn’t exist. And that would be stupid.” His understand of honesty affects his emotions because if he were upset, then he would perceive the emotion as a lie because the reason for the emotion does not exist; however, Christopher cannot lie so he does not feel that emotion about his mother because she left.These are other examples of how Christopher’s life is affected by Asperger and how it affects his understanding and changes his way of thinking compared
Christopher Boone, the protagonist of this novel, has encountered a lot of hardships dealing with people because of his mental disability. One of his biggest problems he faces is his incompetence to decipher between emotions. In order to make out the more complicated emotions, Christopher “...got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant.” He keeps this piece of paper in his pocket and uses it as reference when he has difficulty understanding other people’s emotions. “I like dogs” says Christopher, you always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating.” (5.2) He also finds it difficult to follow instructions. Since he is a very logical person he needs the directions to be precise and specific. “And this is because when people tell you what to do it is usually confusing and does not make sense.For example, people often say ‘B...
Christopher’s narrative perspective doesn’t allow him to empathize with his father’s view on lying or why is father lies to begin with because the normal brain does not function like Christopher’s brain.