Mark Haddon Adversity

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Literature grants perspective, allowing insights into the workings of one’s mind. The novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”, composed by Mark Haddon acquires various elements that broaden our understanding of human adversity. The form, structure and style of writing in the text allows for the responder to pre-conceive that the protagonist Christopher suffers from a disability, although alluding to it through Christopher's actions and thoughts, the text never states he is disabled. Chris’ limitations shapes not only what we are able to experience, but also subverts the structural features of the text itself, thereby openly flouting the rules of conventional storytelling. In doing so, Haddon is able to explore everyday settings …show more content…

Chris experiences difficulty understanding the simple things in life, for example, reading facial expressions. As a logic driven character Chris is emotionally simplistic. Due to his inability to comprehend emotions, Chris struggles to connected to others on an emotional level. In the novel, Haddon elucidates through visual representations how the protagonist is unable to distinguish a person’s feelings by examining their expressions. Haddon makes uses of polysyndeton, “…Siobhan to draw lots of these faces and write down what they mean and I took it out when I didn’t understand what someone was saying”, which serves as an ironic element as the visual diagrams instead of assisting Christopher in distinguishing …show more content…

Although there is an absence of emotive language, Haddon employs copious amounts of imagery that enhances the experience. The accumulation of simple sentences coupled with the repetition of “I” and sequential statements, for instance, “I think I would be a good astronaut…I would like being…thousands of miles away” Haddon use throughout the novel successfully portrays the narrator as a child accompanied by an unorthodox perspective of the world allowing the reader to recognise that his view of the world is anything but conventional. Chris’ dream of becoming an astronaut represents the fantasy of escape from his current situation living under his Father’s authority. Chris’ aspiration to become an astronaut is closely linked to his condition, specifically his obsession with science and also the difficulty he has with social situations. Haddon’s employment of blunt tone and direct language in the dialogue line, “I’m not meant to call them stupid, even though they are” explores Christopher’s sense of self-superiority towards his peers. Haddon highlights that the perceptions that Chris possesses hinder him from connecting with others. Hence, disallowing him to form

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