What is love? There are endless possibilities for the way a word can be expressed. Love can be portrayed and defined in several ways whether it is communicated verbally or nonverbally. Mark Haddon’s novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” is told from the perspective of a young teenage boy named Christopher Boone who has Asperger’s syndrome. As the storyline progresses, readers get an insight into Christopher’s obstacles that come to the forefront, beginning with the death of his neighbour’s dog. At times, readers may find Christopher as an unreliable storyteller as he sees the world in a different perspective compared to other people. He has a tendency to discriminate towards others who may not necessarily share the same …show more content…
“I held up my hand and spread my fingers out in a fan and we made our fingers and thumbs 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” (Haddon 16). As much as his father wants to hug him, Ed Boone is aware of what his son does not like and to respect his wishes, he finds an alternate way to express his affection. At the beginning of the novel, Christopher states “(...)loving someone is helping them when they get into trouble, and looking after them, and telling them the truth, and Father(...)always tell me the truth, which means that he loves me” (Haddon 87). To Christopher, love is honesty, where there are lies there is not love. The challenges between Christopher and his father come to the forefront when he learns that his mother, Judy Boone did not actually die as his father told him. He felt betrayed because someone that he had trusted to always tell the truth has lied to him for 2 years about something major in his life. Christopher’s dad then tells him that he does not want to lie anymore so he reveals that he was the one who murdered Wellington putting closure to the plot that was introduced at the beginning of the story. Telling him the truth was a bad choice because this news puts Christopher in a situation where he feels that he can no longer feel safe …show more content…
The main character decides to run away in the middle of the night when his dad was asleep. He lays out the options and he comes to the conclusion that the only safe and best option is to go to London where he can live with his mother. Before Christopher learns the truth about his mother’s absence, he expresses through indirect characterization that he feels responsible for his mother’s death even though he may not put it that way directly. He mentions in chapter 73 that his parents used to get into a lot of fights because of him. It is hard to have an autistic child whom you have to constantly take care of. Him stating that he witnessed the fights his parents got into proves his awareness of the stress he puts on them either intentionally or unintentionally. He recalls a memory of his mom where she states “You are going to drive me into an early grave” (Haddon 48). Considering that his mom also supposedly died young, he may think that she may have gotten a heart attack because of the stress Christopher put on her. For two years, Christopher has felt guilty for her death. He later learns after finding the letters in his father’s bedroom that his mom actually left to live another life with Mr.Shears because she couldn’t handle the responsibility of taking care of her autistic son. Christopher felt betrayed that his father never thought
The last thing Christopher’s father would have wanted is for Christopher to have felt pain, anger or abandoned. Christopher’s mother, Judy, decided to leave them both for various reasons which lead to the father’s lie. Ed told Christopher, that his mother was hospitalized and later on that she had died all to spare his feelings of the truth regarding the mother’s absence in their lives for two years. One of Christopher’s mother’s reasons was due to her not being
Because he never backs down from anything he starts, Christopher’s pursuit to solve Wellington’s murder remains his primary focus, although Christopher experiences problems throughout the book that affect his resolve. His father affects Christopher negatively from his lies; as a result, the dishonesties turn out to be the central focus in the story. His father made him leave the house to go find Christopher’s mother who he did not know existed. His mom tried to hug Christopher when he got there and he blatantly describes how he hates being touched by his own family members. Christopher’s mom goes in for a hug but he shoves her away so hard that he falls over. Christopher states, “And I pushed her away because she was grabbing me and I didn’t like it, and I pushed really hard and I fell over” (Haddon 191). Christopher feels awful about the incident with his mother and ends up getting along exceedingly sound. Family disputes led to most of the problems in the novel, however, the issues made the book more interesting. Every time Christopher’s dad would mess up with him, his father would come running back to Christopher apologizing for what he did or the way he acted. Christopher’s father was good at taking care of him most of the time but then again was not an straightforward family member all the time. Christopher did not consider his
He wants to achieve his goals and let nothing stand in his way when he does. In addition to Christopher's persistence inside the classroom, he also kept on with the investigation despite what his father said. After Christopher discovers the letters from his mom, he does not quite understand what it means because he believes his mom to be dead. But his father tells him not to look through the letters anymore and puts them in a cupboard in his room. "It was six days before I could go back into Father's room to look in the shirt box in the cupboard ." (102) Even though Christopher's father tells him to leave the letters alone, he directly disobeys him to look for the truth within the letters. With his persistence he builds up enough courage to go into the letters and find out the truth about his mother. Because of this he finds the truth and finds his mother in London. Through Christopher's persistence he disobeys his father to find the letters and find out what he has been hiding from
Christopher abnormally obsesses over everything in his life. This is due to his severe OCD, which he struggles with throughout the novel. Likewise, Christopher’s OCD is depicted as a reaction to the lack of control over his environment. He copes with situations he cannot control by looking for various details within his life that bring him peace-of-mind him. For instance, before the policemen arrive at the crime scene of the murder of the Poodle, he felt tense and anxious caused by Mrs. Shears’s neurotic behavior in reaction to viewing Christopher peer over her dead dog. Later, when the police arrive to investigate the crime scene, Christopher feels a surge of comfort because the policeman is a representation (in Christopher’s mind) of order. When the police arrived Christopher thought: “Then the police arrived. I like the police. They have uniforms and
Christopher during the course of the text of the novel learns to disregard other people’s judgments.
Not only did Chris not want to call his parents, he did not want to see, speak or even come in contact with them. After Chris discovered his father’s affair he had no desire to even have parents at all. He was so angry at everything they have done. In a letter to his sister, Chris explained that their parents were being irrational and he had passed his breaking point: ‘“’I’m going to divorce them as my parents once and for all and never speak to either of those idiots again as long as I live’” (64). Chris believes his parents have caused so many thing to go wrong in his life that they do not even deserve to have him anymore. To come to this statement and the conclusion of divorcing his parents, Chris had to have been emotionally hurt to a crippling point. He cannot see that they are only trying to protect him and give him a happy, secure future. Chris lived thinking that his parents were horrible people and did not feel loved or cared for, and that led him to rebel. Not caring about what his parents’ feelings crippled Chris with anger and led him to, ultimately, his
is a murderer. When this occurs, Christopher begins to feel afraid, the only emotion he is capable of experiencing.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time exhibits real life situations experienced by an autistic, 15-year-old boy, from his own panorama. Christopher’s use of first person perspective ensures that his view on events are explained with accurate, detailed description, enhancing the responders understanding of how the mind of one with Asperger’s syndrome functions. This concept is elaborated on in Christopher’s struggle to become independent as the responder is able to grasp Christopher’s defensive mechanisms to dealing with stressful situations. Christopher narration “so I groaned to make the time pass quicker and not think” during a fit where his tendency to shut down and curl himself into a ball is essentially revealed substantiates his struggle to become independent as his
Nothing hurts more than being betrayed by a loved one, Christopher’s father has no trust in Christopher and tells him that his “Mother died 2 years ago”(22) and Christopher thinks his mother died of a heart attack. When Christopher finds out his father lied, he runs away to live with his mother and his father despritally looks for him and while looking for him realizes the importance of telling the truth. When someone betrays one’s trust, they can feel morally violated. Once Christopher finds his mother, she begins to realize how unfit her living conditions are for Christopher and brings him back to his father, bring him “[..] home in Swindon”(207) Christopher feels incredibly hurt and distressed he does not want to see his father. Whether a relationship can be repaired depends entirely on whether trust can or cannot be restored. Christopher’s father works very hard to regain his trust, he tells his son “[..] I don’t know about you, but this...this just hurts too much”, Christopher’s father is dealing with the result of being dishonest with his son and himself.
Anger is one of the hardest emotions to control. Often, people hold it in, allowing it to build until it bursts, causing damage. In Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the parents of a child with autism struggle to keep their cool around their son. Christopher’s mother fails to mask her emotions around her son, leaving his father to take care of him. Although his father tries to maintain calm, he often yells at Christopher as his son watches on in careful concentration. Haddon’s authorial choice of making Christopher’s parents lash out reveals irony in that Christopher is the one with the disorder yet is calm, analyzing situations objectively.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is told through the eyes of a fifteen year old boy named Christopher Boone. Christopher has a highly-functioning form of autism which allows him to understand complex mathematical problems, but also leaves him unable to comprehend many simple human emotions. His inability to understand metaphors, distinguish emotions, and his lack of imagination makes it possible to consider Christopher as functioning like a computer rather than functioning as a human being. Throughout the story, Christopher is faced with many challenges which he conquers using the stable and never changing system of mathematics. All of these factors suggest that Christopher does, in fact, function like a computer, but it is apparent early in the story that Christopher, regardless of anything else, is capable of independent thought which separates him from the programmed, dependent world of computers.
In conclusion, the most evident theme in this story is that everyone have problems mentally, that they need to overcome. Christopher, the mother, and the father are examples supporting this theme. Although, Christopher finds it difficult to recognize emotions, follow instructions, talk to strangers etc. he tries hard to overcome it. His behavioral problems, and care for others has improved over time proving that overtime his problems can be fixed. Ed Boone, the father has problem managing his emotions and often gets out of control but tries to control them for his son's sake. The mother, Judy Boone, faces problems with impatience but after parting with Christopher, shows significant improvement in her patience levels. Overall, no matter how bad a psychological problem is, there is always a way out if given time.
...er 237 where Christopher recounts “Christopher, let me hold your hand. just for once. Just for me. Will you? And i said ‘i dont like people holding my hand.’. Through the implementation of truncated sentences, Judy’s yearning and longing for Christopher’s affection is exemplified. This enables the responder to acknowledge the highly emotional state in which she is in. The setting of Christopher and his mother being alone in the bathroom also aids to the emotional, intimate and highly sensitive nature of their conversation. Despite how affected Christopher may be in realising his mother is alive he is unable to recognise the plea in his mothers voice and fails to reciprocate the smallest morsel of physical affection towards her due to his desperation to keep things orderly and un-changing, therefore exposing the complicated nature of communication between the two.
If the book were to be narrated in third person the reader wouldn’t understand how Christopher feels about certain situations. This is also an affect given in the book because the author wants to project Christopher’s autism spectrum disorder condition to the reader.
His relationship with his son grows progressively complicated due to a collection of events built from lies. Christopher equates truth with love and bases his trust in people on whether they lie to him. “He always tells me the truth, which means that he loves me.” But Christopher has trouble separating truth from fiction. When he discovers his father’s deception he says, “I couldn’t trust him… because he told me a lie about a big thing.”