The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime Obstacles Essay

“You can either allow the obstacles in your life to be the excuse for your failure or make them the reason behind your success.” Although the quote’s author is unknown, anyone can connect to this quote in some way about how you can let obstacles stop you from doing what you want to do or you can use them as a reason for success. This holds true for Christopher, the main protagonist in the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. Christopher is a 15-year-old in the autism spectrum, and although gifted in mathematics, he struggles with communicating and has extreme likes and dislikes. These obstacles definitely make it seem as if his goals are far from reach and as secrets come out his success seems almost unattainable, but because of these hardships he learns many lessons about human nature and himself, including that deciphering facial expressions to find the emotions connected to them and that he is capable of doing anything regardless of the obstacles thrown at him.
From the time Christopher was introduced into the

novel, the reader could clearly see that Christopher had difficulties communicating and extreme habits which were indications of him being on the autism spectrum. These impairments can affect a person by making them have difficulty learning something that may come naturally to someone without autism. For Christopher, he had difficulty with communication, particularly facial expressions and their meanings, because of this Christopher took a class to teach him communication skills. "I got Sioban to draw lots of faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant./ Took it out when I didn't understand what someone way saying"(8). Sometimes when texting, it is hard to determine the person you are texting feelings because their facial expression because cannot be seen through the device. Christopher must feel like this when communicating face to face because he may not be able to decipher feelings through people’s facial expressions. However, facial expressions are an important lesson in communication because tone and word choice can be adjusted depending on the listener's facial expression.
Reflecting on the book, the biggest lesson was at the end of the novel when Christopher reflected on the obstacles he overcame and that he was capable of doing anything. The whole novel was truly about Christopher overcoming tough obstacles and discovering his self-worth. "And I am going to pass it and get an A grade. And in two years' time I am going to take A-level physics and get an A grade"(220). /"And I found my mother and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything"(221). During the last chapter Christopher received an A on his A-level math exam and starts reflecting on the obstacles he overcame over the course of the past few weeks. He learns that he can overcome anything because of those experiences. Anyone can relate to Christopher during this event because everyone has experienced this feeling of proudness after reflecting on an event where you overcame a tough obstacle and did something that you did not think you could do.
In conclusion, throughout the course of the novel Christopher developed tremendously as a character.

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

experience.