The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon

741 Words2 Pages

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. When Christopher finds Wellington dead on Mrs. Shears’ front lawn, he picks up the dog and strokes it. Christopher is determine to find out who killed Wellington because he likes dogs. Father tells Christopher to leave the dog alone and do not poke into other people’s business. But Christopher has to find out who killed him, thus he decides not to listen to father and go find out and investigate Wellington’s murder. Christopher’s courage began to show when one Saturday, he decides to go around his block and ask questions. Christopher does not like to be around people he does not know and he is scared of some of the people on his block, but he faces his fears--not out of fear, but because he knew it was something he had to do. Christopher mentions that talking to people on his block was brave. He knows what courage is and he knows that he has to be brave. Notice how Ch... ... middle of paper ... ...mes their fears at their own time. Aristotle’s point is not when to overcome fears, its how to overcome them. Christopher shows various acts of courage, but at his own different time and in his own state of mind. His zealous attitude about Wellington’s murder, causes him to find out things about his family as well as himself. Christopher realizes his own courage and strengths after his journey is over. He realizes that he can do anything he sets his mind to. Aristotle explains overcoming a fear takes real courage and caution. Although, Oak Park is a nice city, there are still horrible people out there. Being cautious of your surroundings but also having the courage to do anything is the key to success when living in Oak Park. The big picture is everything happens for a reason. People never know how strong they have to be, until being strong is the only option.

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