Christopher Boone is a fifteen year old with a mental disability. He lives with his father, his mother having died two previously, in a small town in England. On discovering the murder of a neighbor’s dog, Christopher decides to act as detective and find the culprit. He faces many obstacles and challenges due to his disability such as not being comfortable speaking to strangers and irrational fears. His father is not encouraging and demands that Christopher give up his detective work. He does not stop and in his search for clues he discovers both that his mother had an affair and that she is, in fact, still alive, living in London. After figuring out that his father killed the dog, Christopher runs away to London, feeling unsafe in his home. He lives with his mother for a while and then they both move back into the original town. Throughout the book, Christopher faces many difficulties due to his mental impediment and he is often unable to cope with them; I have faced challenges in my own life and I have taken action to overcome them appropriately, but my abilities vary from Christopher’s …show more content…
Shortly after finding the dead dog, Christopher is interviewed by a police officer at the scene of the crime. Things unravel quickly when the officer grabs Christopher; “The policeman took hold of my arm and listed me onto my feet. I didn’t like touching me like this. And this is when I hit him” (Haddon 8). Christopher’s inability to cope appropriately is apparent here and in many other situations in the book. Whenever he is uncomfortable he does whatever is necessary to become comfortable once more. Smaller examples include Christopher’s hatred of mixed food; when his food touches he throws it out, rather than eating mixed food which is uncomfortable for him. Christopher’s lack of coping skills prove to be a major difficulty for him, both in his detective work and in his everyday
In trying to find out who murdered Wellington, Christopher uncovers a box containing letters from his mother addressed to him. Prior to this incident, Christopher’s father, Mr. Boone, told him that his mother passed away due to a heart attack while in the hospital. In addition, Christopher was unable to visit her. The date of the supposed death did not match up with the recent inscription on the letters, indicating his father lying about her death. Mr. Boone soon finds out about Christopher’s discovery, struggling to explain the situation: “I did it for your good, Christopher. Honestly, I did. I never meant to lie...I just thought
All human beings face restrictions on a day to day basis that they have to thrive through. This is clearly illustrated by Mark Haddon in his book "The curious incident of the dog in the night-time”. Christopher Boone is cautious and logical. These attributes are what help him in finding his lost book his father has taken away from him. Christopher's logical thinking aids him conduct his search for the book his father has taken away from him.
Eliezer Wiesel and Christopher Boone were both just 15 when they were taken on their life altering expeditions, but it was their determination to return to their families and their strength to survive that lead them successfully to their goals. First of all, Christopher Boone was the disabled protagonist who was faced with many challenges but, it was Chris’s determination to solve the murder and reach his mother and that made him successful in obtaining his many ambitions. Christopher started of his book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by investigating the murder of his neighbor’s dog, but was quickly removed from the scene when the police were called. Although deterring to most, once out of jail, Christopher dedicated most
Christopher John Francis Boone is a 15-year-old boy with what is assumed to be Asperger’s syndrome. The mystery novel begins with a first-person perspective in the year 1998 in Swindon, England with Christopher finding a dead dog called Wellington. He is accused of murdering Wellington by the owner, Mrs Shears. Trust is a major idea displayed throughout this novel in a number of ways. It's shown in a first person perspective that Christopher finds it difficult to trust others.
And I could do this by going on a train because I knew all about trains from the train set, how you looked at the timetable and went to the station and bought a ticket and looked at the departure board to see if your train was on time and then you went to the right platform and got on board” (Haddon 131) This quote reveals the character of Christopher by showing that he is well informed about train time tables, and how he is able to incorporate his background knowledge on train time tables to assist him with his lengthy and very risky journey to London. This quote also displays that Christopher had taken a very extensive risk to leave his comfort zone, since Christopher finds a significant amount of difficulty dealing with new environments and finds it difficult to go to a new environment alone without assistance and someone he trusts. Christopher was able to overcome the challenge by succeeding with his journey to London, by relying solely on his photographic memory of his mother’s address and his background knowledge about trains and their timetables. Christopher was also able to overcome many of his fears such as large crowds, loud noises, and social
Christopher’s mental instability places an enormous strain on his parents, together with their relationships with each other and Christopher. After Ed Boone becomes a single father, the relationship between him and Christopher is put under even more tension, as both are affected by a lack of stability. This is conveyed through a contrast between Ed’s emotive language and Christopher’s dry tone in his journal – ‘… and he said, “I need a fucking drink.” And he got himself a can of beer.’ This simultaneously demonstrates Christopher’s lack of empathy towards his father’s emotional state and Ed’s frustration at his son, and therefore the negative impact that the lack of stability of both characters has had on their
The use of elements of narrative and figurative language help establish a sense that Christopher is ‘the other’ in this novel. The choice of a fifteen year old boy with an unidentified disability as the narrator affects the experience of the story. His choice of words, his individual points of interest and competence to describe situations and prioritise information indicates that Christopher does not fit in with the general society’s standards. The narration in the novel is often substantially idiomatic. This highlights the key communication barrier between Christopher and others. There is an expectation for the character to have more of a sophisticated language but the narration has a simple use of sentence structure. For example, it is presented
I could do my essay about Siobhan who taught Christopher emotions through facial expressions and listened to all his problems or I could do his father Ed Boone who took care of him and protected him endless amounts of times but I don't think those characters impacted Christopher's life in a permanent way. I'm not going to say that this character did the most in Christopher's life because I favorite this character like most students would because it's their instinct to say that. I don't like this character in particular but I think that Christopher's mom impacted him the most wth her emotional issues and how optimistic she is about life. Mother is a very important character to this story and she impacts the book like she impacts Christopher
However, what makes him a fascinating narrator is how he has learnt to deal with some of his phobias - as he also cannot bear loud noises, physical contact, strange people or unfamiliar places, he uses coping strategies such as 'groaning', 'screaming', 'hitting' fasting or even 'crawling' into small spaces. We see his distress at being grabbed by the policeman at the scene of Wellington the dog's death, which results in initiating one of his coping strategies, 'hitting'. Later we learn, Christopher attacks his father after his novel has been discovered. Overall, Christopher does convey to readers that his biggest underlying fear is of physical assault/illness, thus why he carries his 'Swiss Army Knife' and gets out the 'saw blade' when feeling scared. Christopher's phobias may suggest that he is unsuited to narrating a novel; however by including such accounts of how he deals with them single-handedly adds twists to the plot, as such sideline traits make the book readable apart from when he goes into excessive detail about mathematics and complex scientific explanations. Christopher is completely suitable to narrate this novel in a sense that he also caters for various audiences - people who live with or without the syndrome.
Christopher’s lack of emotion does not end with his mother’s death. He absolutely hates being touched by others, he hits a person if they try to make contact with him. He also does not like strangers; anything unfamiliar to Chris is not welcome in his world as far as he is concerned. He hates the colors yellow and brown, and determines if it will be a good day by the number of colored cars he sees; 4 red cars means it will be a good day, but 3 yellow cars is a bad sign. This
Chris is a charismatic young man, but takes extensive measures to ensure he does not become too close with anyone. By going out into the wild without so much as a letter to his parents,
Daniel Boone was born on October 22, 1734 and later died on September 26, 1820. He was an American pioneer and hunter whose frontier explorations made him one of the first heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the state of Kentucky. Despite resistance from American Indians, for whom Kentucky was a traditional hunting ground, in 1775 Boone blazed the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky. There he founded Boonesborough, one of the first English-speaking settlements beyond the Appalachian Mountains. Before the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 people entered Kentucky by following the route marked by Boone.
Christopher’s real change happens when Christopher finds a stack of letter’s his ‘supposedly dead’ mother - “Mother died 2 years ago.” - writes to him whilst finding the book he was writing. This happens because his father tells him not to mind other’s business - “Father said, ‘Just try and keep your nose out of other people’s business.’” - and in result of not following his dad’s orders gets his book taken away. During his ‘detective work’ Christopher finds out the real reason as to why Wellington’s owner’s husband left as he was one of Chris’s main suspects. He finds out that his mother was having an affair with him. So when Christopher goes to find the book he finds the stack of letters - “One other possibility was that Father had hidden my book somewhere in the house.” -. All this leads to his change because if it wasn’t for his realization that his mother was alive he would have stayed and nothing would have differed. It is what leads to Christopher wanting to find his mother, and on this journey he experiences new danger and he learns how to cope with the real world. I believe the finding of the letters is very important as it helps the readers to sympathize with Christopher it also makes you sad especially because he is autistic and cannot understand why his father would lie to him.
Father has murdered Wellington. That meant that he could murder me…”(122). For the sake of his own safety, Christopher decides that he must go to London to find his mother. On this Journey, Christopher's strengths and weaknesses have been challenged, but in order for him to discover the truth he must overcome these obstacles. Early into his journey, Christopher finds himself lost, frightened and alone. Considering Christopher rarely steps outside of his own hometown, he must learn to put his social anxieties aside as he experiences the pressures of London’s busy streets. When doing so, Christopher goes outside of his comfort zone, he ends up asking many people for instructions, and uses his own knowledge in order to figure out where to go. Christopher even risks his own life in order to save Toby, his pet rat. When doing so, Christopher overcomes these obstacles as he discovers the truth and realizes that maybe he is not so different after all.
Christopher John Francis Boone is a mathematically gifted fifteen-year old boy who has autism. He is the protagonist in the book and narrates in a first person point of view. From this, the reader familiarizes themselves with Christopher because his personality and thought processes are clearly shown. In the picture, Christopher is the red rat on a background of math equations. Christopher has a pet rat, which is the only thing that is allowed to touch him. He relates well with animals but has difficulty understanding human emotions. Christopher says, “I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross, and concentrating” (Haddon, 2003, 7). This shows Christopher’s inability to empathize. He can’t understand sarcasm and other people’s