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Christopher Boone Challenges Essay

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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

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