Christopher, the main protagonist in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon and Junior, the main character in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexi, face difficult problems through their teenage years which they eventually overcome. Christopher, a fourteen year old boy from Great Britain struggles for social acceptance as a result of his autism. He struggles with empathy and understanding nuances in relationships and as a result, dislikes all forms of interaction. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior is a boy who struggles as he transfers from his reservation high school to a white high school. He also has hydrocephalus and is susceptible to seizures. Both …show more content…
“You have to leave this reservation”. (42) Mr. P tells Junior that he has no hope on the reservation. This vital advice convinces Junior to leave the reservation. This is an extremely brave thing to do because Junior is going to have to start a new lifestyle at an affluent high school. Junior attends Rearden, a white public school twenty miles from the reservation. Junior is different from the white students because of his personality, socioeconomic status, and race. It is very hard for a smart Indian boy to fit in at a white, sports obsessed, public school. Christopher and Junior need to leave home because they both fear their fathers and they have no hope. The boys use certain lifeboats to escape reality, and to find their own little worlds. Junior started to make friends at Rearden, but then the Indian kids hated him because he was a “white-lover”. To escape from all of these problems occurring in his life, he draws cartoons. “So I draw because I feel like it might be my only real chance to escape the reservation. I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats”. (6) Junior also thinks that drawing cartoons can give him hope; a hope of escaping the reservation. “I feel like I might grow up to be somebody important. An artist. Maybe a famous artist. Maybe a rich artist.” (6) There are two very important words in this quotation that do not associate
To begin, Junior uses his courage to do what is seen as precarious by his community, but he knows that it is for his own benefit. During the call to action, his Caucasian mathematics teacher, Mr. P, tells him to leave the reservation that he lives in, so he can prevent
It has become paramount that composers utilise various techniques in order to influence an individual’s perception of the world. As seen through the eyes of an Aspergers sufferer, Christopher Boone, Mark Haddon’s inventive novel entitle ‘The Curious incident of the Dog in the Night Time’, skilfully portrays how the decisions of significant characters and their relationships shape the overall message about the difficulties of living with a limiting social condition. This is challenged from the unique perspective of Christopher and explicitly seen through the relationship between the protagonist and both his parents. Haddon employs a myriad of techniques through the concepts of the conflicting nature of love, the desperation for a world of
In the Novel, The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, we are shown that the truth is not always accurate and that lies are sometimes necessary. Christopher Boone is a 15 year old who has Asperger’s Syndrome, which lies in the Autism Spectrum. Due to this condition Christopher does not understand emotion, metaphors – which he considers a lie – and knows all the prime numbers up to 7,507 as well as all the countries and cities of the world. Christopher’s life revolves around the truth and throughout the novel he is seen to grow and learn to cope with different things when dealing with lies. Most events in this novel are situated around a lie that has been told; nearly every character tells one and has to face the
Many readers of the book The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Nightime by Mark Haddon may conclude that the father of Christopher is in the absolute wrong for hiding and lying about his mother’s death to Christopher. The father is doing his best to take care of a “special” kid who does not fully understand human emotions and feelings which creates a barrier to the outside world. As the book progresses the father does “hit” Christopher, but that is a simple reaction to Christopher’s persistent pushing around. Eventhough alcohol creates some of the anger in the father, the alcohol I think is a coping mechanism for the father to get over his wife leaving him. Christopher’s father really loves his son, his love is hidden through indirect characterization and shows its parts throughout the book.
One of the main obstacles Junior overcomes is stereotypes. Junior is an Indian who lives on a reservation. Indians have many stereotypes that are towards them. For instance one stereotype is that they have no hope. Junior had a conversation with one of his teachers about his future, which involved him switching schools. Junior knew that if he stayed at the reservation high school he won’t be able to make a future for himself. So when his parents got home he asked them who has the most hope, “’White people, (Alexie45)’” his parents told him at the same time. Even
In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon uses Christopher’s unique voice to show the importance of human connection and communication within our world. In doing so, Haddon is able to communicate the importance of order and stability in Christopher’s life. This creates a unique perspective of an aspergus sufferer, enabling an exploration of the difficulties inherent in raising an autistic child and thus alters the perceptions of the reader concerning the complex connection between disability and dependence.
Growing up on a reservation where almost everyone has lost hope, Junior feels like an outcast for having a passion to chase after his dreams. When he moves to Reardan to find hope, he is gawked at and teased because he is the only Indian there. Junior faces internal conflicts within himself figuring out how to balance his two selves. According to Junior, “traveling between Reardan and Wellpinit, between the little white town and the reservation, [he] always felt like a stranger. [Junior] was half Indian in one place and half white in the other. It was like being Indian was [Junior’s] job, but it was only a part-time job. And it didn’t pay well at all” (Alexie 118). Junior is determined to discover his identity as it is evident in his choice of words. Feeling like a stranger wherever he goes, he believes that he is too white for the reservation while being too Indian for Reardan. The people on the reservation live in an atmosphere where they trust only each other and stick up for one another. However, when Junior goes to the reservation after being exposed to a community filled with white people, the Spokane’s do not see him as a true Indian anymore, hence the reason why Junior
Balance and stability are integral factors of a human life and in maintaining relationships between humans, and can be influenced by whether or not a harmony is found between an individual’s freedom and confinement. These ideas are clearly presented in Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. In this text, Haddon conveys his ideas, through tone and emotive language, that the emotional and mental stability of an individual impact greatly on his or her relationships. Through symbolism, he also describes the way in which a moderate level of isolation is a crucial part in maintaining human relationships. Together, these allow for Haddon’s audience to gain a deeper understanding of humanity and human relationships.
The high school on the reservation was so helpless that the books were as old as Junior’s parents! There were times when Junior’s breakfast was a gallon of orange flavor drink mix. The only Christmas gift he’d receive was a five dollar bill if he was even lucky. Living like this and to not give up like the rest made him a survivor. Junior’s sister had given up school, but once had a dream of writing romance novels. Along with Junior’s sister, Junior’s father and mother gave up way before she did. Everyone else on the reservation had given up since it was ultimately a death camp. Even the young teenagers had given up in school.
The imagery reveals from the very beginning of the book Junior explains that it's already hard for him off the rez because he is an Indian, and its purpose is to show that Junior label's himself as a social outcast and when he goes to his new school off the rez he faces many problems based on his origin. It's only right to say that Junior himself even hate's himself to a certain point just for being who he is just as much as what he must put up with because of where he comes from or who he is. Well as the text from one of the documents based on exiting the rez, making a clear point to how difficult it can be because of what you need to think or take into account. Many people from the rez will look at you differently, you can begin to miss the
This essay will be an analytical essay where the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon will be analyzed and interpreted. The focus will be on the language of the novel and the themes and messages.
In Mark Haddon's contemporary novel, "The curious incident of the dog in the Night-Time", the protagonist, Christopher Boone, does seem completely unsuited to narrating a novel, as he takes on his authorial voice, thus demonstrating symptoms of his disability, 'Asperger's Syndrome.' This is a syndrome that enables him to see the world only through his limited perspective, which is closed, frightened and disorientated - which results in his fear of, and inability to understand the perplexing world of people's emotions. His description of events can be somewhat unreliable as he is unable to see the real truths that lie before him. As he narrates, readers are confronted with his peculiarities - whether it is not liking to be touched, his fear
In society, people behave very different to situations. This is seen in the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon. Haddon uses many examples in the novel when Christopher a 15 year old, does not realize how strange and awkward he is acting in instances with other people. The trainstation is a new place for Christopher and Hadden uses awkward behaviors and defense to create surprise.
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,
In the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon, the actions of Christopher’s parents are warranted because they do what is best for him by making understandable decisions and sacrifices. The struggles of raising a child with autism are evident throughout the text. Christopher’s autism makes it difficult for his parents to communicate and connect with him. To Christopher, their instructions are “usually confusing and [do] not make sense” (29).