Identity Through Walking And Isolation

Greek philosopher Socrates once said: “To find yourself, think for yourself.” Independence is a fundamental quality in the life journey of a person. The strive for independence is the symbol of growth for teenagers. In Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time, author Mark Haddon explores this trait. The novel explores the world through the unique perspective of Christopher Boone, a teenager with Asperger’s syndrome. The book begins with the murder of Wellington, a dog in the Boone neighborhood. As Christopher embarks on a journey to solve the murder, he discovers the dark secrets of his family. Christopher then made his decision to revisit the secrets and uncover

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.

Identity can be defined as the fact of being whom or what a person is. Internal and external factors shape a child’s concept of their own identity. These factors include the environmental setting, family, community, and the media. In the novel Room by Emma Donoghue, the 5-year-old narrator/protagonist Jack learns his identity through exploring the familiar space he occupies, the close relationship between he and his mother, and watching television. It is clear that Jack faces many challenges, which lead him to discover how his identity is shaped; this is evident through the exploration of him forming personal attachments to his mother, the room he lived in, and the problems he encounters to the new outside

Anderson argues that common rhythms of societal response can be identified in similar public spaces. It is clear that the way individuals behave in noisy environments where they are constantly avoiding interaction with objects and bodies differs from convivial mingling. Alternatively, Anderson claims that places that exhibit similar patterns of vitality, usage, and organization have similar social traits (Anderson 67). To illustrate this, relatively busy and safe spaces open any frenzy is given slight regulation regardless of whether these spaces are libraries, museums, retail centers, squares, or parks. It appears that these places are marked by the ethos of researched trust in the situation. Mechanisms are used to negotiate bodies and space in these environments. These mechanisms appear to render the familiar strange and the strange familiar. Transactions are carried out in a safe and efficient manner: threat resulting from anticipation of violence, anxiety, and fear is always avoided. The participants have appreciated the benefits consciously and tactful in public places. Social experiences in public places domesticate diversity and complexities in urban places (Burfeind 18).

The difficulties of personal knowledge/identity reflects on a person’s illiteracy. The time they were hardly surviving from people’s prejudice was the time they do not have idea how people see them outside of their island, county and how people judge them by their physical appearance. As a result of not knowing that information, they were not aware of how they will dress or act in public to avoid harsh judgments of people. Also in Walker’s difficulties she was not aware that to let her brother influence her will put her identity into a risk. As a reward of the knowledge about personal identity, Walker learned to to believe on her self, and gained her self-confidence again and that’s when she started

Rebecca Solnit’s Walking and the Suburbanized Psyche stresses her concerns about the suburban wave that has plagued the world in recent times. According to her, the mind, the body, and the world have a special bond that is being vanquished by the lack of recreational walking. In the eighteenth century, there was a “golden era” for walking because recent accommodations made it possible for the general public to enjoy the untamed nature all around them. This era was short-lived, as suburbs rose to popularity so did their unorthodox labyrinths which made walking simple distances nearly impossible to the public. The reason why walking in nature is important, Solnit shares, is because it allows the mind to flow freely without the corruption of everyday obstacles that the suburbs brought. She explains that in order for the mind to avoid being molded into a sterile dull thing, it must imagine in nature. If we do not continue to walk, the history we have with walking will diminish as will the special bond our ancestors cherished so dearly. Without it, Solnit fears that we will no longer be able to produce such things, however, in recent times walking is not a luxury many can do. I disagree because society has changed to the point where walking is not only a rarity but also a threat to many.

People are often told to be themselves as a way of embracing their uniqueness. This seems to not be true since conformity and lack of individualism is a big issue with society. The issue of what led Christopher McCandless, main character from Into the Wild by John Krakauer, to go on a search to find himself. In the author’s note of the novel, Krakauer introduces the term ‘schools of thought’. In the case of this book, there are two; one being that some people said it was a suicide mission and the other being that others disagreed saying he was ambitious. The story demonstrates one man’s attempt to define a lifestyle and find meaning in his life that came from something outside materialistic and civilized contemporary

One’s identity is the most important part about them. Without one’s identity, there is nothing about them that makes them who they are. This is why the struggle to find one’s identity is one of the hardest struggles to take place within someone. Because the struggle to find one’s identity can be so difficult, a lot of writers today have used this motif in their books, as this has become a topic many readers can relate to. A book that highlights this topic very much is “The House on Mango Street”, by Sandra Cisneros. This book is about a young girl named Esperanza, who moves to a new house and a new community, and struggles with finding her identity and fitting in the community. The book is written in a series of vignettes, or small poems

Throughout the text “Solitary Stroller and the City,” author Rebecca Solnit explores the complex relationships between the walking individual and living in the city. The title brings together three central ideas; walking, the city, and solitariness as an individual.. These three central ideas are tied together and used to reveal deeper meanings and relationships within the text. When analyzing Solnit’s work, the reader is left to identify a complex relationship between the central ideas and how the geography of a city influences all the three of the central ideas. Solnit makes claims throughout the text that are strongly suggestive of a relationship between the ability to walk and its derivability based on the “when” and “where” concepts. The geography and or location can be explored through the comparison of rural walking versus urban walking, the comparison between the cities of London and New York, and the solitariness associated with the geography and structure in one city versus another. Spanning the entire text is the idea that the city influences the walker and their individualism among the crowd, or their perception of solitude. Solnit compares London walkers and New York walkers, exploring how their different geographical locations define their city as a whole as well as the individual. Geography plays a crucial role in one 's idea of solitude and individualism.

Today’s society suggest that solitude is something to avoid. Being alone is looked down upon and is considered a bad thing. Instead of loneliness, we value communication. In her essay, “When Collaboration Kills Creativity,” by Susan Cain, Cain discusses how creative people tend to be introverts and that solitude is the key to innovation. Furthermore, she explains how society favors working in groups which has become a necessity in many settings. Similarly, in “The end of solitude,” by William Deresiewicz, Deresiewicz points out how the use of technology destroys time for ourselves and is used to counteract the fear of being alone. He emphasizes how solitude helps us listen to our own thoughts and for spiritual growth. In the past, solitude

The narrator is not the only person on her block to be secluded from the people who are so physically proximate to her. The boy from number eighteen wrote on the back of a photograph, “ There are so many people in this world he says, and I want to know them all but I don’t even know my nextdoor neighbor 's name”. (216) The fact that all of these people are jam packed together so closely, yet their lives seldom overlap, shows a communal disunion. Globally there is such an expanse of beauty and wonder, yet nobody stops and examines the beauty that is surrounding them.

“Normality is to be different. Every person is a different person. And one day you need to be aware of your difference. Aware that you are not the same as the others. That is to be normal.” Through his quote, Alejandro Jodorowsky creates a reflection upon what he thinks the idea of normality in society should be. ("Alejandro Jodorowsky Quotes." BrainyQuote.com). In the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Haddon alludes the idealistic thoughts on normality in today's society. In the world today, society expects the individuals to conform to what is thought to be normal. As humans, one strives to adapt to societal standards. Normality within society is considered something different for those that refuse

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, written by Mark Haddon, is a mystery novel about a young boy with Asperger’s Syndrome. Christopher Boone, the narrator of the book, compels the reader to feel the most sympathy towards him, due to his Asperger’s Syndrome. Not only is this portrayed by this affliction but also by his parents’ separation and losing the stability of a family life. Ed Boone, Christopher’s father, can be sympathised with when his wife leaves him and he struggles with being a single parent of a child with a disability. Mrs Shears has also suffered loss when her dog, Wellington, was killed and then when her husband left her for another woman. Haddon retells the life of Christopher Boone, through a variety of different techniques such as repetition, dialogue, expletive language and short sentences.

Every individual faces obstacles that are necessary to overcome, whether it be for equity, justice or honesty. Throughout The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, the main character, Christopher tells his story as a socially awkward teenage boy who has a supposedly deceased mother and lives with his father. Being an adolescent, Christopher faces obstacles throughout the novel that he has to overcome in order to grow. The only thing is, Christopher is not like everyone else. While discovering the truth and embarking on certain adventures, Christopher is in search of a form of justice that he truly deserves.

Throughout the world of suburbia, there seems to be a persistence of communities who attempt to create a perfect, enclosed world for the whole of the community to live in. By providing for everything that the inhabitants would ever want, suburbia is able to close itself off from those around it that it deems unworthy of belonging. While this exclusivity helps to foster the sense of community, it can also bring with it isolation from the outside, and also from within, and have disastrous results. Throughout the semester, there have been a number of works that have dealt the issue of isolation, but the greatest representation of a work whose physical qualities in its representation of suburbia help to