1990 Prompt In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Christopher’s autism prevents him from interacting normally with other people. Christopher’s father does the best he can to raise Christopher by himself, but he struggles with alcoholism and fails to understand the full extent of Christopher’s illness. Christopher’s dad tells Christopher that his mom died from a heart attack, but Christopher later finds out that she had an affair and ran away with Mr. Shears. Christopher runs away to his mother’s apartment because he believes he cannot trust his dad. Christopher and his father struggle to understand each other, which causes Christopher to leave his father because he cannot comprehend his fathers actions. Christopher is not able to form normal relationships with other people due to his autism. Christopher’s definition of love is different from a normal person’s definition. He considers love to be “helping them when they get in trouble, and looking after them, and telling them the truth” (Haddon 87). He does not consider love to be how one feels, but rather how one acts. He wants to get married so that his …show more content…
He cares about Christopher, as is apparent when he fights to make sure Christopher can take upper math classes. However, he has to deal with the pressure of being an only parent, which is demanding under normal circumstances, but even more so since Christopher has autism. Christopher’s dad lies to Christopher about what happened to Christopher’s mom because he thinks that he is protecting Christopher. Christopher’s dad “thought it was better if [Christopher] didn’t know” (114) about his wife’s affair. Christopher’s dad was lying to Christopher because he felt as though Christopher was too young to understand. In addition, Christopher’s dad did not want to talk about the affair because it upset him too much. He did not realize how Christopher always needs to know the
Christopher has major conflictions with his father throughout the novel. He was lead to believe that his mother was dead, when in reality; his father had been keeping a major secret and had been lying to his son the entire novel about his mother’s wellbeing. Christopher’s mother had been writing him letters a couple times every week for a couple of years. Conversely, Christopher’s father had been hiding the letters after he told his son that his mother had died from a heart attack. His mother had actually just been having an affair with a neighbor, and his father couldn’t figure out a way to explain that to Christopher. “Mother had not had a heart attack. Mother had not died. Mother had been alive all the time. And father had lied about this”(112). While his father may have had good intentions by lying to Christopher, to him it seems as if his father had been keeping secrets from his because he believed he was incapable of understanding them. Christopher’s father has lost his son’s trust, and Christopher felt betrayed. He couldn’t believe that his own father, his parent who had been nurturing him ever since his mother had been gone was capable of lying to his face about something that big. In addition, another external conflict was between Wellington and whoever killed him. The story began with the dog’s murder, and after a sequence of events it was
Christopher’s father and mother, Ed and Judy Boone, are two main characters in “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time”. Although they despise each other, they share certain aspects and traits. One trait that they both have in common is that they both care and want to protect Christopher. Ed takes care of Christopher as much as he can. He prepares him food the way Christopher likes it.
“A Curious Incident" by Haddon, is a novel about a boy named Christopher. This boy has autism, and because of this, he thinks very differently than other people. This story gives Christopher a goal to solve the mystery of how Wellington the dog died. His father soon revealed that he killed the dog, which surprised him Haddon uses diction and details to craft Christopher's reactions by showing his immediate distrust of his father and becoming scared of him. This was first shown from how Christopher reacted when he knew his dad wasn't joking. His dad started to explain that he killed Wellington and that everyone makes mistakes. Then he “held up his right hand and spread his finger out in a fan. But I screamed and pushed him back so that he fell
Upon finding out about his parent’s mistakes, Chris had an undeniable resent toward his parents. His father had had an illegitimate child and refused to accept him, and his second family. Chris kept the concept of truth very close to his heart and when he discovered this deceit he was shocked. " ‘Their fraudulent marriage and our father's denial of his other son was, for Chris, a murder of every day's truth’ ” explained his sister (Krakauer 103).
Christopher has Asperger's which is considered a disability, even with his disability Christopher manages to solves a murder, figures out that his supposedly dead mother is still alive and uncovered the lies his father told him, yet he still proves to be strong in the end and deals with it better than a average person would have. While going through all this, Christopher manages to study and pass his A level math exam. For a average person whose Christopher's age would have had a very hard time but Christopher stayed focused and had minimal breakdown. I believe Christopher did so well emotionally was due to his inability to experience emotion and his analytical way of solving problems. Christopher’s understanding of things from a different perspective caused me to rethink how i perceived many issues and scenarios.
Christopher decided to find his father, he didn’t have a good relationship with him but he tried. He tried helping him even though he saw him as a stranger. When he found him, his father was already sober and had a new family. It took them time to figure out how to work things out, even though Christopher knew that he would never be able to see him as a father like figure, he at least knew he could build a small relationship with him and his
What seems most hurtful and regrettable is Chris’ resentment towards the parents who did so much for him. Chris spent two years with no contact, and now they will never be able to see him again. His childishness clouded his judgment, and caused him to rewrite history, convincing him that his parents were his enemy when instead, they were supportive and proud of Chris. It was shameful “that a kid with so much compassion could his parents so much pain”(104). His travels seemed to be an escape from his family, and a reactionary revenge against his comfortable life. Something strange was happening to him, he became resentful of the life offered
One important trait that both of christopher’s parents share is that both care deeply about christopher. Both care about him and would like to see him always happy. One way the father showed that he loves Christopher was in chapter 31 when Christopher got arrested so he went to go get him and he held his hand up and spread his fingers like a fan which is a symbol that he loves Christopher. A way his mother shows that she too loves him is in chapter 157 where Christopher is reading the letters. Judy, Christopher;s, mom, writes to him often and whenever she can because she cares dearly about him even though both are far away.
After all, Christopher’s father didn’t just kill dog, he killed Christopher’s friend: an entity he now values above his father because dogs don’t lie. Christopher encounters irony again when his father tries to bribe him for forgiveness with a dog, the very thing that he killed to lose Christopher’s trust. He only tolerates his father in his life again is because he sees the dog as his friend just like Wellington. Before the dog, Christopher wouldn’t talk to his father even going to extreme lengths to avoid facing him, “I had to go to Father’s house between 3:49 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., because I wasn’t allowed to be on my
When Kevin sees his father almost dying, he begins to think of the fatherless children in the world. He extends grace towards fathers in general by thinking how important a role they play in a child’s life, regardless of the mistakes that they might make. After thinking about fathers in general, he then thinks about his own father and as Bailey puts it, “ The caring-the carefulness-which was the belief in holding on to something worth preserving and passing on. Love. Kevin felt the tide of emotion that had been at its lowest ebb flowing back into him again. He looked to his Dad”. (259-260). Instead of remaining angry at his Dad for previous conflicts or for accidentally shooting his brother, Kevin extends grace to his Dad when he chooses instead to think and remember about all the love and caring his father has ever shown him. When he begins to feel that love for his father, his emotions pick up and that gives him the grace to keep on going without emotionally breaking down.
Shears wasn't any of these things. (56).” Haddon asserts his point here that it is not enough to acknowledge Christopher has autism. One must truly understand where Christopher is coming from and how he interprets the people around him. As Vincent states in an article about literary recovery, “Christopher's inability to comprehend emotional nuance conspires with his position as a child straining to make sense of the adult world to ensure that his explanations of other people's actions may be logical and believable, and are certainly true in the sense that Christopher believes them, but are never entirely accurate (107).” Since Christopher's father did not clearly outline what Christopher must not do, Christopher was able to manipulate what his father said to fit his own logic. Haddon further characterizes the father's inability to get through to his son when Christopher finds his mother's letters and realizes his father has been keeping his mother from him the entire time, making him think she was dead. Even after the father explains in detail why he hid the letters and killed the dog, Christopher's thought process is purely “I had to get out of the
Space and the Development of Emotion In, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon uses the motif of space to represent Christopher's understanding of human emotion. Early in the book, Christopher, an aspiring astronaut, writes that he would be a "very good astronaut" because they "have to be someone who likes being on their own" (50). Christopher believes that he would be content in space, surrounded by understandable machines, not illogical human emotion. Later, during Christopher's discussion of alien life, he writes about how they may appear "big like slugs or flat like reflections"(69).
This world is made up of so many secrets that each of us has. Sometimes we have some secrets that we don't share especially with our loved ones as we don't know how they will take it or if it will have an affect on them.Throughout the story, we are given hints to understand Christopher and his uniqueness. He knows all the countries of the world and their capitals, every prime number until seven-thousand, fifty-seven. He also hates the colors yellow and brown, that he won't even eat anything with those colors. He is described as being “unique” and very different from others.Christopher finds out some family secrets but what he finds out isn’t a secret because a secret isn’t a secret if it will affect someone else and a lie, isn’t a lie if no harm is being done.
Christopher is a very special child because he hates being touched, even by his family and closest friends. To many people, this may look like he hates everyone, or isn't able to experience emotions, but I think different. I believe Christopher can experience very simple emotions, like hapiness, sadness, and fear. This is the reason Christopher can not experience love for human beings, because love is far too complex.
Christopher is very different to normal people as he has Asperger’s Syndrome, a mental illness which deprives him of his social abilities and emotional interpretation. Christopher changes from an innocent unknowing boy to one of newfound truths and knowledge. At the start of the book he is very shy and protective of himself, only talking to those that he trusts. The author writes “It takes me a long time to get used to people I do not know. For example, when there is a new member of staff at school I do not talk to them for weeks and weeks. I just watch until I know that they are safe”.