The Curious Night-Time

By running away from something he doesn’t understand, his father’s actions, he’s forced to accept the ambiguous nature of life. Christopher’s breaking of these structures is out of necessity, not out of want. Therefore, his father’s actions will keep him as a liar and murderer to Christopher. There will always be another option for Christopher to take in his life than trusting his father because the role of caretaker has been filled by Christopher’s mother. His rules only break if there isn’t another option to take, for instance, his counting cars system breaks in London when there’s too many

In chapter 71 it's clear Christopher knows he's got special needs, though Christopher goes into depth of what he means by “special needs”. To make it clear that everyone has special needs, he clarified that everyone had different needs. In chapter 73 Christopher says he used to think his parents would get a divorce because of his needs. Christopher goes on to explain, “This was because of the stress of looking after someone who has behavioral problems like I have”. This quote is showing that Christopher understand she is different from others, and that it may affect those around him. The way in which he deals with knowing this is trying to avoid some of the things that cause him to act this way. Such things he named like; not liking being

And Father had lied about this." (Chapter 157, p. 112) This is talking about how his dad basically lied to him about everything that happened to his mother and shut his mother out of his life and that makes Chris really upset. He loses his mind at this point and tries to run away and get away but he has no social skills so it is really tough. "I had to get out of the house.

Chris loses his sense of self fulfillment and questions who he is, which eventually leads him to become unhappy. Chris journeys into the wild to separate himself from his betrayful family and to discover how to be content with his life again. His adventure is noble, because even though inexperienced, Chris commits himself to an adventure to better himself and find true meaning for his life. Although Chris chooses to leave with the purpose of bettering himself, he causes his family pain by leaving them without notice. Leaving his parents is Chris’ way of revenge, he wants to hurt his family like they hurt him. The betrayal of his father made Chris question many aspects of his life, including who he is as a person. In order for Chris to be truly happy, have a family, and be a loving father, he has to re-discover who he is. Chris’ purpose of his journey is to become self fulfilled once again, and to be happy with his life and

At the beginning of the story, he believed that his mom had died and he ends up finding out that his father was lying to him the whole time. Also, his father tells Christopher to stop looking for whoever killed Wellington, and the reason he tells him to stop is because he did it. His father knows that Christopher's life is hard, and he just makes it harder. For example Haddon writes, “I was cold and I was frightened Father might come out and find me. But I felt safer in the garden because I was hidden. (pg. 126) This shows that not only does Christopher's father make life harder, but he scares christopher and as a father, the last thing you should be doing is scaring your son, especially if he has a mental

Special Needs!’… and I have my Swiss Army Knife if they hit me, and I kill them” (Haddon 44). This quote shows that Christopher does not know how to respond in social situations, and his only instinct is to pull out his knife to protect him. Likewise, the second piece of evidence shows how he is portrayed as an outsider, “[a]nd the dream was that nearly everyone on the earth is dead… and these[remaining] people on the earth are all special people like me… and I know that no one is going to talk to me or ask me a question” (Haddon 198-199). Due to Christopher’s isolation from society, it leads him to lose his innocence as he must become independent and rely solely on himself. Along with being alone and only having their sole parent to look after them, both protagonists, must soon undergo a harsh betrayal, caused by their parent.

Supporting reason 1: In the story, he soon finds out his mother that he thought was dead, was alive and his father had lied to him about his mother's whole new life because of an affair that separated the two. Christopher, instead of jumping to conclusions decides to wait and keep him calm until he had all the pieces put together. Chris would often say things as “I didn't have enough information “ or “i decided not to think about it anymore that night...could easily leap to the wrong conclusion” (Haddon, pg.99) whereas most would have immediately gone ballistic. Or when he agreeing goes on the walk in the park with Mrs. Alexander even though he feels uncomfortable around unfamiliar faces. He does just as John Roush discusses in “college should be an adventure” Roush establishes one must keep an open mind to even while being faced with the struggles college kids will face. He explains “Adventure is an attitude” and, “be mindful that whatever the activity, you are preparing yourself for an opportunity yet to be discovered.” (Roush, pg. 1)

When his father is yelling at him for continuing to investigate he brings up that fact that he is Christopher's only caretaker. “What am I going to do with you? What the fuck am I going to do with you?” (Haddon 82) This shows that his father is his only support, and therefore has power over him, by asking what he’s going to do to him, he tells the audience that he can do anything with, or to Christopher. His father has complete and total control over Christopher, even is his own home Christopher has no power, no autonomy. Which when you consider that he has such strict boundaries this leads to a inner conflict. He needs the support of his father and the independence he desires but these are conflicting needs, he cannot have both, meaning that his needs will never be fully satisfied. He will always struggle to find what he needs while also keeping himself in mind. On the same note, his father’s power over Christopher isolates him. Christopher gets into a physical fight with his father, they each land a few blows but in the end, after learning his father killed the dog, we see Christopher decided that he cannot stay in the house, he’s too fearful of his father, and he spends the first night out in the garden, alone and afraid. “I went round the back of the shed, and I squeezed into the gap between the wall of the shed and the fence” (Haddon 124). In this scene

Unlike his interactions with strangers, Christopher started out trusting his father but as time went on he lost that trust.. Christopher was able to forgive his father even though he lied to him. Christopher’s father lied to him about killing Wellington and after that Christopher lost all his trust in his father. He didn’t even feel safe around his father. “That meant he could murder me, because I couldn’t trust him, even though he had said “trust me” because he had told a lie about a big thing.” Christopher runaway from home to find his mother and live with her because he could no longer trust his father. When he was on the train he was trying to figure out where he could live, but he refused to go back home. He was too afraid of his father and what his father might do to him. When Christopher and his mother packed up and left her house in London she tells Christopher that he is going back home. Christopher, being afraid of his father, refuses to talk to him or even acknowledge him. He went straight up to his room puts a dresser in front of his door and studied for his A level math test. Slowly, Christopher begun to get more and more comfortable with his father. His mother encouraged Christopher to listen to what his father had to said and eventually Christopher argued. His father apologized for lying to him and asked Christopher to learn trust him again. Christopher had gained enough independence to make his own decisions and he

This is pretty easily seen just by his attempt to solve Wellington’s murder. In order to solve this mystery, Christopher knows that he will have to talk to many people he doesn’t know very well. Although he finds it very uncomfortable, he talks to strangers and gains the confidence in his ability to go out on his own and solve problems for himself. Another big instance of Christopher’s want for more independence, is his eagerness to take his A-level math test. Christopher sees a way out of the confines of his father’s house in

Furthermore, Christopher does not have the ability to empathize. “I have to go back to Swindon, and mother said, Christopher you’ve just only got here.’ ‘I have to sit my Maths A level’ ” (page 246). Instead he has been gifted with mathematical skills. The math skills are the only thing Christopher knows, he really can master. He says on page 247, “ I’m going to get an A grade. And that’s why I have to go back to Swindon”. Christopher wants to be acknowledged. People frequently find him peculiar in his way of being. No one really understands him and that is why Christopher dislike

Christopher may seem to be the brightest kid on the block, but even he has his own struggles that he must

To begin with, the main conflict in “CI” is not being able to trust, more specifically Christopher trusting his father. He goes through multiple complications in the story not knowing who he can trust brings great struggle. When Christopher arrives

Christopher is an extremely intriguing character between the way he thinks and the way he copes with adversity in his life. On page 131 Christopher makes a chart in his head while trying to make a decision on weather or not he should leave to London or if he should stay with his dad in Swindon. This is a unique way to handle your options but throughout the book, this is his norm.

Christopher’s father is selfish because he chose to hide letters from him, this shows that he didn’t want to tell Christopher the truth about his mother leaving. A way Christopher’s father shows selfishness in this book is when he lies to Christopher about his mother being in the hospital with heart problems and her eventually dying from it. “Mother died two weeks later. I had not been into hospital to see her but father had taken in lots of food from Marks and Spencer’s” (Haddon 23) When Christopher’s father tells him