This effectively demonstrates the inability of individuals affected by mental illnesses to comprehend the consequences associated with their actions. This also illustrates how individuals affected with confrontations is unable to make prolonged social interactions, and is clearly contrasts this to individuals without mental disabilities. This idea is further conveyed through the short sentences “I didn’t like him touching me. And this is when I hit him” these short sentences highlights how quickly Christopher reacts to things he perceives as uncomfortable which further adds to the factors that limit autistic individuals from functioning within a society. While belonging to a family is an important facet that shapes ones identity, it can however, be fraught with opposing pressures of struggle.
Christopher suffers from a mental condition and I believed this was a unique way of indentifying what kind of person Christopher is and how this disability brings pros and cons to his life. Christopher by chance is involved in an event which sparks significant curiosity. This curiosity leads to a series of events which drag Christopher through new experiences and gained knowledge about his family. Christopher suffers from a mental condition which makes it extremely hard for him to deal with his own emotions and actions. Christopher also lacks the ability to understand other people’s emotions and often leaves Christopher
However, he is able to cope with these troubles by understanding and adjusting to the environment around him. One of Christopher’s inabilities includes him having a difficult time being social with others, more specifically strangers: “I don’t like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before. They are hard to understand.” (Hadden, 34) Because of his syndrome, Christopher’s way of thinking differs from the norm of society; therefore he is unable to relate to people as easily as others. Not only does he possess the inability of expressing himself freely with others, but he is also unable to react in given situations. For example, “I was sitting on the ground and the woman knelt down on one knee and she said, ‘Is there anything I can do to help you?’ And if she was a teacher at school I could have said, ‘Where is 451c Chapter Road, Willesden, London NW2 5NG?’ But she was a stranger, so I said, ‘Stand further away,’ because I didn’t like her being so close.
“As with speech, a child with Aspergers has difficulty or no skill at all deciphering what a person is saying with facial expressions or body language” (“Aspergers and Body Language”). This is important because Christopher repeatedly explains how hard it is for him to read facial expressions. In Curious, Christopher says, “But it was very difficult to decide which of the diagrams was most like the face they were making because people’s faces move very quickly” (Haddon 3). This shows the frustration Christopher has because reading facial expressions is so difficult for him, and it also explains why Christopher does not like to talk to strangers. Another symptom of Aspergers that Christopher displays is the need for a strict schedule.
The text, ‘the curious incident of the dog in the night-time’ by Mark Haddon raises for the responder many important concerns regarding the issues in the novel, such as communication, truth, acceptance and the need for human relationships. Haddon portrays this primarily through the characterisation of Christopher, structure, dialogue and personalities of characters. The novel is written from the first person perspective of a fifteen year old boy with a development disorder – autism (ASD). The text is structured in order to determine Christopher’s interests and perception of reality. The way in which the text is written allows responders to have an insight into Christopher’s feelings and thoughts.
The 2003 novel ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ written by Mark Haddon should most definitely be included in module B because of its distinctive features. In the novel there are four distinctive features that Mark Haddon utilises to create a distinctive text. Mark Haddon utilises the features such as humour to engage the audience, style to help the reader understand the protagonist’s point of view, graphic elements to better communicate ideas to the reader and the use of the protagonist with Asperger’s to provide an unconventional and unique perspective. Mark Haddon’s novel ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ is written from the unique perspective of an Asperger’s boy and is a distinctive feature of the text. The novel focuses on a 15yr old boy who has Asperger’s syndrome with an obsession to solve the murder of a dog.
Christopher finds it hard to interact with people, and has underdeveloped social skills. He finds people hard to understand because people do a lot of talking without using any words. For example, Siobhan tells Chris that if you close your mouth and breathe through your nose, it can mean many different things from being bored to being angry, and it all depends on how much and how fast the air comes out your nose. She also explained that it makes a difference what shape your mouth is in when you do it, or how you are sitting, or what you just said before. This is hard for him to comprehend.
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time The book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was written by the English poet Mark Haddon. This book is fiction and written as a mystery novel in first person for a large part of the book. This was a good way to write the book because it shows the main character’s (Christopher) point of view in the first person tense and shows how much he wants to solve the mystery of the dead dog. The first person view also helps in this book because if it was not written this way it would be difficult to tell how Christopher is feeling and how he will react. He is autistic and does not show or tell his feelings to others.
Christopher sees and experiences things much differently that other people. He has a very hard time with distinguishing facial expressions, sarcasm, and he has a very difficult time understanding other people's logic. He also fantasizes about being the only person left on the earth and he avoids people at most costs. I absolutely think that Christopher has a disability because none of the things listed above would be considered “normal” behavior. Most people would go
Good afternoon teachers and students. The best prose fiction does challenge the way we see the world as well as the way we see others and the way we see our selves. Immersing ourselves in Mark Haddon’s The curious incident of the dog in the night time inevitably leads us to reevaluate many of our perceptions and challenge some of our preconceptions. Haddon’s use of first person narration as well as the way he uses characterization to explore ideas abut logic and perspective, love and truth, and communication encourage us to deeply feel this way. One main idea that Haddon explores is that one perspective on life, such as a logical view, can cause conflicts between an individual, himself and the wider community, often involving intense emotion in making their life decisions.