Character Analysis - Christopher Boone

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Christopher Boone, the autistic teen who narrates the story The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, is a character I personally found very interesting. Some of the characteristics that make him unique as a person are also the characteristics that allow the story to progress in a suspenseful and unique way. The fact that Christopher cannot empathize with others, requires order, and is incredibly perseverant is essential to the development of the story. In his inability to empathize with others around him, Christopher causes himself a lot of unintentional trouble. It leads to a lot of confusion when he talks to a great number of the people he encounters throughout his journey to find Wellington’s killer. The first notable instance of this is when he cannot empathize with the fact that his father finds Christopher’s “detecting” unacceptable and possibly harmful to the family. However, this characteristic is integral to the story and its development because if he’d understood that nobody wanted him to snoop around there would have been no substance to the novel – it would have ended right away once his father told him to stop investigating. This also really ties in with the fact that Christopher requires order in his life. This characteristic causes him many difficulties in such a chaotic world. But, it is this characteristic that also pushes him to do more investigating about Wellington’s death – he cannot rest until he finds out the truth. When there is no order in his life Chris feels physically sick (he gets nauseous and begins groaning). In order to avoid that, he pursues the truth all the way from Swindon to London. Finally, even if Christopher was unable to empathize with people and required order, there would be nothing to the story if he wasn’t exceptionally perseverant. His perseverance is what allows him to continue to find out the truth

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