Have you ever had the feeling that someone has changed drastically over the course of time? Perhaps your friend has not been the same as when you two were little? We know this has happened some time to everybody as it has also happened to the main character Christopher from The Curious Incident of The Dog at Nighttime. From the start of the book Christopher has changed drastically demonstrating that he is a dynamic character and this change is plain. Christopher is changing drastically demonstrating that his experiences not only shape his character and allow change, but in fact his challenges, fears, and curiosity can give him the courage and intrepidity to keep changing during the book.
I am convinced that Christopher faced challenges during the novel. Whether it was challenges like being able to take in new information to going across the country in search of his mother. “And then I heard father come up the stairs and walk into the room. He said ‘Christopher, what the hell are you doing?’ And I could tell that he was in the room, but his voice sounded tiny and far away, like people’s voices sometimes do when I am groaning and I don’t want them to be near me”(Haddon 113) This quote tells us that at first when Christopher took in new information like when he read the letters from his mother fell into a complete state of shock... His reaction might not have been the best when he found out who killed Wellington but it was a big improvement from wetting the bed and totally spacing out from the real world. “There were lots of people on the train, and I didn’t like that, because I don’t like lots of people I don’t know and I hate it even more if I am stuck in a room with lots of people I don’t know…So I stood very still in the train ...
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... the house” (Haddon 91). With these thoughts, we could see that Christopher was curious to where the book was located and because of his curiosity he actually found what he was looking for and even discovered the letters that later led him to choose the big decision of living with his mother.
To sum it all up, now as we can see, Christopher has drastically changed over the book because of his challenges fears and curiosities. The evolution of Christopher as the Novel progresses is undeniable and very shocking to think that a boy with this type of disorder can change so drastically in a short period. What we can end is that without a doubt Christopher has had hard times during the book but this is exactly what makes Christopher evolve into a better person. Because of his experiences Christopher went thru this drastic change and will always be the new Christopher.
Christopher abnormally obsesses over everything in his life. This is due to his severe OCD, which he struggles with throughout the novel. Likewise, Christopher’s OCD is depicted as a reaction to the lack of control over his environment. He copes with situations he cannot control by looking for various details within his life that bring him peace-of-mind him. For instance, before the policemen arrive at the crime scene of the murder of the Poodle, he felt tense and anxious caused by Mrs. Shears’s neurotic behavior in reaction to viewing Christopher peer over her dead dog. Later, when the police arrive to investigate the crime scene, Christopher feels a surge of comfort because the policeman is a representation (in Christopher’s mind) of order. When the police arrived Christopher thought: “Then the police arrived. I like the police. They have uniforms and
Christopher during the course of the text of the novel learns to disregard other people’s judgments.
Though Christopher is aware of these facts about himself, this no lessens his struggles for self and social acceptance. His self, although different than most, still seeks validation and approval. On the other hand, Christopher seeks a world with people like him, or no one at all. Therefore, he simultaneously attempts to understand others and wishes he did not have to do
He wants to achieve his goals and let nothing stand in his way when he does. In addition to Christopher's persistence inside the classroom, he also kept on with the investigation despite what his father said. After Christopher discovers the letters from his mom, he does not quite understand what it means because he believes his mom to be dead. But his father tells him not to look through the letters anymore and puts them in a cupboard in his room. "It was six days before I could go back into Father's room to look in the shirt box in the cupboard ." (102) Even though Christopher's father tells him to leave the letters alone, he directly disobeys him to look for the truth within the letters. With his persistence he builds up enough courage to go into the letters and find out the truth about his mother. Because of this he finds the truth and finds his mother in London. Through Christopher's persistence he disobeys his father to find the letters and find out what he has been hiding from
In a lot of ways Krakauer relates to Christopher like their complicated relationship with their father’s,”Like McCandless, figures of male authority aroused in me a confusing medley of corked fury and hunger to please” ( Krakauer 134). Using words like “Fury” and “hunger” both describe christopher, they convey Christopher’s anger towards his parents ( more so his father) and his undying will to fool them into thinking that they are all he needs in this world. Krakauer like McCandless has the unconscious behavior to please but also defy at the same time. Krakauer says,” The boy could not pardon the mistakes his father had made as a young man, and he was even less willing to pardon the attempt at concealment. He later declared to Carine and others that the description committed by Walt and Billie made his “ entire childhood seem like a fiction “ ( Krakauer 122-123). The word “ fiction” was used to describe how much of a convoluted story was that Walt had described being that the relationship was nothing that was described. This sheds light on why Christopher was headed towards the adventurous life and why he greatly despised his parents. Krakauer also uses anecdotal evidence to examine Christopher and his parents
This shows that Christopher's father was lying to him about his mother being dead and he had told a giant lie and was deceitful to Christopher that made him go through that pain as if he had lost his mother. The next quote happens right after father had confessed he had killed Wellington which filled Christopher with rage and fear from his father's wrong actions. Christopher states while writing in his book,"I had to get out of the house. Father had murdered Wellington. That means 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."(Haddon 122)This quote is important because, Christopher is saying that his father had admitted to killing Wellington the dog he had a connection with. Influenced Christopher to run away from home away from his father. In the end this all leads
...rned out.” [157. 25] Christopher’s mother bluntly states that she has not been a good mother, and maybe if Christopher was different, meaning if Christopher did not have the behavioural problem that she had to cope with, she could’ve done a better job than what she has done. This shows the reader clearly that his mother was not a patient individual, and she has difficulty coping with Christopher's condition. I think that Christopher’s mother is a very strong-willed and independent individual, evident from the 43 letters she has written over the past 2 years, despite getting no response from Christopher. Even though her mother is a very strong-willed and independent person, she still finds taking care of Christopher difficult because of his needs and behaviour. She loves Christopher a lot, yet she isn't very confident with her own ability to take care of Christopher.
There are a number of limitations if the story is written with omniscient perspective, which we can only see how he reacts to all the situations without any explanation of why would he do that. And because Christopher is a special character, who is lacking in ability to understand peoples ' intention, it would be easier for us to get the picture of him by knowing the reason he does such things and not just know how he reacts. His logic and matter-of-fact attitude makes him so unreliable since the story turns out the ways he wants. It also causing dramatic irony when the readers know more than Christopher because we can guess who killed Wellington while it takes Christopher a long journey for him to find out the truth. But at the same time, we cannot tell how would he react to the
As Christopher nurtured up, he became fearful of his dad. He later tracks away from daddy to his mom. They all appeared at dad’s house and Christopher began a new life with his
...though Christopher functions more like a computer than a human, but he possesses the ability to think independently, which over all else represents a human characteristic. No machine can operate efficiently without being instructed and following exact orders. Christopher also needs to be told exactly what to do because the vagueness of common phrases is confusing to him, but knows that people break rules and also knows that he can make decisions for himself. On his journey to find his mother, Christopher makes the decision to break away from all of his rules in order to find her. He is able to go to London against almost all odds, and does so by stepping out of his comfort zone and into a world of uncertainty. Even though he uses computer-like thinking to come to the conclusion of going to his mother, it is his underlying human qualities that make the trip possible.
Christopher is a fifteen-year old boy with Aspergers Autism whose life is full of uncanny surprises. His main focus is on school, and his ability to take the maths A level exams. Unfortunately, that was his focus until he finds Wellington dead on Mrs. Shears’ lawn. Christopher wants to know who killed Wellington and why. He investigates and finds out not only who killed Wellington, but he discovers secrets about his mother and father. In the book “The Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time”, the author, Mark Haddon, shows us how courageous Christopher is throughout his journey. According to Aristotle, a man is courageous when he sets himself free from his fears, pain, and poverty instead of running away from it. According to Aristotle’s theory, Christopher profusely shows courage when he investigates Wellington’s murder and travels to London to find his mom.
When Christopher reads his mother’s first letter, he concludes that”perhaps it was a letter to another person called Christopher, from that Christopher’s mother”(Haddon, 99). Even with having the same name and stories of childhood his mother is telling him in the letter, Christopher goes on the wrong track, thinking its some other Christopher. He gets happy knowing that now he has two mysteries in his hands to solve now. To the readers it was almost obvious that his mother isn’t dead and his father has been lying to him. It took him a few letters to get to the point later in the novel that his mother might still be alive and his father hid the truth from him. When he did sort of get to the point he started having his behavioral issues, he started groaning and screaming which he informed the readers in the beginning about when is gets confused or angry.Even at that time he still wasn’t sure until again his father explained him why he did such thing and also revealed another horrible mystery that Christopher was attempting to
Through firsthand accounts of his personality, from hotheaded to more content, Chris clearly experienced a shift in character. Through the experience of the outside world, his identity changed. These sources gave insight into how Chris felt before and during his adventure to Alaska. Two totally different descriptions that could be two different people shows Chris’ thinking leading to his overall happiness. He found himself in the wild making his travel worth it and overall, justifying the trip made that molded a new man for internal peace for
The biggest reconnection Christopher encounters is with his mother. It begins when he finds a series of letters addressed to him in his father’s closet. Upon reading the letters, he makes the shocking discovery that his mother is alive, not dead, as his father previously tells him. Later, in trying to explain why he hides the truth, his father confesses he kills Wellington. As Christopher comes to these revelations, he immediately decides, “‘I had to go to London to live with Mother.’” (Haddon 131). This is a very powerful example of adapting. Christopher decides on the spot to go live with his mom despite not seeing her for years. The attitude of ‘sudden decisions’ without thinking long and hard about the full outcome is uncommon for him, and yet he comes to this solution in almost no time at all. Also, the wording of the sentence is very specific. He uses the word 'had' instead of 'can', which proves the idea is already set in his mind. As a result, this proves he already trusts his mother and is willing to adjust to go to her. Besides Christopher, his mother also expresses a likewise characteristic of adaptation to renew
Many social interactions where shown within the book, yet the most interesting interaction was Christopher and his Father; they both had a great relationship. One of which was when Father bailed Christopher out of jail. The police interviewed Christopher one question said was, “Was it an accident that you hit a police officer?” Christopher then replied with no it wasn’t, I meant to do it. He was let...