A few aspects of Asperger Syndrome include limited understanding, outburst of blunt honesty, as well as phobias to specific ideas depending on the person. This affects the individual’s social interactions by making them awkward because they do not understand clichés. Asperger also influences an individual’s academic growth because, though they become intelligent, it takes longer for them to comprehend what he or she is learning. For example, in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the character, Christopher, dislikes the color yellow because he fears that it will cause his day to become awful, or as he refers to it, a “Black day”. He also does not let people touch him, so to hug his parents, they will just touch palms; however, …show more content…
It is because I can’t tell lies. He simply cannot tell something that did not happen because then his mind is overwhelmed with all of the other possibilities scenarios that did not happen which Christopher explains on page 19. Christopher also does not understand emotion the same as others may because he believes if someone left then they do not exist. Therefore, how can he have feeling for something not real or have the ability to think of something that does not exist? To continue, on page 75, when Siobhan asked if his knowledge of his mother’s affair with Mr. Shears made Christopher upset, Christopher replied, “But I don’t feel sad about it. Because Mother is dead. And because Mr. Shears isn’t around anymore. So I would be feeling sad about something that isn’t real and doesn’t exist. And that would be stupid.” His understand of honesty affects his emotions because if he were upset, then he would perceive the emotion as a lie because the reason for the emotion does not exist; however, Christopher cannot lie so he does not feel that emotion about his mother because she left.These are other examples of how Christopher’s life is affected by Asperger and how it affects his understanding and changes his way of thinking compared …show more content…
Christopher describes a white lie in chapter 79 as “It is where you tell the truth, but you do not tell all of the truth.” Therefore, he only says a partial truth about what he did to remove himself from a position where his parents will know about the part which would put Christopher in trouble. Such as the white lie Christopher uses on page 48 when his father asks where he has been and Christopher replies “I have been out.” Christopher does not speak the specifics about what he did while he was out so he does not mention to his father about how he had snooped around Mrs. Shears’ garden because he knows his father would disapprove of his actions. In addition, on page 66, Christopher uses a white lie to avoid telling his father that he had talked to Mrs. Alexander about Mr. Shears. Christopher only answered his father’s question with what he brought at the shop and about his interaction with Mrs. Alexander’s dog; however, he did not mention his conversation with Mrs. Alexander. Christopher uses white lies in ethical situations to avoid trouble. However, he still answers his father with partial truth so he does not
With every decision one makes. There will always be consequences. In Haddon’s, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the character Christopher and his parents find that their bad decisions could lead to a negative outcome. Mrs. Boone’s choice to leave home and Mr. Boone’s choice to lie to Christopher lead to him leaving home to search for his mother. A common theme of the actions of the characters is acting before thinking. The theme of decisions and consequences reveals the imperfections of each character, ultimately demonstrating the quintessential impatient need for growth.
He says, “I do not tell lies. Mother used to say that this was because I was a good person. But it is not because I am a good person because I can’t tell lies.” This means that because of his learning disabilities, his mind physically can’t let him tell something that is not true because he just is not wired that way. People without autism have a better grasp on lies and being told them. He thinks that telling the truth is just something that should be done no matter what and just because he tells the truth does not make him a good person. His mom, however, understands that everyone else lies and she is trying to tell Christopher that he is a good person by not
At the beginning of the book, Christopher had thought that his dad would never hurt anything or anyone. Christopher had thought that his dad was a great person, and that he would never do anything wrong. This turned out to be not true. His father denied killing the dog multiple times, but he did admit to doing the act.“I killed Wellington, Christopher.”(p.120) Wellington is their neighbor’s dog. From this quote...
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
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.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is told through the eyes of a fifteen year old boy named Christopher Boone. Christopher has a highly-functioning form of autism which allows him to understand complex mathematical problems, but also leaves him unable to comprehend many simple human emotions. His inability to understand metaphors, distinguish emotions, and his lack of imagination makes it possible to consider Christopher as functioning like a computer rather than functioning as a human being. Throughout the story, Christopher is faced with many challenges which he conquers using the stable and never changing system of mathematics. All of these factors suggest that Christopher does, in fact, function like a computer, but it is apparent early in the story that Christopher, regardless of anything else, is capable of independent thought which separates him from the programmed, dependent world of computers.
In the 1940’s two doctors in different countries observed children displaying similar behaviors and deficits. One of the doctors was Viennese pediatrician Dr. Hans Asperger and the other was a child psychiatrist named Leo Kanner. Dr. Kanner was the first of the two doctors to report his observations. What he described were behaviors similar to those seen in children with what we call Autistic disorder. The behaviors affected the children’s communication, social interaction and interests. Dr. Asperger later published an article discussing what he dubbed “Autistische Psychpathen im Kindesalter” which translates to “Autistic Psychopathy”. Although some behaviors overlapped, there were differences leading to the belief that these doctors were documenting two different disorders. The two most prevalent were the differences in motor and language abilities (Miller, Ozonoff). Another was Asperger’s belief that his patients were of normal or above average intelligence. It was not until 1994 that Asperger Syndrome was entered into the Diagnostics and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (DSM IV), finally becoming an official diagnosis. At the time, Asperger Syndrome (AS) was labeled as a subcategory of autism along with autistic disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder and pervasive development disorder. Since then, the community of people with Asperger Syndrome has grown to love and better understand the disorder that they live with every day. Some of them have even affectionately named themselves “Aspies”.
In the beginning of the story, Christopher explains how close him and his father are as they only have each other. Christopher's dad has hidden things from him his whole life,
...er 237 where Christopher recounts “Christopher, let me hold your hand. just for once. Just for me. Will you? And i said ‘i dont like people holding my hand.’. Through the implementation of truncated sentences, Judy’s yearning and longing for Christopher’s affection is exemplified. This enables the responder to acknowledge the highly emotional state in which she is in. The setting of Christopher and his mother being alone in the bathroom also aids to the emotional, intimate and highly sensitive nature of their conversation. Despite how affected Christopher may be in realising his mother is alive he is unable to recognise the plea in his mothers voice and fails to reciprocate the smallest morsel of physical affection towards her due to his desperation to keep things orderly and un-changing, therefore exposing the complicated nature of communication between the two.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time exhibits real life situations experienced by an autistic, 15-year-old boy, from his own panorama. Christopher’s use of first person perspective ensures that his view on events are explained with accurate, detailed description, enhancing the responders understanding of how the mind of one with Asperger’s syndrome functions. This concept is elaborated on in Christopher’s struggle to become independent as the responder is able to grasp Christopher’s defensive mechanisms to dealing with stressful situations. Christopher narration “so I groaned to make the time pass quicker and not think” during a fit where his tendency to shut down and curl himself into a ball is essentially revealed substantiates his struggle to become independent as his
Ed Boone, Christopher’s father, deceives himself in that he embellishes the truth about where his ex-wife truly is. As a result, Ed begins to believe the fabrication himself to make him feel better about her departure from their lives. Self-deception, as used in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, promotes the instability that Christopher encounters after being deceived. According to Paul Ekman in Lying and Deception, “Self-deception presumably occurs when the deceiver does not realize he is misleading himself and does not know his own motive for deceiving himself.” Granted that Ed Boone misleads himself he may not even recognize that he is deceiving himself. Not only did Christopher’s Father create a distortion of the truth to mislead himself, but he also mislead Christopher. Consequently, Christopher believed his mother to be dead, but in reality, she had abandoned them. In Mr. Boone’s account with self-deception, he doesn’t realize that the deception could potentially hurt those he had lied to due to his moral implications fading. According to Ann E. Tenbrunsel in Ethical Fading: The Role of Self-Deception in Unethical Behavior, “We argue that the process of self-deception is at the root of this juncture of disciplines. Self-deception causes the moral implications of a decision to fade, allowing individuals to behave incomprehensibly and, at the same time, not realize that they are
First Ericsson discuss white lies, she describes white lies as when a person “assumes that the truth will cause more damage than a simple, harmless untruth” (Ericsson 181). A person decides that it is better to tell the lie rather than to tell the truth because of how they perceive the outcome will be. Ericsson believes that people should not use white lies because they’re “[deciding] what is best for someone else” (Ericsson 181). When people use white lies they’re assuming that what they are doing is good for the other person, even if they do not know for sure that the other person will benefit from not knowing. On the other hand in the book “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon, the main character, Christopher does not believe in lying but he uses white lies. Christopher says, “A white lie is not a lie at all. It is where you tell the truth but you do not tell all of the truth” (Haddon 48). In this situation, Christopher’s
Every individual's mind functions in a different and unique way. We all have idiosyncratic behaviours and functions. These distinctive characteristics are what make us who we are. But not all neurological differences help us in our day -to-day lives. Every individual also possess some psychological defects. These issues are clearly portrayed in the novel, The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon. In this story the protagonist is an autistic boy who faces many challenges in his life. Both his parents also face some complications in coping up with their son. Therefore the central theme in the novel, the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, delineated by Christopher (the autistic boy), the father, and the mother, is that everyone has psychological problems that they need to overcome.
Christopher Boone is a 15 year old male young-adult, of British descent. Christopher describes himself as a machine, We have reports of him saying “I sometimes think of my mind as a machine” (Haddon 7). Christopher is currently living with his mother, who has asked not be named, and his father, Edward Boone. Christopher comes from Swindon,UK, where he was born and grew up, until the divorce of his parents were his mom moved away with Roger Shears (Christopher’s former neighbor and ex-husband of his father's former girlfriend). Christopher Boone suffers from many behavioral/emotional problems such as being irritable, unstable, and not talk to people for a long time. He also has problems like not eating or drinking for long periods of time and refusal to being touched. Christopher is currently in High School, enrolled in Level A math. Christopher’s father, Ed Boone, has been renowned for killing his neighbor's dog, Wellington. On page 1, (at midnight) Christopher walks into the neighbor's backyard after looking out his window to see Wellington stabbed with a pitchfork. Christopher says “I stroked Wellington and wondered who had killed him, and why”. Christopher cared deeply for Wellington, and loved dogs. We have a hypothesis that Christopher had abandonment issues after his mother leaving. Christopher’s trust in his father diminished, but after buying Christopher his own puppy, he started to gain Christophers trust back (“he bent down and put his hands inside the box and he took a little sandy-colored dog out”) (Haddon 219). Christopher also tends to perform poorly in social situations/a school environment. Some examples would be; not interacting with other kids, getting bullied, and acting aggressively when being touched. Some of ...
If the book were to be narrated in third person the reader wouldn’t understand how Christopher feels about certain situations. This is also an affect given in the book because the author wants to project Christopher’s autism spectrum disorder condition to the reader.