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Introduction father absence effects on male adolescent development
Parental influence on personality development
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The development of a person is heavily influenced by the relationship they share with their parents. The psychoanalytic lens regarding personality is prevalent in Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and in Belinda Bauer’s book, Rubbernecker. As explained by Dennis O’Neil: “There are many potential factors that are involved in shaping a personality. These factors are usually seen as coming from heredity and the environment” (O’Neil, Process of Socialization: Personality Development). In both novels, the main characters share a limited maternal bond, a loss of father, and needing to deal with parental roadblocks. The relationship a son has with his parents impacts his emotional development. Usually the mother …show more content…
They look up to their father as their hero and role model resulting them attempting to be like them. “The absence of parental relationships can also have an effect on children and adolescents” (Lauren B. Childers, Parental Bonding in Father-Son Relationships). In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Christopher’s relationship with his father is strong until problems arise causing him to lose trust. Christopher’s father becomes extremely frustrated with his son and explodes at him: “Father had never grabbed hold of me like that before…But Father was a more levelheaded person, which means he didn’t get angry as quickly and he didn’t shout as often. So I was very surprised when he grabbed me…But Father didn’t let go, and he was shouting. And I hit him again…” (Haddon Page 82-83). The physical violence Christopher experienced from his father causes him to lose trust in him. It is abnormal for his father to behave in such a manner and so it is frightening. The new point in their father-son relationship as Christopher is no longer are of how his father will react. Christopher’s father confesses that he is the one who murdered Wellington and lied to Christopher about his mother. Christopher responds: “I had to get out of the house. Father had murdered Wellington. 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 …show more content…
Lack of maternal bonds that Christopher and Patrick have with their mothers affects how they cope with stress and respond to affection from others. The loss of trust for Christohper’s father also impacts how he now interacts with him as he no longer feels safe enough to trust him. As for Patrick, the death of his father causes him to seek answers about death, but he discovers more that what he had planned. The roadblocks created by their parents impact how the characters learn to overcome them and to push forward on their journeys. The importance of a strong and healthy relationship between parents and their son is seen through development: “A child at this age largely only interacts with his or her parents; therefore, they are the main source of trust and mistrust in the child’s life. If parents have a trusting and supportive relationship with their child, then the child overcomes the crisis and establishes the virtue of hope” (Kelsey Sharpe, Parental Influence on the Development of
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.
In a normal functioning family, both parent and child care for and love one another, and display these feelings. A parent is required to nurture his or her child and assure that the child feels loved by spending time together, and by giving the child sufficient attention. However, there are often times when a parent is unable to fulfill these requirements, which can ultimately have damaging effects on the child. A child who is neglected by his or her parents “perceives the world as a hostile and uncaring place. In addition to this negative perception of the world, the neglect a child faces affects later interaction with his or her peers, prompting the child to become anxious and overly withdrawn” (Goldman). This neglectful type of parenting proves to be a pattern in the novel Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, as the main characters, Jimmy, Crake, and Oryx are crucially affected by their parents’ choices and are unjustly abandoned by them. In this novel, the neglect of parents, especially mothers, is clearly reflected in the behaviours of the three main characters.
After reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, a novel that exposes the short life of Chris McCandless and the clues to the mystery of his untimely death, we as readers can comprehend and fathom the actions and thoughts of Chris McCandless if we are able to perceive and distinguish the characteristics and results of a family that is dysfunctional. More specifically, a dysfunctional family in which there is an authoritarian parent that greatly impacts the life and actions of the other members in the family. This parent may employ a perfectionist attitude on the children which can be debilitating in the long run. The lack of proper parenting can force children to take up nontraditional roles to facilitate proper family functioning. This unnecessary
Throughout the chapters of The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, Dr. Perry describes personal experiences based on the lives of individuals he has encountered. The correlation among the characters described in Skin Hunger, The Coldest Heart, and The Boy Who Was Raised
In the novel The Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon, the author brings us into the world of a 15 year old boy living with Autism. Life for the protagonist, Christopher is not placid, as it is essential he make difficult life decisions that modify his routine life. The story culminates with Christopher residing with his mother, Judy. However, there are numerous reasons that Judy does not make for a suitable guardian, subsequently Christopher should not be residing with his mother and instead his father, Ed. Judy’s personality and character traits make her an unstable and unpredictable person who has established multiple times that she cannot face her problems and instead chooses to run away. While Judy is ill equipped to care for Christopher, Ed has all the qualities needed in a good guardian, he is responsible, and very patient with Christopher.
In the short story “Dog,” Russo paints the picture of a strong willed boy who is amongst parents who don’t understand what the real problem which is his lack of parents attention and bad parenting when dealing with his extreme obsessions over getting a dog.
The first theme I’m going to discuss is trust. Issues of trust are mainly shown through the conflicts they have when they meet other survivors. The father really hesitates to help any random people out in fear of them turning on the father and son. No matter how bad the people they run into are, the father immediately refuses to help them even when the son begs him.
Relationships can only survive through adapting to constant change. Without that aspect, they would not last. In Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a boy with Aspergers goes through life surrounded by mystery, dishonesty, and dysfunctionality. Because of this, secrets are revealed, relationships are changed, and the connection between family is brought into a new light. Through these events, the boy and his family discover and rediscover their ties with each other. In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the author demonstrates that the ability to adapt and change is the most essential characteristic in life because it strengthens relationships, as illustrated through Christopher, his mother
Nothing hurts more than being betrayed by a loved one, Christopher’s father has no trust in Christopher and tells him that his “Mother died 2 years ago”(22) and Christopher thinks his mother died of a heart attack. When Christopher finds out his father lied, he runs away to live with his mother and his father despritally looks for him and while looking for him realizes the importance of telling the truth. When someone betrays one’s trust, they can feel morally violated. Once Christopher finds his mother, she begins to realize how unfit her living conditions are for Christopher and brings him back to his father, bring him “[..] home in Swindon”(207) Christopher feels incredibly hurt and distressed he does not want to see his father. Whether a relationship can be repaired depends entirely on whether trust can or cannot be restored. Christopher’s father works very hard to regain his trust, he tells his son “[..] I don’t know about you, but this...this just hurts too much”, Christopher’s father is dealing with the result of being dishonest with his son and himself.
The novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, by Mark Haddon, discusses many important themes such as importance of being a good parent, having courage, and the struggles of becoming independent. The importance of being a good parent stresses Christopher’s betrayal to his parents and how his parents still provide him with his necessities. Having courage is Christopher’s journey to strive above his insecurities and his journey to finding his role in life. Christopher’s struggles of independence show how he journeyed from living in fear to his dominance over his faults.
The article Developmental Disability states that Christopher, “is a victim of his father lies” (214). The innocent fifteen-year-old boy sees it as his father betraying him. A pronounced example of this is when Christopher finds out about his mother. He was looking for his book in his father’s room when he found a numerous amount of letters from his mother. Christopher first feels betrayed and belittled since his father lied to him. Then feeling threatened, he came to a solution, he can’t trust his father. A quote from the novel explains how he felt about his father after the whole ordeal with the letters, "I had to get out of the house, father has murdered Wellington that meant he could murder me I couldn’t trust him, even though he said trust me but I couldn’t he told a lie" (Haddon 122). This quote explains how essential telling the truth is to him. Christopher then later runs away to find is mother. His father, who never backs down goes over and tries to apologize to Christopher. He enters his room and Christopher is terrified. Christopher explains who he feels, "And father came in my room but, I was holding my Swiss Army knife with the blade out in case he grabbed" (Haddon 197). Christopher is, because his father lied to
His father hided the letter which was sent by his mom (haddon 103). His father do not want to get into trouble for explaining what happen to his mom, and he knew what reaction that Christopher will have after Christopher knew he was abandoned by his mom instead of what his father told him. Indeed, Christopher was shocked by knowing his mom still alive, and spent a long to recover. All this thing happen because his father treat him as a normal kid, but the reaction that Christopher showed, making his father feeling worse and his heart
Boone has some flaws, he is still a great father to Christopher. Without his father Christopher would not be able to survive. Mr. Boone’s faults are understandable because his life is very stressful because his wife left him and he is raising his autistic child by himself. Mr. Boone is an exceptional father because most people would get very frustrated if they had to raise an autistic child, but Mr. Boone tries to stays calm, unlike how Mrs. Boone was. Even when he gets frustrated he tries not to show it, so Christopher does not feel like he is the cause of his father’s anger or his parents’ divorce when he finds out about it. Even when he gets very angry and does something rough he apologizes to Christopher and feels terrible about it when he calms down. Mr. Boone also helps Christopher with his everyday life by doing normal fatherly things like bringing him to school, making him food, buying him clothes, and loving and caring for him. Another thing Mr. Boone does that makes him an amazing father is that he treats Christopher normally and does not make him feel like he is different. This is important so he does not feel like he is weird, because if he thinks he is different and weird he might get discouraged and feel bad about himself which will make his life worse. Mr. Boone is a great father to Christopher and he loves him very
The father’s character begins to develop with the boy’s memory of an outing to a nightclub to see the jazz legend, Thelonius Monk. This is the first sign of the father’s unreliability and how the boy’s first recollection of a visitation with him was a dissatisfaction to his mother. The second sign of the father’s lack of responsibility appears again when he wanted to keep taking the boy down the snowy slopes even though he was pushing the time constraints put on his visitation with his son. He knew he was supposed to have the boy back with his mother in time for Christmas Eve dinner. Instead, the father wanted to be adventurous with his son and keep taking him down the slopes for one last run. When that one last run turned into several more, the father realized he was now pushing the time limits of his visit. Even though he thought he was going to get him home, he was met with a highway patrol’s blockade of the now closed road that led home.
Meanwhile, Mr. Boone is in conflict with himself because he does not like to lie to his son, he is the better parent because he is more patient with Christopher and only wants the best for him. However, he has a guilty conscience because he did not tell Christopher at first about killing the dog and he felt that he should not lie to Christopher. Mr. Booner does not like telling Christopher a lie because he feels terrible about it. Christopher explains “ I could see him out of the corner of my eye. And[sic] he said I killed Wellington Christopher” (Haddon 120). Christopher did not understand at first he was confused if it was a joke or not but then he figured out that his father was not joking and he was very serious. Christopher did not know how to respond to this because of his autism he is not very good at dealing with serious situations and has a tough time with this. His autism doesn’t let him fully grasp what is being said to him all at once He needs to analyze it and understand what is happening, He is scared so he sleeps in the backyard because he is terrified his father will kill him too. This is due to his irrational thinking of things because of his autism. Christopher has a hard time dealing with this because he can not process things as fast as the average person. Mr. Boone also has a hard time dealing with this because he is uncertain of how his son will