Due to Christopher’s condition of Asperger’s syndrome, his vision of the world is completely different, seeing things in a variety of different perspectives. Haddon portrayal of Christopher Boone moves the responder to feel empathy and gain an understanding out of Christopher’s condition. As Christopher continues to struggle with many different experiences, we are introduced to different concepts such as social interaction, his understanding of truth and the values of family relationship, and growing up, which are all extremely evident in the novel and are shown through Haddon’s use of different narrative techniques. As Christopher struggles with many everyday situations such as social interaction, he finds it extremely difficult to communicate with other characters in the text as he has difficulty understanding and relating to their thoughts and emotions. Christopher’s difficulty to communicate and understand people’s feelings is highly influenced by his inability to read other peoples facial expressions to gain knowledge of their thoughts and emotions. To demonstrate how Christopher overcomes this difficulty, Haddon uses a series of emotions throughout the novel to demonstrate how Christopher reals other people’s feelings as well as his own, ‘Eight years ago when I first met Siobhan, she showed me this picture and I knew it meant ‘sad’ which is what I felt when I found the dead dog’. The use of emotions are also used later on in the novel when Christopher is explaining his favourite dream about being the only person alive on earth; And there was no one else in the world except people who couldn’t read other people’s faces and who didn’t know what these pictures mean. Christopher struggle to communicate and understand the compl... ... middle of paper ... ...problems. Math problems are used to show how Christopher calms himself ‘And tried to work out what I had to do, but I couldn’t think because there were too many other things in my head, so I did a math problem to make my head clearer ‘The fact the Christopher is able to come to terms with his condition and overcome these difficult situations gives the responder insight and understanding that not even a condition such as Asperger’s can stand in the way of an individual reaching their goals. Haddon’s portrayal of Christopher Boone moves the responder to a deeper understanding of the characteristics and challenges gained through suffering from Asperger’s syndrome and the responder is moved with empathy by the ways in which Christopher is able to overcome these difficulties, shown through Haddon’s use of first person narrative, emoticons and visual representations.
Christopher during the course of the text of the novel learns to disregard other people’s judgments.
This scene may sound weird to neurologically-typical (NT), or “normal”, people, but it does demonstrate the coping strategies of people with autism, as exhibited through this scene from Rain Man. Charlie Babbitt, a neurologically typical adult, does not understand how his brother, Raymond Babbitt, who is a high-functioning autistic, functions in his little world that he has created. Manifestations of autism such as this indicate to people how an autistic was seen as “like a wolf” (Pollak 258) in older definitions. Recently, though, people are beginning to understand that the problem is organic, or biologically based, as opposed to the psychogenic, or psychologically based, hypothesis of the past. With the release of Rain Man came the increased understanding of autistics and a willingness to find out what autistics are thinking, thus i...
Giving others who do not suffer from autism or caregivers an insight on how the individual may be feeling and what they are going through. This book can also help numerous medical professionals such as speech-language pathologists and pediatric doctors. As Grandin stated in the book that not all sufferers act, think, and feel the same so this novel may not be beneficial to readers who are looking for information on a wide scale of individuals who suffer from the illness. She also stated that there is no cure for autism, however some medications can help with some symptoms such as depression or anxiety. What intrigued me the most about Grandin was that she never gave up and worked on her social skills. Not only did she became a spokesperson for autism, but also became a professor at Colorado State University in which both require public speaking and being comfortable in front of people.
Dan and Betsy go through their emotions on hearing about Samuel condition of cerebral palsy. The roll coaster of emotion they felt. As a parent I could relate to their emotion of having a child with disabilities. I would love my child regards of condition but the emotion I would feel would be fear. Dan and Betsy both went through fear; asking themselves what about his education, and interaction with others. I would have those same question; as
...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.
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 Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon, English novelist, delivers a murder-mystery of Wellington, Mrs. Shears’ dog through an autistic view. Haddon uses the murder-mystery and other incidents during his lifetime to unwrap specifics of his disorder. He encounters specific situations, such as arriving at the train station, to explain how it takes groaning to calm him down and how he does not allow strangers to lay a hand on him. In his unraveling of his disorder and his quest to solve the murder-mystery, Haddon uses rhetorical devices such as details, metaphors, and imagery to develop his character.
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 in 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.
Theodore Boone is on a new mission, and the stakes are higher than ever. When his best friend April, goes missing, it's up to Theo to use his legal knowledge and investigation skills to chase down April and find out the truth. Theodore was very determined in helping the police find April. His attentiveness would not let him stop searching for April, at any moment. Also, Theo had all the faith in the world that he would find April. He knew he was going to find her one way or another, no matter what it took.
People’s emotions fascinate them, but cannot relate to or understand their sentiments. Likewise, neurotypical children often struggle to comprehend the needs of their autistic peers, leading to a sad phenomenon of social isolation. Readers can see this misunderstanding occur between Vardaman and his family. While loving and kind, Vardaman lacks the ability to properly express his feelings. Amid Addie’s departure, he rambles internally, oftentimes about subjects unrelated to his current reality. He watches her demise, and the bizarre reactions of those around him, the same way someone might watch a movie. Vardaman is sad, but restricted in his ability to express himself due to his father and his autism. Readers can see Vardaman cares, he cried immediately after her death, but he doesn’t know how to engage with others during such a devastating ordeal. His tries to connect with his family by bringing an ailing Addie a fish he liked, but Anse rejects his effort. The scene is indicative of both his disability and his father’s ignorance, as he doesn’t bother to try and understand his young
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
This paper was reprinted with permission of Susan Moreno on the O.A.S.I.S. (Online Asperger's Syndrome Information and Support)
What is Autism? It’s a developmental disorder that impairs one’s ability to communicate and interact with others. Christopher Boone from the novel A Curious Incident in the Nighttime and Temple Grandin, who has become one of the top scientists in the humane livestock handling industry both fall on the high-functioning spectrum of autism. Even so, they do not display the exact same traits and behaviors. Whereas Grandin thinks in pictures and employs this unique gift for practical use, Christopher thinks in patterns and fails communicate his talents with others. However, they both speak their mind and have trouble understanding facial expressions and emotions.
Christopher Boone, the protagonist of this novel, has encountered a lot of hardships dealing with people because of his mental disability. One of his biggest problems he faces is his incompetence to decipher between emotions. In order to make out the more complicated emotions, Christopher “...got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant.” He keeps this piece of paper in his pocket and uses it as reference when he has difficulty understanding other people’s emotions. “I like dogs” says Christopher, you always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating.” (5.2) He also finds it difficult to follow instructions. Since he is a very logical person he needs the directions to be precise and specific. “And this is because when people tell you what to do it is usually confusing and does not make sense.For example, people often say ‘B...
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.