Christopher's The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time

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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

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