Dog In The Nighttime Isolation

We humans often wonder if human-beings are fundamentally good or bad? Frankly speaking, we all have the potential to be good or bad, which is, the possibility to turn evil as well as the chance to create goodness. While the majority believes that personality explains our behaviors, it is proved by evidence that our behaviors depend highly on the backgrounds and conditions we find ourselves in. In the book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, written by Mark Haddon, Christopher Boone, a fifteen years old boy with an autism spectrum condition, is isolated by the society because of his extraordinary behaviors. He lives with his father, who he trusts the most; however, he loses all trust in his father when he discovered that

He indicated, “I am going to prove that I’m not stupid. Next month I’m going to take my A level in maths and I’m going to get an A grade. No one has ever taken an A level at our school before...” (Haddon 71). Still less, Christopher undertakes a difficult journey to London on his own. As an autistic patient, Christopher is afraid of any social interaction. Yet, he manages to face all the challenge on his trip. He tries to talk to strangers, which he had never done before, and also shows his resourcefulness by figuring out how to get to London by underground railway and streetcar. In this scenario, Christopher builds confidence in his own abilities as he struggles to become normal. Similarly, characters in Day of the Butterfly struggles to fit in the society as well. Myra struggles to become normal as other kids in school by trying to make friends. When Helen starts talking to her, she cherishes her friendship with Helen. She sees Helen as her best friend, sharing her gifts from her birthday party in the hospital with Helen and inviting Helen to play at her place after she gets well from her sickness. More examples can be found in Helen’s behaviors in the story, in which she struggles to blend in with the popular girls in school. Helen’s desire for fitting in the group is revealed when she gave Myra

Obviously, things are not always what they seem. In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, each main character has an issue of being honest with each other. Christopher lies to his father, Ed Boone, about stopping the investigation of who killed Wellington the dog. He assumed, “This is called a white lie....And I said a white lie because I knew that Father didn’t want me to be a detective” (Haddon 79). Meanwhile, Ed lies to Christopher that his mother had died from an unexpected heart attack, trying to keep the truth about his mother’s leaving. Even though both of them claim that they are telling the lie unintentionally, they hurt each other and get the chance to lose each other’s trust when the underlying truth is revealed. In the same way, Day of the Butterfly introduces the theme of betrayal at the end of the story when Myra gives Helen a leather case as a gift and touches her hands. Helen, although seems thankful for the gift, is in fact unwilling to accept the gift. She thought in her mind, “I didn't want to take the case now but I could not think how to get out of it, what lie to tell. I'll give it away, I thought, I won't ever play with it. I would let my little brother pull it apart”. Helen also shows a sense of being prepared to forget Myra as she leaves her room in the hospital. Helen betrays her friendship with Myra because she cares more about her reputation among