Nighttime Figurative Language

654 Words2 Pages

Have you ever felt different from everyone else? Does your mind function in a unique way? Have you ever wanted to just live alone in a world of your own? In the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, by Mark Haddon, a fifteen year old boy with Asperger's named Christopher, tries to solve a mystery involving the perplexing murder of his neighbor's dog. Christopher, being the narrator, takes readers on a journey inside his psyche, as he navigates the troubling and hectic world around him. Hadden uses literary devices such as figurative language, diction, and motifs, to form a connection between readers and christopher, and to convey the experience of otherness. Throughout much of the novel, Christopher uses figurative language such as similes, metaphors, and imagery strictly for the reader's convenience. He sees metaphors as lies but not similes, unless they are bad ones. He goes out of his way to use such language so that his audience can envision what he he is speaking on or experiencing.”there were two very small mice hiding in his nostrils.” Metaphors like this bring a …show more content…

“ I couldn't think because there were too many other things in my head, so I did a maths problem to make my head clearer” (146). Christopher uses reasoning to cope with the world around him and to make sense of his life. He analyzes everything and tries to figure out why and how things are the way they are. “And that is why i am good at chess and maths and logic, because most people are almost blind and they don't see most things” (144). As expressed here, christopher acknowledges that he isn't like everyone else. Having a brilliant logical mind shows a positive portrayal of otherness, since christopher can see the world completely different from everyone else. This experience of otherness, is conveyed through Hadden's use of math as a motif throughout the

Open Document