Author Mark Haddon is a trickster. In his book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, He uses the simple mystery of a neighbor's dead dog to teach us an important life lesson on those with autism and how we aren’t so different. By the eightieth page, we as readers realize the mystery of who killed the dog is over, yet we continue to read, and by the end of the book it is too late to realize the real meaning behind the book and we have already learned a lesson we did not know we were being taught. The mystery is not who killed the dog, the mystery is that people with autism deal with the same life issues as we do. Dead dogs, divorced parents, and huge test, yet just because their methods of coping and handling issues are different when we dwell on these differences it causes us to suppress the potential these people have. As stated by Krister Palo’s TEDx Talk “Aspergers, not what you think it is” “All of us have a single seed of genius( people with Aspergers). Which if nurtured could lead to a tree of knowledge. However, we are so afraid of how this tree will grow, that often what we do is we take the seed and we crush it.” ( Palo 2:34). Krister Palo said they all have a seed of genius, and when we crush this seed of genius we lose out on all that we could have gained from them. It is said that Albert Einstein has a form of autism. We are still taking from all his knowledge today, even though some are good and some are bad. Nonetheless, if not for his chance to nurture his seed of genius, we would have lost out on so much. Just like we do with all other seeds we crush. Over half of kids diagnosed with a form of autism are victims of bullying. How can we ever progress as a species if we do not learn to think critically and look past the surface differences and learn to think on a deeper level of thought? In Krister Palo’s talk, he also mentions the stigmas behind autism and the lack of credibility behind them. He points out several times that as a boy with autism, he is no different than any other boy, his brain just thinks differently. Straight from the mouth of a boy with Aspergers comes the words “ I am no different”. He is able to understand that
People with Aspergers are not incapable of picking up on social cues. In fact they are able to pick up on most social cues. One thing found by the Academic Press is that people with Aspergers were unable to identify what members of the same sex were “attractive” as it is difficult or sometimes impossible to see other points of view. Just as they can’t see other points of view, we cannot see theirs. “We explain this difference in terms of a weakness in mentalizing, specifically the ability to take a different point of view: While all other stereotypes attributions could be made from an egocentric point of view, judging the attractiveness of faces of one’s own sex requires taking the perspective of someone of the opposite sex, a challenge for people with mentalizing problems. We conclude that individuals with Asperger Syndrome show preserved aspects of social knowledge, as revealed in the attribution of stereotypes to pictures of people. These findings suggest that there are dissociable subcomponents to social cognition and that not all of these are compromised in Asperger Syndrome.”( Academic press is the publisher, could not find author). People with Aspergers are no different from us other than the way their brain processes things. This is something that needs to addressed in society and dealt with. The stereotypes, although true for some, are not true for all. It is up to us to help nurture their seeds of genius and help them grow instead of
‘Once’ there was ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’ where the two main characters, Felix and Christopher Boone, travelled on their adventures to find their loved ones that were ‘gone’. In this oral I shall be talking about the similarities and differences of both books storylines and then I will begin talking about the similarities and differences in the main characters, exploring the themes and subjects of: Naïve narration, Isolation, Empathy, Tragedy, How the characters think and how they act around other people. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (By Mark Haddon), is a book where the main character Christopher Boone who has autism discovers his neighbour’s dog, lying dead on the ground, he then decides to
Those with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) see the world in a diverse way; teachers and adults need to recognize this. Robison gives examples of his childhood where he misinterpreted information from others including social cues, as well as instructions. He was in these situations punished either socially or academically.
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.
Anger is one of the hardest emotions to control. Often, people hold it in, allowing it to build until it bursts, causing damage. In Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the parents of a child with autism struggle to keep their cool around their son. Christopher’s mother fails to mask her emotions around her son, leaving his father to take care of him. Although his father tries to maintain calm, he often yells at Christopher as his son watches on in careful concentration. Haddon’s authorial choice of making Christopher’s parents lash out reveals irony in that Christopher is the one with the disorder yet is calm, analyzing situations objectively.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is told through the eyes of a fifteen year old boy named Christopher Boone. Christopher has a highly-functioning form of autism which allows him to understand complex mathematical problems, but also leaves him unable to comprehend many simple human emotions. His inability to understand metaphors, distinguish emotions, and his lack of imagination makes it possible to consider Christopher as functioning like a computer rather than functioning as a human being. Throughout the story, Christopher is faced with many challenges which he conquers using the stable and never changing system of mathematics. All of these factors suggest that Christopher does, in fact, function like a computer, but it is apparent early in the story that Christopher, regardless of anything else, is capable of independent thought which separates him from the programmed, dependent world of computers.
Cognitive challenges also exist when counseling children with ASD as they have difficulty distinguishing their own mind from somebody else’s, this is known as theory of mind (Woods et al., 2013). Counselors should address deficiencies in theory of mind as the lack of knowledge in others feelings and empathy causes challenges across all social contexts for children. While there are a numerous factors to consider when providing therapy for children with ASD, therapeutic interventions are crucial to the development of social skills as well as adaptive emotional and behavioral responses in social settings.
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.
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
In his essay "Autism and Culture," Joseph Straus discusses the recreation of the concept of autism as a cultural and social category rather than a medical one. He also discusses how, as autistic community has emerged, autistic people have begun to look for historical figures that could be identified as autistic. Straus calls this practice "extremely problematic" (Straus 464) because he feels that the concept of autism is a modern social construction and that classifying historical figures as autistic denies this. However, associating prominent historical figures with autism has the benefit of providing autistic communities with role models and a sense of community through their shared history. Attempting to diagnose historical figures with
This paper was reprinted with permission of Susan Moreno on the O.A.S.I.S. (Online Asperger's Syndrome Information and Support)
The world is plagued with an inseparable mix of good and evil. People make mistakes, but often start out with good intentions. Often times actions live in the grey zone, a combination of good intentions but bad outcomes. In Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time there are many decisions that could be considered morally ambiguous. The story is told from the perspective of an autistic fifteen-year-old, Christopher Boone, who is investigating the death of his neighbor’s dog. His mother, Judy Boone supposedly died two years back, when in actuality she ran off to London with another man and, in turn, has been shut out of Christopher’s life. His father, Ed Boone hides the truth involving Christopher’s mother, pretending
While trust is a somewhat common theme in modern novels, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime manages to portray how it affects people in their day to day lifestyle. The book tells the story of Christopher Boone a young boy with autism and his murder mystery novel about the murder of his neighbor's dog. Why this novel is significant is because Mark Haddon tells the story that many young people with autism, like Christopher, live everyday and who’s view on life and the idea of trust and understanding of the world is drastically different than any teenager.
...to grow and increase yearly, one can imagine the effect on society these rates already have, and can possibly have with continued growth. It will not be long before autism becomes the normal society. That is a concern will should all share as creatures of earth. All families that are faced with autism will find happiness with the life shared with an autistic individual. Sadly, these individuals face bullying, and social rejection. They deal with health care rejections, and limited services available into adulthood. A future unknown. Although these individuals are different, that doesn’t mean they are less. As humanity, we need to treat everyone as an equal part of this important reality we call existence. Autistic individuals are the quietest souls, but that may only be because we haven’t learned to pay attention. Autism speaks, so isn’t it time to listen (htt1)?
Every individual's mind functions in a different and unique way. We all have idiosyncratic behaviours and functions. These distinctive characteristics are what make us who we are. But not all neurological differences help us in our day -to-day lives. Every individual also possess some psychological defects. These issues are clearly portrayed in the novel, The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon. In this story the protagonist is an autistic boy who faces many challenges in his life. Both his parents also face some complications in coping up with their son. Therefore the central theme in the novel, the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, delineated by Christopher (the autistic boy), the father, and the mother, is that everyone has psychological problems that they need to overcome.
Christopher Boone is a 15 year old male young-adult, of British descent. Christopher describes himself as a machine, We have reports of him saying “I sometimes think of my mind as a machine” (Haddon 7). Christopher is currently living with his mother, who has asked not be named, and his father, Edward Boone. Christopher comes from Swindon,UK, where he was born and grew up, until the divorce of his parents were his mom moved away with Roger Shears (Christopher’s former neighbor and ex-husband of his father's former girlfriend). Christopher Boone suffers from many behavioral/emotional problems such as being irritable, unstable, and not talk to people for a long time. He also has problems like not eating or drinking for long periods of time and refusal to being touched. Christopher is currently in High School, enrolled in Level A math. Christopher’s father, Ed Boone, has been renowned for killing his neighbor's dog, Wellington. On page 1, (at midnight) Christopher walks into the neighbor's backyard after looking out his window to see Wellington stabbed with a pitchfork. Christopher says “I stroked Wellington and wondered who had killed him, and why”. Christopher cared deeply for Wellington, and loved dogs. We have a hypothesis that Christopher had abandonment issues after his mother leaving. Christopher’s trust in his father diminished, but after buying Christopher his own puppy, he started to gain Christophers trust back (“he bent down and put his hands inside the box and he took a little sandy-colored dog out”) (Haddon 219). Christopher also tends to perform poorly in social situations/a school environment. Some examples would be; not interacting with other kids, getting bullied, and acting aggressively when being touched. Some of ...