Christopher is not a reliable narrator because he can not read emotions. An example of this is when he talks about how he keeps a picture that Siobhan drew of different emotions to decode what people are trying to express with their face. We learn this on page three of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime when Christopher says “I got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant. I kept the piece of paper in my pocket and took it out when I didn’t understand what someone was saying. But it was very difficult to decide which of the diagrams was most like the face they were making because people’s faces move very quickly.” (3) This is just one way that Christopher exhibits how he can …show more content…
For example, he says “I find people confusing. This is for two main reasons. The first main reason is that people do a lot of talking without using any words.” (14) To us, things like facial expressions are part of everyday life, and we automatically understand them, but to Christopher, they are like the bottom of the ocean - deep, dark and unknown. He also shows us that he doesn’t understand emotions when, on page one hundred and twenty, Christopher and his father are having an emotional moment, and his father finally tells him who killed Wellington. Christopher’s father breaks it to him like this: “And he said, “I killed Wellington, Christopher.” I wondered if this was a joke, because I don’t understand jokes, and when people tell jokes they don’t mean what they say.” (120) Within the context, it’s pretty obvious that Christopher’s father has broken down and is trying to get everything off of his chest, and not trying to tell a joke. In conclusion, Christopher is not a reliable narrator because he can not read emotions, meaning that he can’t always provide an accurate look into what’s
‘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
With every decision one makes. There will always be consequences. In Haddon’s, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the character Christopher and his parents find that their bad decisions could lead to a negative outcome. Mrs. Boone’s choice to leave home and Mr. Boone’s choice to lie to Christopher lead to him leaving home to search for his mother. A common theme of the actions of the characters is acting before thinking. The theme of decisions and consequences reveals the imperfections of each character, ultimately demonstrating the quintessential impatient need for growth.
Point of view can greatly affect the way a reader feel about a novel. Point of view affects how the characters are perceived and how well the readers know them. It also provides a means for readers to feel connected with characters, or to better understand what a character is going through. The author’s way of thinking also has a very large impact on the point of view based on how they themselves see a situation. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is narrated in a very diverse way, by being narrated by a boy with a disorder, it could be very different if told by a different character, and it would change drastically if narrated by someone without autism.
In Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, a Marxist critic would be interested in the socioeconomic power that Christopher lacks in comparison to the people he encounters on the train and at the train station. This results in him being oppressed by those encounters.
“You can either allow the obstacles in your life to be the excuse for your failure or make them the reason behind your success.” Although the quote’s author is unknown, anyone can connect to this quote in some way about how you can let obstacles stop you from doing what you want to do or you can use them as a reason for success. This holds true for Christopher, the main protagonist in the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. Christopher is a 15-year-old in the autism spectrum, and although gifted in mathematics, he struggles with communicating and has extreme likes and dislikes. These obstacles definitely make it seem as if his goals are far from reach and as secrets come out his success seems almost unattainable, but because of these hardships he learns many lessons about human nature and himself, including that deciphering facial expressions to find the emotions connected to them and that he is capable of doing anything regardless of the obstacles thrown at him.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time chronicles of Christopher Boone of Swindon, England. The book is written by Mark Haddon, who formerly worked with autistic individuals, describes the world through the eyes of Christopher, who is self-proclaimed “special needs”. The novel never explicitly says what Christopher’s diagnosis is, but from the text it is apparent that he would fall on the higher functioning end of the Autism Spectrum.
Whilst the concept of autism and what it means to be autistic is still widely unrecognised by many, Mark Haddon’s use of conventions of prose fiction and language amplifies the distinctive qualities of the text. Haddon exemplifies key themes such as the struggle to become independent, the nature of difference and the disorder of life through the strategic placement of literary devices.
In Mark Haddon's contemporary novel, "The curious incident of the dog in the Night-Time", the protagonist, Christopher Boone, does seem completely unsuited to narrating a novel, as he takes on his authorial voice, thus demonstrating symptoms of his disability, 'Asperger's Syndrome.' This is a syndrome that enables him to see the world only through his limited perspective, which is closed, frightened and disorientated - which results in his fear of, and inability to understand the perplexing world of people's emotions. His description of events can be somewhat unreliable as he is unable to see the real truths that lie before him. As he narrates, readers are confronted with his peculiarities - whether it is not liking to be touched, his fear of germs, strangers and crowds to his inability to eat foods with particular colors. However, through Christopher's authorial voice, his description of events in his life, and in particular, his description of his oddities those seem completely 'normal' to him, make him an interesting and fascinating narrator. As he can be proven to be an unreliable narrator as he is incapable of lying (and understanding lies) and this limits his ability to perceive the full reality of the world, thus providing him with a strange combination of credibility and unbelievability. Again, this is what makes him a wonderful narrator - at times readers can mistrust his interpretation of such events, or they can believe him.
Christopher writes, "I showed her the pages I had written so far, with the diagrams of the universe and the map of the street and the prime numbers. And she said that it
When a narrator is deemed unreliable, there is conflict between the narrator’s presentation and the rest of the novel that makes readers suspect his sincerity and reliability. Readers often read between the lines and come to the conclusion that the narrator is either withholding the true version of the story or lacking the ability to tell the truth. There are three specific sources of unreliability according to Rimmon-Keenan they are the narrator’s limited knowledge, his or her personal involvement, and his or her questionable morals (100-101). Factors that could contribute to a narrator’s unreliability is that the narrator is young and inexperienced, old with failing memory, or has a low IQ. These are all cases of limited understanding and knowledge on the part of the narrator. When narrators are personally involved in the story, they tend to portray events or characters i...
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
Delivery is used to persuade others by the way the speech is performed. It can be presented in ways such as tone, voice, emotion, and volume in order to convince the audience where he stands. An example of Caesar praising himself by using a tone change to make sure the attention is on him is, “I could be well moved if I were as you, If I could pray to move, prayers would move,” here he is saying that if he were in the Senate’s situation that he could easily be persuaded by Caesar’s oration, which gets the attention of the Senate and gives Caesar the floor (3,1,58 & 59). While Caesar says these lines it creates a picture in my mind of Caesar gesturing toward himself and the pride he has in his voice. Another example of Caesar’s delivery of thi...
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.
The investigation was inspired by Sherlock Holmes. Mrs. Shears gets out of her house to see Christopher next to her dead dog, leading her to think that Christopher killed her dog. The police arrive at the house and they take Christopher to the station. Later the Christopher’s father comes to take him home. Christopher goes to neighbors houses and then asks them about Wellington to try and find out who killed Wellington. Christopher’s father forbids him to go around to neighbors but Christopher ignores his father. Christopher goes to a neighbor and asks about Wellington she unfolded that Mr. Shears and his mother had an affair. Christopher’s father finds his book in which he is writing all of this and takes it away from him. Later when Christopher’s father is at work Christopher goes to look for his boom in his father's room only to find letters addressed to him from his very own mother. Christopher finds out that his father has been lying to him. His father comes home and sees that Christopher found the letters and immediately apologizes to Christopher. This is when Christopher’s father tells Christopher that he was the one who had killed Wellington. The reason he killed Wellington is because he and Mrs. Shears had a relationship after Christopher’s mom left but Mrs.Shears ended it so out of anger Christopher’s father kills Wellington. Christopher was fearful that his father killed Wellington so
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.