The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time free essay sample

Personal challenges can be conveyed from different perspectives. These perspectives, through a text’s distinctive qualities and characteristics affect those responding to it, and more importantly, shape meaning. This is evident through Mark Haddon’s novel, ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’. Haddon explores the struggles the protagonist faces trying to gain independence within his novel. Haddon uses first person narration to build the characterisation within the novel. This use of first person narration by â€Å"Christopher John Francis Boone† allows the responder to develop understanding of the protagonist. The development of characterisation implies that Christopher suffers with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and the struggles he faces trying to gain independence. Haddon portrays this though the sentence structure in the novel. The use of both truncated and elongated sentences is a device that Haddon uses to further reinforce the implication the Christopher has a disability through the exploration of his psychological landscape, and portraying his though process and matter-of-fact way of thinking. We will write a custom essay sample on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page â€Å"I think I would make a good astronaut†. Haddon makes these implications early in the novel, providing a basis for the responder’s perception of the novel and Christopher. Haddon gives insight into Christopher and his world by highlighting Christopher’s craving and struggle to become independent and find his role in the world. Haddon uses pictograms to emphasise Christopher’s struggle to relate to others. This struggle to relate to people reinforces the implied ASD that Christopher struggles with. This struggle prevents Christopher form being as independent as he would like because of Christopher’s difficulty in understanding and displaying emotions. Christopher’s difficulty in displaying emotions is evident though Christopher’s coping with the loss of his mother. The murder of Wellington that opens the novel prompts Christopher to reflect on the loss of his mother. Haddon displays this through the inclusion of detailed memories of Judy, including her manner, dress and temperament. When Christopher learns of the deception and lies of his father regarding his mother’s affair through the hidden letters, it also reveals that his narrow focus on order at the beginning of the novel help to  blind him to the complex tangle of relationships within his family. â€Å"Then I stopped reading the letter because I felt sick.† Haddon’s incorporation of the letters in the novel allows the audience to also understand Judy’s struggle with Christopher, and empathy for both the mother and protagonist is developed. The audience is led to believe that Christopher has little to no empathy explaining his inability to display emotion and express himself. â€Å"It was hard to decide which diagram was most like the face†. Chris’s inability to express himself is evident in social situations. â€Å"It makes me scared.. and I do not know what is going to happen.† When Christopher gets frightened or overwhelmed, he shuts himself out, again highlighting his struggle to find his role in the world. This lack of empathy and ability to express himself causes frustration within Ed, his father, as a result of not being able to understand Christopher’s behaviour. Ed is very protective over Christopher and the impulse to protect him, coupled with the desire to punish Judy leads to lies and deception. â€Å"I’m sorry, Christopher. I promise you, I never meant for it to turn out like this.† The relationship between father and son is hindered by this mistake, and the novel’s final chapters focus of the efforts to regain and restore this relationship. Many of the Characters in the novel become irritated with Christopher because of the difficulty they have communicating with him. He has troubles with metaphors and non-verbal communication, such as body language, facial expressions and tone of voice. â€Å"Siobhan says that if you raise one eyebrow it can mean lots of different things†. He tends to take statements literally. For example if somebody told Christopher to â€Å"be quiet†, he has trouble understanding this because they don’t specify how long he should b quiet for. These exchanges underscore how Christopher’s implied ASD affects his social skills, and emphasises for the reader the difference in perspective that Christopher experiences compared to the average person. Haddon uses the theme of subjectivity to help the reader to understand the protagonist. The narrator’s implied ASD causes him to see the world in an uncommon way and much of the novel allows the reader to share Christopher’s aunique perspective. Even though Christopher clearly states, â€Å"this is a murder mystery novel†, almost half the chapters digress from this main plot to give us Christopher’s thought or feelings on a particular subject such as physics or the supernatural. â€Å"And when you look at the sky you know you are looking at the stars which are hundreds and thousands of light years away†. The tangents are an effective technique as it emphasises Christopher’s differences. Through this, Haddon allows the reader to empathise with Christopher and gives insight into him as the narrator. Christopher’s struggles are emphasised by the barriers he has to overcome when travelling to London. Haddon shows the bildungsroman nature of the novel through Christopher’s continual growth. Christopher uses problem solving and logic to overcome barriers. â€Å" That was how I found the train station..†. Despite this continual growth and development, the implications of ASD still prevent him from becoming totally independent. â€Å"I put my hands over my ears and closed my eyes and rolled forward..† Despite Christopher’s difficulties, we see that he, as many other protagonists in ‘coming of age’ novels, seek to become independent and find his role in the world. Through the course of the novel we see him rebelling against orders. â€Å"I ask you to do one thing for me, Christopher. One thing.† This self-confidence is essential for Christopher to overcome his barriers. The trip epitomises everything he finds distressing, such as social interactions, navigating new environments and feeling overloaded with information. â€Å"I know I can do this because I went to London on my own†. By overcoming these obstacles, he gains confidence in his ability to face any challenge he is faced with. Personal challenges can be conveyed from different perspectives. These perspectives, through a text’s distinctive qualities and characteristics affect those responding to it, and more importantly, shape meaning. These challenges are reflected in Mark Haddonâ₠¬â„¢s novel ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time free essay sample The Thoughts of Christopher Boone Many believe that those with autism do not have the capacity of developing moral agency without empathy. Kids at a young age are taught the lessons of good and bad of what other people see as good that impacts on them as they grow up. The same concept goes with Christopher in the novel of, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, that endorse the fact that he has autism is able to learn right and wrong without feelings. He is viewed as naive, but gives that sense of innocence of nature through the way he portrays his thoughts to action. To fully understand Christopher on whether he has moral agency is better developed in the essay, Autism, Empathy and Moral Agency by Jeanette Kennett, a psychologist who depicts beneficial research that characterizes how it is seen. She supports the idea that autistic individuals are able to possess an ability to form moral agency while the lack of empathy by the development through alternate means. We will write a custom essay sample on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Even though Christopher is considerdered to be incompatible at expressing his feelings, it shows through his actions and proves the existence of his moral agency. Moral agency is the ability of a person to be able to see someone who puts others feelings into account when making a decision on what is the right thing to do, which Christopher has made apparent signs of doing. His father gets really upset when Christopher wants to investigate Wellingtons death, a neighbors dog he liked, and when he notices this he decides he should stop talking because he doesnt want him to get even angrier. Christopher has difficult times in understanding the the emotions of others, but he is able to judge the response given. He also comes across his dad tearing and connects that to being sad, I decided to leave him alone because when I am sad I want to be left alone (Haddon 21). He bases his decision off of what he would want to be done for himself that he feels would be appropriate. The ways he thinks are related to what he experiences with himself and others. Kennett proves this by expressing that, Without he capacity to catch moods and to find our responses changed in the light of the responses of others, perhaps we lack the very basis for moral concern, and so we shall fail to become moral agents (Kennett 345). Christopher is able to identify the expressions of others to make his own decisions that displays his sense of possessing moral concern. The response that Christopher presents to his thoughts displays moral agency. Like any other child, many experience curiosity and inputs their actions that is the same for Christopher as he wants to investigate the dogs death, but his father has him promise not to. He believes that, When someone gets murdered you have to find out who did it so that they can be punished (Haddon 20). Christopher chooses to reason with his fathers promise because he knows that it would be the right thing to do to search for the murderer. The way that Christopher reasons his promise are too literal and proves that not every kid can keep a promise; it is normal for one to find ways of making decisions. Before entering his fathers room to find his book, he knows his dad would get angry if he messes with his stuff and resolves to placing things back to where they were as to not make him angry. He considers his actions as being wrong, but in the process finds letters from his mother and thought it appropriator to take a few because they were addressed for him. He confirms with himself that it is okay for him to read them since the letter was intended for him (96). Kennett identifies autistic individuals do in some cases seem capable of compensating for this deficit and becoming conscientious, though often clumsy, moral agents (Kennett 345). The situation that Christopher finds ways to his fathers promise puts him more into a state that he does not think much of the consequences for his actions, but first intends to think through what he may be done without any further thought. Christopher made a Get Well card for his mother in the hospital that relates to what he knows should be done. He gives a reason why he does this was because that is what you do for people when they are in the hospital (Haddon 23). Here the readers may see that it was something that he had to do. Kennett claims that In the case of many austistic people rules of conduct are not self-developed, but we have to remember that it was an act of a more explicit practical concern to do the right thing (Kennett 352). These are based on the Kantian motive of duty that moral feeling has little or nothing to do with emotional connectedness to others, but without any moral feelings that completely lack capacity would be considered morally dead (qtd. in Kennett 353). The essence of Kennetts argument is that reasons are good enough for Christopher where he at least knows what it is that he is doing was good. Christopher is capable of showing moral agency. He understands the logic to one dying from the cold and can perform the task of caring for one by doing the right thing. He flees into his own back yard with his pet rat and realized that the air was too chili for his pet and with one of his coats, drapes it around the cage because he didnt want him to get a cold and die (Haddon 124). This action tells us that he has love for his pet and he cares to be able to make a decision for what was best and not that he had. Kennett responds that Many autistic people display moral concerns, moral feeling and a sense of duty or conscience (Kennett 349). Her statement emphasizes that Christopher is a person and his sense to exhibit his responsibility of choosing the best thing for his pet when necessary. Christopher was able to give us a chance to tell that he does have moral agency, but a developing one that he continues to learn throughout his childhood experiences. When coming across an autistic child, people may not acknowledge the way that these special peoples lives are when they find it even hard to know how they live other than themselves. Christopher has to go through the difficulties of understanding most people as others come about it naturally.