In the novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time” by Mark Haddon, an autistic boy named Christopher narrates his perspective of life as he tries to solve a mystery of a murdered dog. As the story plays out, Christopher’s autism is viewed by the readers
“The next day I saw 4 yellow cars in a row on the way to school, which made it a Black Day, so I didn’t eat anything at lunch and I sat in the corner of the room all day… another Black Day too, so I didn’t speak to anyone and for the whole afternoon I sat in the corner of the Library groaning with my head pressed into the join between the two walls and this made me feel calm and safe. But on the third day I kept my eyes closed all the way until we got off the bus because after I have had 2 Black Days in a row I’m allowed to do that.”(53)
This is an example of Haddon allowing the reader to understand how an autistic person thinks and acts to their surroundings. The quote shows Christopher reacting to something someone that isn’t autistic wouldn’t naturally react to. A person without autism wouldn't normally notice the color of the cars, and even if they did, they would not isolate themselves in a corner and groan at school or work. They might find it weird or even funny, but that would be all they care for that row of same-colored cars. All of this is why I think Haddon’s purpose of this book is so that the reader understands why some autistic people act a way. He wants to show that autistic people don’t really want to do what they do on purpose, and they know their limits and how to control themselves. After two consecutive days of sitting in the corner alone, Christopher gets the willpower to avoid another day of repeating his Black Day ritual.
“And he said, “what’s 251 times 864?” And I thought about this and I said, “216,864… And I said, “Is that right?” And Rhodri said, “I haven’t got a bloody clue…”(66)
This quote also shows how Haddon wants the reader to understand autistic people more. Christopher immediately solves the math problem, but after saying out the answer, he explains to the reader how he got that answer in a step by step method. This shows how autistic people have abilities that “regular” people usually do not have, and that autistic people can be just as smart as “regular” people, if not more since Rhodri, the person asking Christopher the question, didn’t even know the answer himself.
I remember reading this book, it is probably one of my favorites. It is really important to understand how someone thinks especially if they are different from you. Because Christopher isn't able to process emotion, even his own, he relies on things like the color of cars to tell if he is happy or sad. One thing that I found very interesting about the book is that Christopher is practically a genius, yet he can't do something as simple as tell when he is scared, or disappointed, or worried. His thinking process reminds me of how we learn, the first time we do things we have to think the steps over in our head to be sure to do it right, the difference is that Christopher must do this every time.
ReplyDeleteI think that the way you described this book was very interesting, although I think you could give some background information on autism. By doing this you could further support you claim that, "This is an example of Haddon allowing the reader to understand how an autistic person thinks and acts to their surroundings." A question I have is, does Christopher always solve math problems, and does the autism described in this book portray people who actually have autism? I think that if you include some background information about autism and answer these questions, your final book review would be very strong.
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