Christopher Boone is 15 years, 3 months and 2 days old. He knows “all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,507" (2) . He lives in Swindon, England with his father Ed and pet rat Toby. He detests anything yellow or brown, wishes to become an astronaut, and has never been further than the end of the street by himself until his discovery of the "murder" of his neighbour's dog Wellington turns him into a detective.
Christopher has Asperger’s syndrome, and although this is never specified in the text, it is clear that his behaviours mimic that of someone with this neurological condition. When reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time I was drawn to Haddon’s way of making Christopher seem real. Like many people who suffer with Asperger’s syndrome, or autism in general, emotions are a difficult concept to understand. Haddon’s deadpan tone developed Christopher as the type of person that is extremely intelligent and logical, but does so with as little human interaction and emotion …show more content…
But nonetheless, he was able to situate us within Christopher’s mind so we could see how logical and emotionless he was. When reading, I admired Haddon’s use of Christopher as the protagonist. Christopher was an innocent observer and did not attach emotion to anything he saw or heard. He simply wrote it in his book and left it for his readers to understand. This reminded me of the well-known novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Alike Haddon, Lee uses the voice of Scout – a young girl who would rather solve problems with her fist than with her head – to be an innocent observer of the racist world around her. Haddon uses Christopher to show us things that are wrong with the world, whether it be sensitivity to the autistic or lies and affairs. For this, Haddon became a better writer in my eyes, as Christopher became a better
Christopher has Asperger’s syndrome, and although this is never specified in the text, it is clear that his behaviours mimic that of someone with this neurological condition. When reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time I was drawn to Haddon’s way of making Christopher seem real. Like many people who suffer with Asperger’s syndrome, or autism in general, emotions are a difficult concept to understand. Haddon’s deadpan tone developed Christopher as the type of person that is extremely intelligent and logical, but does so with as little human interaction and emotion …show more content…
But nonetheless, he was able to situate us within Christopher’s mind so we could see how logical and emotionless he was. When reading, I admired Haddon’s use of Christopher as the protagonist. Christopher was an innocent observer and did not attach emotion to anything he saw or heard. He simply wrote it in his book and left it for his readers to understand. This reminded me of the well-known novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Alike Haddon, Lee uses the voice of Scout – a young girl who would rather solve problems with her fist than with her head – to be an innocent observer of the racist world around her. Haddon uses Christopher to show us things that are wrong with the world, whether it be sensitivity to the autistic or lies and affairs. For this, Haddon became a better writer in my eyes, as Christopher became a better