Compare And Contrast Grendel And The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night

Many people with disabilities are more often misunderstood and are judged by everybody else. Both the character Grendel, from the novel Grendel, and Christopher, from the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, have a disabilities in different ways. Their perspectives on everyday people gives one a different thought on society in general. Their subjective point of view shows the loneliness that stems from their disability. Looking through the character 's view helps us understand their disabilities, thus giving one the knowledge of what they go through. These particular books being narrated in first person highlights an understanding into their disability, proving that one should have a deeper understanding of other people …show more content…
Christopher has a disability which gives him hard time to be social. Christopher has a re-occurring dream where everyone in the world passed away, Since there is no one in the world but other people with the same disability as him, he does not have to look at or be with anyone (Haddon, 198-200). Christopher is scared of strangers, he even has a knife with him at all times since he ran away from home. He wants to have the freedom of doing anything he wants, but since he has a disability, he is unable to do certain things, thus restricting him. Christopher prefers to be alone, and has minimal human interactions with people due to his disability. On the other hand, Grendel did not choose to be alone, he wants to befriend the humans, but none of them gave him a chance. “‘Why can not I have someone to talk to?’ I said. The stars said nothing, but I pretended to ignore the rudeness” (Gardner, 53). Grendel never wanted to be alone, all he wanted was someone to talk to, someone he can ask questions to, but he rejected by the people in the village. Grendel is a curious individual who recently found out about the human world, he craves human interaction because he has the mind set of a …show more content…
He made sure that the reader understands his view and even drew examples to show how confused he is in certain situations.“And the sign said ‘Sweet Pastries Heathrow Airport check-in here Bagel Factory eat...’ but after a few seconds it looked like this ‘... aspecitionTOP7UMSEvedard because there were too many and my brain was not working properly” (Haddon, 169-170). This is one of the many examples in this book where the reader can learn about this disability and know what kind of challenges he faces daily. Christopher has problems processing information and sorting it for later use.The reader can understand how Christopher thinks and feels in normal everyday experience that can only be told in first person.Different from Christopher, Grendel can be physically characterized as having a human mind in a monster’s body. His monster-like appearance acts as a disability because it allows other to judge him quickly and harshly. “Drunken men rushed me with battle-axes. I sank to my knees, crying, ‘Friend! Friend!’ They hacked at me, yipping like dogs” (Gardner 52). After listening to one of the Shaper’s songs, Grendel cried running towards the village pleading for peace. This point of view shows the prejudgment of Grendel as a monster that wants to kill, even though he speaks their language, however, he was never given the opportunity to be