Man, I just started reading a new
book… and I have to say it is pretty freaking cool. The book is entitled “The
Curious Incident Of The Dog And The Night Time”, and has been written by novelist
Mark Haddon. The book is told from the point of view of a fifteen year-old boy
named Christopher, a child with a severe case of asperger’s disorder. People
who possess asperger’s syndrome, often have large amounts of trouble
interacting socially. They may also however, be able to focus on a concept,
activity, hobby, or subject, for a very long time, and in great detail. Signs
of asperger’s syndrome are present within Christopher’s own behavior; When he
is overwhelmed or scared, he may groan, scream or hit things frantically. Also,
Christopher has a passion for mathematics. He is very skilled at the subject and practices it daily.
This may be connected to the fact that he is an EXTREAMALLY logical thinker. For example, if someone were to use a
metaphor in a discussion, Christopher would consider the statement untrue, as
he appreciates phrases only if they are in a literal form. Now that you know a
little bit about Christopher, we can go on to discussing his ordinary world.
Christopher lives with his father
in the town of Swindin England.
His father is a nice hardworking man who wants the best for Christopher.
Because of Christopher’s behavioral issues, he attends a “special” school that
teaches children with a variety of learning or behavioral disabilities. Christopher feels smarter than most of
the kids at his school. This may be related to the fact that his disability
doesn’t necessarily lower his intelligence, as do some the other kid’s
disabilities. These unorthodox thoughts leave Christopher feeling as if he
needs to prove himself better than the others. This is definitely one of the
pressures that exist inside his ordinary world. Here is a quote from the book
that explains some of his feelings:
“Terry, who is the older brother
of Francis, who is at the school, said I would only ever get a job collecting
supermarket trollies or cleaning out donkey shit at an animal sanctuary and
they didn’t let spazzers drive rockets that cost billions of pounds. When I told
this to Father he said that terry was jealous of my being cleverer than him.
Which was a stupid thing to think because we weren’t in a competition. But Terry
is stupid, so quoderat demonstrandum,
which is Latin for which is the thing
that was going to be proved, witch means, thus it is proved.” (Haddon 25)
Christopher’s life contains a
large amount of tension; his mother was killed due to a heart attack, and even
though he shows no signs of grief, I feel that Christopher has been hardened
from the tragedy. Christopher’s
relationship with his father is strong in the sense that they care for each
other, however, there is also some natural conflict between them resulting from
the death of Christopher’s mother. This would be one aspect of Christopher’s ordinary
world that might influence him in accepting a call to adventure. I will
explain; every time there is conflict between Christopher and his father,
relating to, or resulting from, the death of his mother, his thoughts of grief
are brought up, however, he forces himself to ignore them, putting them aside.
Christopher doesn’t let anyone see his signs of grief. He conceals the thoughts to such an
extent that he himself ‘forgets’ his own feelings. Nevertheless, there is still grief inside of him, and it is
brought out during unexpected time periods, taking unobvious forms. If
Christopher were to leave his ordinary world, it may give him a chance to face
his thoughts and feelings, as he would be exposed to fewer conflicts and
tensions.
When Christopher does his math,
or when he sits down someplace quite, he receives a sense of safety. He feels
as if no one can hurt him. Christopher repulses lying. He feels the need to
always tell the truth. And when he does his math, or applies the subject within
his thought process, he feels as if he is telling the truth, and that not doing
these things, or not thinking about things in a systematic way will be untruthful.
Maybe Christopher’s need to tell the
truth is due to the possibility that he himself has been lied to. Maybe not
purposely lied to, but more over he has had expectations, or predictions about
his own life that haven’t come true. He may feel like his whole world is just
one big lie. Christopher is definitely a complex boy.
I’m not quite finished this book
yet but it is for sure, one of the most interesting pieces of writing I’ve ever
read. There is such a strong sense of Christopher’s character in this book,
including his ordinary world, which all together forms a gravitation of interest,
leaving profound inspiration for whomever decides to read the novel.
Here is an image that reminds me of
Christopher, I have retrieved it from Newton’s Window.com, which is authorized
by Suzanne Sutton.
