Preview

How Is Christopher Aversion To Being Touched, He Is Dependent On Other People

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
677 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Is Christopher Aversion To Being Touched, He Is Dependent On Other People
‘Despite’ Christopher aversion to being touched, he is dependent on other people’. Do you agree?
In Mark Haddon’s novel, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time”, the protagonist and narrator, Christopher John Francis Boone, faces challenges in which he is dependent on other people to help him. Throughout the novel Haddon shows us he is mainly depended on his close ‘support network’ of family and friends who guide him on how to behave and interact with others. Christopher is also reliant on strangers during his journey to London to help him navigate the underground. However towards the end of the novel Christopher grows as a person, gains maturity and is much more independent. This maturity and independence is gained from the help of others.
…show more content…
Christopher is constantly relying on them to provide him with advice and guidance on how to behave appropriately and basic needs such as food, water and transportation. He is constantly told by Siobhan not to use ‘words such as spaz’ when referring to other people as it may hurt their feelings. He is also told by Siobhan not to ‘hit other children’ as it is unacceptable. Haddon shows us Christopher needs this social guidance as well as guidance on understanding others in unfamiliar situations. When Christopher is taken into the police station he is dependent on his father to interpret and help him understand what the police are asking of him. This is evident as the policeman said ‘ I have spoken to your father’ indicating that Christopher’s father has already explained Christopher’s situation to them, as they are strangers and would not know of Christopher’s

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Mark Haddon explores the importance of communication and both its positive and negative impacts on the characters of the novel. While Haddon emphasises that communication is the key to starting or keeping a relationship, he also clearly shows how communication is sometimes problematic, in life and throughout the novel. This is because of the idea that logic is sometimes flawed, the lack of understanding about the human interactions, and how different views of communication clash to cause conflict.…

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Night-Time written by Mark Haddon portrays the ideas of coping with loss through human relationships and the need for control in humanity, which is represented throughout the Boone family. Coping with loss and control are both depicted through the Boone family and to a larger extent Christopher, the protagonist who is a 15-year-old Autistic boy. Haddon creates a unique perspective through the characterisation and the disproportionate level of control throughout the Boone Family.…

    • 892 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Lala Essay

    • 1207 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The relationship Christopher has with his parents and the different connection/relationship he has with his mother and father…

    • 1207 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Haha

    • 1393 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Discuss how Haddon’s perspective on personal challenges is conveyed in the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. In your response, make a detailed reference to your prescribed text.…

    • 1393 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Into the Wild, Christopher McCandless, displays self-reliance very nearly to the point of self-absorption. It was not until he took off on his Alaskan Odyssey however, that those closest to him realized how real Chris’s independence was. Chris infact did not let many people close. To assert his independence and become entirely self-reliant, McCandless took extreme measures to uncover the truth. The increasingly common theme of self-reliance and independence is something that people still value. Some of the values that many people in society seem to have forgotten are; the journey for personal knowledge, the pursuit of happiness, not gaining your happiness from other people, and above all, the ability to be comfortable being alone and that independence. Chris believes that he will not be one to conform to society like everyone else.…

    • 672 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon the main character is Christopher Boone who is a 15 year old boy. His mother ran away with his neighbor Mr. Shears and then Christopher’s dad and Mrs. Shears try out a romance too. However Mrs. Shears backs out though, so Christopher’s father kills her dog with a pitch fork. Then being the animal lover and curious person he is, wants to investigate the death of the dog. Christopher’s investigation was provoked by Mr. and Mrs. Shears; additionally, each of these characters enhanced Christopher’s life in different ways.…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Christopher Boone is an autistic child who is the main character of the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night – Time by Mark Haddon. An individual must overcome difficult challenges in order to gain a sense of maturity. This will be demonstrated by examining Christopher Boone’s ability to learn to be persistent and to learn from his mistakes. He learns to be persistent by finding the killer of Wellington. He learns from his mistakes by taking a train to London to live with his mom.…

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although many times it is obvious Christopher doesn’t understand others and the differences between him and society, on more than one occasion in the book he explains about how he is different. On page 106 and 107 he realises that not liking yellow and brown is ‘silly’ but then he also likens this to society saying that lots of people are similar for example, Christopher says when you go to a restaurant you eat meals you know you like because you don’t know if you will like the other meals. This could be classed as reliable as it shows his understanding of some parts of society. Another occasion where is tells us how he is different is on page 59 and 60 where he is explaining his behavioural problems. The fact he can tell people about what is wrong with him shows trust and also, once again, understanding of his differences. However trust seems to be a problem with Christopher and will not let people touch him. If he cannot trust then he could miss out on information they could give him.…

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Human contact is very important to people. The power of touch can make you feel and experience things that you cannot experience with all the other four human senses. To be able to touch or feel can give you motivation. You can get motivated by love, anger, pain, and more, but these feelings are able to drive a person to do anything. When you control human contact and make it so that there is almost to none one on one contact can make it so that they lose the ability and the memory of the touch. The longer there is no human contact, the feeling of the touch becomes more and more foreign to the people.…

    • 245 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    To conclude, despite Christopher’s past of being unsociable and hard to handle, his ability to adapt and re adjust grants him to strengthen his familial relationships with both his parents.…

    • 1634 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Secondly, Christopher knows that his mum has died of heart problem when he was young. But actually, she was not. His dad had lied about it but he finds out by finding the letters his mum has sent him that dad has hidden from him. After discovering this, he thinks he can not believe his dad anymore so he decides to obey what his dad tells him from now on. For example, he decides to go on a journey all by himself. All alone, which is an unusual thing Christopher will do, he trains to London to find his mum who has actually not died. He didn’t feel he was belonged anymore with his dad who was a liar. He wasn’t just lying about this, but he was lying that he was on an affair with mrs Shears and he was the one who killed the dog. The trust and love…

    • 189 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Despite Christopher's difficulties and disabilities, it is the parent's actions we do not understand. To what extent do you agree?…

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    SPD 510 03

    • 389 Words
    • 2 Pages

    I loved “Christopher Story”. To see that Christopher is a healthy, loving and thriving child also with the fact that is so loved is amazing. Watching Christopher’s Story I do not feel like inclusion is necessarily the best route for a child. I think that having a child in a natural environment is good for them. I think that the child needs should be addressed to make sure that the child is getting everything that they needs and MORE!…

    • 389 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Curious Incident of the dog in the night time composed by Mark Haddon is an exceptional text that explores the ideas of how different perspectives show the different ways the world can be experienced. Haddon’s text follows a young boy named Christopher Boone with the uniquely complex disease, aspergers, “aspergers” and as he does this he conveys the way someone seeing the world differently can generate different life perspectives. Chris is unable to understand human emotion and figurative language and which Haddon cleverly uses this perspective with techniques like using contrast and voicing character’s views with direct speech to allow the reader to access the syndrome that is common but rarely understood.…

    • 780 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Christopher is very different to normal people as he has Asperger’s Syndrome, a mental illness which deprives him of his social abilities and emotional interpretation. Christopher changes from an innocent unknowing boy to one of newfound truths and knowledge. At the start of the book he is very shy and protective of himself, only talking to those that he trusts. The author writes “It takes me a long time to get used to people I do not know. For example, when there is a new member of staff at school I do not talk to them for weeks and weeks. I just watch until I know that they are safe”. Christopher is very protective of himself he keeps a Swiss Army Knife for safety, with Chris's type of autism he communicates in a very unique way and can get overwhelmed when people talk to him. In his mind things need to be done a specific way and he does not like to take orders. If people start to ask him too many questions his brain cannot interpret the information properly and he can have a meltdown, in part of the story he hits a policeman because he is asking him questions too fast. Throughout the novel he tries to not hit/punch people because he knows it is the right thing to do and to stay out of trouble. He also becomes braver as he must overcome all his fears in order to fulfill his goals. The first reason Christopher changes is the problem that arises in the beginning of the book, the murder of Wellington a black Poodle of his neighbor’s. Christopher decides, because he likes dogs to find out who kills the dog. Because of his autistic condition he sees the world in a different view to other people, he sees everything in a different way, he is much more observant and the unusual aspects of things. This bought about the change because it is for this reason Christopher writes the book “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics