Christopher Boone: Boy Wonder or Psychopath?
Mark Haddon tells the story of a boy named Christopher John Francis Boone in the curious incident of the dog on the nighttime. Christopher relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He is a logical boy; everything to him is black and white. When his world is turned upside down he begins to feel. Through the usage of Red Herrings, symbols, and tone Mark Haddon leads us into the mind of this autistic boy. His journey in to society and what it means to him. The tone of this book is matter-of-fact. Christopher tells things how it is without stopping to think of other’s feelings. His autism stops him from feeling like normal humans do. In chapter two Christopher is talking to his teacher (Siobhan) about emotion and facial expressions. The very end he says if he doesn’t understand then he just walks away. Christopher doesn’t like things that don’t make sense but then he goes on to tell us about how he knows if he will have a good day or bad day.
“4 red cars in a row made it a Good Day, and 3 red cars in a row made it a Quite Good Day, and 5 red cars in a row made it a Super Good Day, and why 4 yellow cars in a row made it a Black Day, which is a day when I don 't speak to anyone and sit on my own reading books and don 't eat my lunch and Take No Risks.”
This is not very logical as stated by Mr.Jeavons. If this isn’t logical then why does Christopher find comfort in it?
“I said that I liked things to be in a nice order. And one way of things being in a nice order was to be logical. Especially if those things were numbers or an argument. But there were other ways of putting things in a nice order. And that was why I had Good Days and Black Days.” Mark’s own use of Red Herrings shows how Christopher finds change in himself. In the beginning of the novel he talks about how he doesn’t like anything that isn’t logical but slowly threw out the novel he finds things aren’t always as they seem. His mother had an affair with the neighbor is not
“4 red cars in a row made it a Good Day, and 3 red cars in a row made it a Quite Good Day, and 5 red cars in a row made it a Super Good Day, and why 4 yellow cars in a row made it a Black Day, which is a day when I don 't speak to anyone and sit on my own reading books and don 't eat my lunch and Take No Risks.”
This is not very logical as stated by Mr.Jeavons. If this isn’t logical then why does Christopher find comfort in it?
“I said that I liked things to be in a nice order. And one way of things being in a nice order was to be logical. Especially if those things were numbers or an argument. But there were other ways of putting things in a nice order. And that was why I had Good Days and Black Days.” Mark’s own use of Red Herrings shows how Christopher finds change in himself. In the beginning of the novel he talks about how he doesn’t like anything that isn’t logical but slowly threw out the novel he finds things aren’t always as they seem. His mother had an affair with the neighbor is not
Cited: Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. New York: Doubleday, 2003. Print.