Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
Charlie Lee
In Class Essay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
p. 198-200
9/23/11
In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon, the author shows that Christopher not only knows that he is different, but that he wants to be ‘normal’. Christopher has autism, and because of his difficulty interacting with people he is often seen as strange. In pages 198-200, Christopher describes one of his favorite dreams. Mark Haddon uses this opportunity to describe, from Christopher’s point of view, the world that Christopher wishes he lived in.
Christopher realizes that he is different from other people, and he wishes he lived in a world where he was normal. But he doesn’t wish that he was like everyone else, he wishes that the only other people in the world are people like him, with autism. In the dream, almost everyone on earth is dead from a computer virus, and the only ones that survived are autistic people. “And eventually there is no one left in the world except people who don’t look at other people’s faces and who don’t know what these pictures mean (Haddon includes here several pictures of faces expressing different emotions) and these people are all special people like me.” (p. 198-199). In this quote, we see that Christopher would like to be normal by having everyone else be like him.
Christopher likes to be alone, and in his dream he describes the kind of world where he could be alone all the time. In some ways, this dream is very similar to his dream to go to the bottom of the ocean in a tiny submarine all to himself. “And I imagine that I am the only person inside it, and that it is not connected to a ship at all but can operate under its own power and I can control the motors and move anywhere I want to on the seabed and I can never be found.” (p. 80). Christopher likes being alone because when he is alone he isn’t seen as weird or strange, because he is the only one there. He also likes being alone because he is often
In Class Essay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
p. 198-200
9/23/11
In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon, the author shows that Christopher not only knows that he is different, but that he wants to be ‘normal’. Christopher has autism, and because of his difficulty interacting with people he is often seen as strange. In pages 198-200, Christopher describes one of his favorite dreams. Mark Haddon uses this opportunity to describe, from Christopher’s point of view, the world that Christopher wishes he lived in.
Christopher realizes that he is different from other people, and he wishes he lived in a world where he was normal. But he doesn’t wish that he was like everyone else, he wishes that the only other people in the world are people like him, with autism. In the dream, almost everyone on earth is dead from a computer virus, and the only ones that survived are autistic people. “And eventually there is no one left in the world except people who don’t look at other people’s faces and who don’t know what these pictures mean (Haddon includes here several pictures of faces expressing different emotions) and these people are all special people like me.” (p. 198-199). In this quote, we see that Christopher would like to be normal by having everyone else be like him.
Christopher likes to be alone, and in his dream he describes the kind of world where he could be alone all the time. In some ways, this dream is very similar to his dream to go to the bottom of the ocean in a tiny submarine all to himself. “And I imagine that I am the only person inside it, and that it is not connected to a ship at all but can operate under its own power and I can control the motors and move anywhere I want to on the seabed and I can never be found.” (p. 80). Christopher likes being alone because when he is alone he isn’t seen as weird or strange, because he is the only one there. He also likes being alone because he is often