The Curious Incident Of The Dog At Night-Time Analysis
Due to the prevalence of autism, it is not surprising that multitudinous forms of autism-awareness art exists. The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-time by Mark Haddon, “Only if You Knew Me” by Kerry Magro, and “He’s Just a Boy” by Tina M. Frank are a few of the virtually endless texts regarding this topic. When comparing and contrasting these three texts, it is obvious that people are affected individually by autism. Each text portrays their experience with autism by using different literary devices such as narration, repetition, and characterization. To start with, “The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-time” is the most well-known novel related to the topic of autism. Haddon covers this subject by using narration to allow the reader
to relate to people with autism. Since this novel is written in first person point of view of an autistic teenager, readers can understand the limitations of autism more clearly. For example, Christopher’s teacher drew facial expressions for him so he could better understand how people felt. When he attempted to use the expressions as a reference, he realized that “it was very difficult to decide which of the diagrams was most like the face they making because people’s faces move very quickly” (Haddon 3). Body language is a significant part of communication, so it might confuse some people when it appears that an autistic person disregards it. However, after reading this book, readers will be able to understand that people with autism are physically unable to read basic facial expressions. Consequently, they will be substantially less hurt/angry the next time an autistic person is not taking obvious cues. Sadly, the inability to read body language is not the only thing that autistic people struggle with socially. Haddon makes it clear that autistic people are often terrified during social interaction. This is clear when, during an arrest, Christopher was scared and assaulted one of the police officers. Regardless of how absurd Christopher’s behavior may seem, the reader is able to understand that he did this out of fear, because he states that,
“I rolled back onto the lawn and… made the noise that Father calls groaning. I make this noise when there is too much information coming into my head from the outside world. It is like when you are upset and you hold the radio against your ear and you tune it halfway between two stations so that all you get is white noise and then you turn the volume right up so that this is all you can hear and then you know you are safe because you cannot hear anything else.” (Haddon 7-8).
Clearly, it was his anxiety and fear that motivated him to assault the officer. While no abled person is able to relate to attacking a police officer because he was asking questions, they are able to know that it is how autistic people feel and they cannot change it. They understand that not only are autistic people unable to interact socially, but they are anxious to. By writing this book, the author indicates that the ability to understand the limitations of an autistic person can prevent unnecessary judgment and pressure.
to relate to people with autism. Since this novel is written in first person point of view of an autistic teenager, readers can understand the limitations of autism more clearly. For example, Christopher’s teacher drew facial expressions for him so he could better understand how people felt. When he attempted to use the expressions as a reference, he realized that “it was very difficult to decide which of the diagrams was most like the face they making because people’s faces move very quickly” (Haddon 3). Body language is a significant part of communication, so it might confuse some people when it appears that an autistic person disregards it. However, after reading this book, readers will be able to understand that people with autism are physically unable to read basic facial expressions. Consequently, they will be substantially less hurt/angry the next time an autistic person is not taking obvious cues. Sadly, the inability to read body language is not the only thing that autistic people struggle with socially. Haddon makes it clear that autistic people are often terrified during social interaction. This is clear when, during an arrest, Christopher was scared and assaulted one of the police officers. Regardless of how absurd Christopher’s behavior may seem, the reader is able to understand that he did this out of fear, because he states that,
“I rolled back onto the lawn and… made the noise that Father calls groaning. I make this noise when there is too much information coming into my head from the outside world. It is like when you are upset and you hold the radio against your ear and you tune it halfway between two stations so that all you get is white noise and then you turn the volume right up so that this is all you can hear and then you know you are safe because you cannot hear anything else.” (Haddon 7-8).
Clearly, it was his anxiety and fear that motivated him to assault the officer. While no abled person is able to relate to attacking a police officer because he was asking questions, they are able to know that it is how autistic people feel and they cannot change it. They understand that not only are autistic people unable to interact socially, but they are anxious to. By writing this book, the author indicates that the ability to understand the limitations of an autistic person can prevent unnecessary judgment and pressure.