Thomas McMahon English Ms. Mcginnis 10/16/15 11C Commentary: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time” by Mark Haddon is a novel written in the eyes of a special needs child. He seems to have had a rough life, as he is being raised by a single dad after his mom had a heart attack, and he is bullied in school for having Autism. He seems to see the world through very different eyes because of his condition. For example, when his mom died, instead of becoming emotionally hysterical, he asks his father what type of heart attack it was, and analyzes their conditions. He is not emotionless, as we can see on page 3, where he states his actions after seeing a dog with a garden fork through it:
“I pulled the fork out of the dog and lifted him into my arms and hugged him...I like dogs. You always knows what his dog is thinking.”
However, he tends to think of things in a more logical, rational way. Apart from analyzing how his mom died instead of crying about it, this is also displayed in his quest to find out who killed the previously mentioned dog. Christopher seems to be a person who wants to know all of the information. So for at least him, it wouldn’t be logical to just leave it at that. Instead, he takes the information that was given to him and attempts to figure out what’s left. Despite his logical and rational way of thinking, he still has no understanding of human emotions due to his autism. However, he states that he likes dogs because you can always tell what their thinking, which makes me think that Christopher can only comprehend basic human emotion, or things with only one meaning. This was previously explained where he’s shown multiple pictures of faces. He is able to comprehend what is happy and what is sad, but not other more complex faces. These faces he is shown have multiple meanings, which is why he is not able to comprehend them.
Question: How far does the protagonist dive into the adult world, a lot or a little and why?
In my opinion, even by page 50 I can see the change that has already started with Christopher, because he starts to leave his comfort zone and is diving into the adult world further. We can see this when he starts to go around investigating over the killing of Wellington the dog. Christopher hints that he likes to stay within himself but with this case he goes out of his way. “And she said “It’s very nice of you to come and say hello.” I didn’t reply to this either because Mrs. Alexander was doing what is called chatting, where people say things to each other which aren’t questions and answers and not connected.” (P.40) This quote continues to show how Christopher is a very linear person and that he doesn’t like change. Solving the case of Wellingtons death causes Christopher to step out of his comfort and dwell into the adult world. I think that Christopher hasn’t “dived” in to where he’s practically an adult now but more that he’s getting his feet wet and testing it out hence him stepping out of his comfort zone.
EQ: How will this journey help Christopher understand the world better?
Christopher separates the world between logical and illogical theories. By page 50 Christopher has his first clue as to who killed Wellington. After searching his neighbourhood up and down he has come to the conclusion that the only reason someone had the intention to kill Wellington was to make Mrs. Shears “sad”. The only person with any bad history with her seems to be her former husband Mr. Shears. On page 49 author Mark Haddon elaborates on this by writing “Father banged the table with his fist really hard so that the plates and his knife and fork jumped around and my ham jumped sideways so that it touched the broccoli, so I couldn’t eat the ham or the broccoli anymore. Then he shouted, ‘I will not have that man’s name mentioned in my house.’” For his whole life, Christopher has been self absorbed in his own interests, and when something is making him uncomfortable he usually deters from the issue and leaves it behind. While this is convenient for him, it can have a negative effect on the people around him, whom he doesn't usually concern himself with. When Christopher's father explodes about Mr. Shears, Christopher starts to gain a little understanding about peoples sensitivity a little better, which helps him recognize if there's a problem and if he is apart of that problem. On the next page of the book Christopher recognizes his father’s sensitivy to the issue of the death of Wellington that Christopher is exploring, and then promises not to partake in trying to find out who committed the murder on his father’s behalf. This convey’s growth because Christopher is sacrificing his investigation to make his father happy.
What is the character searching for? I believe that the character is searching for how the dog died. But I believe it's deeper than that. I think he's searching for answers to why he's the way he is. He uses the dog's death to spark a journey that’ll make him do things he usually wouldn’t do. As we know Chris likes to find answers and likes knowing the truth but he doesn’t like things like talking to strangers, people touching him, just everything that comes with social interaction. But since he put himself on this quest he is trying to push himself into situations where events like this are necessary, such as the talking to strangers. He pushes himself to do all these things because he wants to find out who killed Wellington. On page 34 he says “Talking to strangers is not something I usually do. I don't like like talking to strangers. This is not because of the Stranger Danger… I do not like strangers because I do not like people i have never met before” revealing that on his journey to find out who killed Wellington he is going to have to talk to people he has never met. He has already been put in this position a couple of times before. I had to talk to the police office and had to deal with Mrs.Shears. Each time he responded in ways that expected to him but I believe he doesn’t want to respond like does.
I think that in "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time", Mark Haddon makes the protagonist a child to show he's searching for more than just a murderer. Christopher, an autistic child, is searching for the killer of Wellington, Mrs. Shears dog. Although Wellington is his main investigation as a "detective", Christopher is also searching for answers to questions he can't answer alone because of his autism. To help him find these answers is his teacher, Siobhan. Siobhan is the only person who REALLY understands Christopher. This can be seen on page three when Christopher says "I got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant." The quote illustrates that there are other things Christopher is searching for besides Wellington's killer, such as complex emotions that he was born without an understanding of because of his neurological disorder.
Has the protagonist matured? If they haven’t grown changed, why?
In “The curious incident of the dog in the night-time,” Christopher searches for the murderer of Wellington. As he searches for the murder of Wellington, he asks his neighbors investigative questions. Christopher matures throughout the text, by doing things on his own. For example, as stated in the text on page 34, “Talking to strangers is not something I usually do. I do not like talking to strangers...I do not like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before.” He matures because, he became brave enough to talk to strangers, even if he didn’t want to. He wanted to discover who killed Wellington, therefore the only way was to talk to strangers. Christopher dislikes meeting new people, because he thinks they are hard to understand. He’s very unsocial, however, as he overcomes his fear of talking to strangers demonstrates that he has matured throughout the text. Adding on, he also stands up for himself. He didn’t listen to what his father said about getting into other people’s business. On page 29, “I decided that I was going to find out who killed Wellington even though Father had told me to stay out of other people’s business.” Even though his father told him to not deal with Mrs. Shears dog, Christopher still decided to investigate. This demonstrates that Christopher has matured, because he ignored his father's orders, and did what he wanted to do. However, there are times when Christopher hasn’t shown much change. He does overcomes his fear by meeting new people, however as he talks to his neighbors, he still feels uncomfortable. For example, on page 38, “Then he laughed. I do not like people laughing at me, so I turned and walked away.” Due to the fact that Mr Wise laughed at him, Christopher felt uncomfortable so he left. However, there could’ve been a possibility that Mr Wise knew answers to the murder of Wellington, but Christopher left due to the uncomfort of his laughing. Christopher demonstrated that he hasn’t grown change based on this specific evidence, because instead of ignoring him, and straightforwardly asking him questions, he felt discomfort and walked away.
Michael Ramsay Ms. Mcginnis 10/16/15 11C What pushes the character to continue his quest? Throughout the story “The curious incident of the dog in the night-time” by Mark Haddon, Christopher continues his quest motivated by Wellington the dog. Christopher is on a mission to find out who and why someone would kill the dog and he is going to find out by acting as if he was in a mystery movie. He will reflect someone who usually does mystery and takes the same path to find out the answer. “I said, ‘I was doing detective work trying to find out who killed Wellington.’” (page, 48.) This indicates that Christopher is motivated to find out who killed Wellington because he wants to show he can detect and find out the real killer of Wellington. This means that Christopher will go to other people’s homes to question them on whether or not they had seen anything at the time of the murder, or even think about possible scenarios of who and why the killer did what he did. You know Wellington is the motivation of Christopher because he also comes out of his comfort zone. “Talking to strangers is not something I usually do. I do not like talking to strangers.” (page 34). This implies that Christopher knows he is autistic and that he has trouble starting conversations and answering to people but he will do it for Wellington because he cares about finding out who killed him. Christopher feels as if people sees him as stupid so he wants to prove other people wrong. So by trying to solve the mystery of Wellington it will show people that he is capable of doing much more. “I am going to prove that I’m not stupid.” (page, 44). This conveys that Christopher is motivated to show people he is not stupid. He wants to show that he is capable of doing much more.
Question: How has the protagonist changed throughout the course of the story so far?
In “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” Mark Haddon uses characterization to show how the protagonist, Christopher, is pushed to change throughout the beginning of the story so far. The main protagonist, Christopher, is a teenager who has autism spectrum disorder. Christopher’s autism almost always gets in the way of how he socializes with other characters throughout the course of the book, especially to people he doesn’t know. On page 34, the day Christopher has decided to investigate the murder of Mrs. Shear’s dog, Wellington, he explicitly states “I do not like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before. They are hard to understand. It is like being in France, which is where we went on holiday sometimes when Mother was alive, to camp. And I hated it because if you went into a shop or a restaurant or on a beach you couldn’t understand what anyone was saying, which is frightening. It takes me a long time to get used to people I do not know.” Christopher is frightened and uncomfortable by the unknown. If Christopher interacts with someone he doesn’t know, he typically wouldn’t talk to them at all (in this case, strangers in general.) This indicates that Christopher has a very difficult time socializing with most people as a result of his autism. However, when delving a bit further into the book, Christopher seems to be pushed to change when he decides that he wants to investigate and find the murderer of Wellington (Mrs. Shear’s dog.) On pages 35-36, Christopher sets out to talk to people in the houses around him to investigate the murder of Wellington. “So talking to the other people in our street was brave. But if you are going to do detective work you have to be brave, so I had no choice...I made sure I had my Swiss Army knife in my pocket and I went out and I knocked on the door of number 40…” Christopher’s sudden determination and motivation to find who killed Wellington seems to push him into talking to people he does not know around his house. The use of the phrase “...I had no choice…” implies that he is forcing himself into the vast unknown. Christopher is pushing himself out of his comfort zone in order to find Wellington’s killer, despite his autism. This goes to show that Christopher’s determination and motivation allows himself to change without his autism holding him back.
How do the characteristics of the protagonist push him to continue his quest?
At the start of the book it can be seen that Christopher is different and makes observations that others might overlook. The chapters of the book are prime numbers which suggest that Christopher has a strong connection to math. Numbers are consistent and have patterns which reveal something about Christopher’s personality. While he is able to understand difficult math concepts and remember all of the countries and their capital cities, Christopher has a difficult time connecting emotions with expressions. The reader can infer that he is precise and analytical because he doesn’t like having to interpret anything. This can be seen on page 3 when Christopher is talking to Siobhan, his therapist. “I got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant. I kept the piece of paper in my pocket and took it out when I didn’t understand what someone was saying.”. Christopher uses these pictures as a definite guide to understanding other’s emotions which proves to be ineffective. This part of his character shows that Christopher looks for immutable answers to the questions or problems that he faces. His analytical mind mixed with his curiosity encourages Christopher to continue investigating Wellington’s death, even after his father makes him promise to stop asking people about the dog. A possible motive fueling his obsession with Wellington could be that dogs are predictable and easier for him to understand than people. This idea can be seen on page 4 when Christopher is explaining why he likes dogs. “I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy. sad. cross. and concentrating. Also dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot speak.” This quote conveys to the reader that it was easier for Christopher to relate to a simple animal than a complicated being. We can only guess the driving forces behind his incessant exploration of the dog’s death. One can infer that his motivations were infact a complicated juncture of reasons formed from compulsive behavior as well as emotional attachment issues.
E.Q: What is the nature of the protagonist’s quest?
In the first few chapters of “curious incident of the dog in the night time”, we see the main protagonist Christopher who has autism spectrum disorder, petting his neighbor’s dead dog, Wellington. This immediately tells us that Wellington was very important to Christopher. As the book progresses, Mrs. Shears, the owner of the dead dog and Christopher’s neighbor discovers that Wellington is dead and starts to blame Christopher since he is the only one petting the dog at midnight. Christopher tries to defend himself and convince Mrs. Shears that he did not kill Wellington, and that in fact he loved him. This now causes the protagonists quest to arrive, Christopher is now determined to find out who killed Wellington and why because he loved the dog and considered him as a friend. As we continue to read we see Christopher stopping house-to-house asking if they killed Wellington or asking if they knew who did it. We see this when Christopher approaches his other neighbor, Mrs. Alexander asking questions about Wellington, “…’Do you know who killed Wellington?” (Pg. 39) this quote immediately tells us that Christopher is determined to figure out who murdered his neighbors dog Wellington. Not only does Christopher continue to ask who killed Wellington but also he says something very unique, “And she said, “We haven’t talked before, have we.” I said, ‘No. I don’t like talking to strangers. But I’m doing detective work.” (Pg. 39). This conveys that the dog, Wellington has forced Christopher to converse with people although he doesn’t really like it. It implies that Wellington has made a positive impact and continues to on Christopher’s life. Thus, the nature’s quest is more than to just find who murdered Wellington but it is to learn to take small and innocent risks, such as socializing with people. These small risks such are extremely difficult to accomplish with just an ordinary person. Christopher being autistic makes it even more difficult to communicate with people however he still attempts to because of Wellington.
I agree with this commentary and it also poses the question: Do Christopher’s personality traits play a role in what causes him to continue his quest?
In “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” the author illustrates Christopher’s characteristics by having him explain his emotions + what he observed throughout certain situations. It is clear from the beginning of the book that Christopher has a difficult time understanding people + connect with them on a personal level. I find it interesting that Christopher is more willing to have physical contact with a dog than a human. On page 3 it can be seen that Christopher is comfortable hugging Wellington’s lifeless body. “I pulled the fork out of the dog and lifted him into my arms and hugged him. While Christopher is completely comfortable with Wellington he struggles with physical contact with other people. “And Mother put her arms around me and said, ‘Christopher, Christopher, Christopher.’ And I pushed her away because she was grabbing me and I didn’t like it.” (Page 191). Christopher’s journey is fueled by his search for answers and not being able to understand people compels him to expand his knowledge.
EQ: To what extent does the protagonist change in the course of the story?
The story starts of when the main character Christopher finds the neighbor's dog Wellington dead with a pitch fork inside of him. He proceeds to remove the fork from the dog and then decides to hold the dog and then the police arrive and Christopher proceeded to assault the police officer because he felt that the officer touched him inappropriately so they take him into jail, question him and Christopher is intrigued with the whole legal system and when the officer questioned him Christopher didn’t want to hold back from telling the truth as to why he hit the officer due to his autism he tends to be childlike and little kids don't tend to tell lies. On page 34 Christopher is stating that he doesn't like being around people who he's not familiar with and it shows how old he really is mentally,“Talking to strangers is not something I usually do. I don't like like talking to strangers. This is not because of the Stranger Danger… I do not like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before," this shows his maturity level because you wouldn't hear an adult or even a teenager saying that they must not talk to strangers. Christopher so far hasn't really changed much in the story because it's only the beginning but he's very strategic and he likes to be through when it comes to this that matter to him and his therapist Siobhan is very helpful and has his best interest at all times. I think so far what's holding Christopher back is society because they don't want understand him and too busy too just have a conversation with him.
The novel “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time” the author portrays Christopher, a growing teen with autism as a very observant and intellectual young man whose drive is to find the killer of the dog, wellington. Mark Haddon foreshadows this as through the story Christopher discovers this is not all he is searching for. The dog death seems to have an effect on him which brings him to talk more about his mother, who has also passed away, although the emotion shown for both differs immensely. Christopher appears to be searching for wellington's killer but the reason is very broad. This represented on page 28 he states “ I decided that I was going to find out who killed Wellington even though Father had told me to stay out of other people's businesses.” Christopher potentiality has a connection to Wellington because he was unable to fully cope with his mother's death. The author suggest that by finding Wellington's killer he will potentially come to peace about his mother's death. He can also be searching for new experiences or coming out of his shell This is seen where he talks meeting bew people seen on page 35 where he says "So talking to the other people in our street was brave. But if you are going to do detective work you have to be brave, so i had no choice" . This quote elaborates on the fact that he is pushing for new experiences even if they are out of his comfort zone. He shows dedication when something, such as animals or potentially his mother drives him. As the story ccontinues, Christopher most likely will develop a new found understanding on how the world work.
The novel “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time” the author portrays Christopher, a growing teen with autism as a very observant and intellectual young man whose drive is to find the killer of the dog, wellington. Mark Haddon foreshadows this as through the story Christopher discovers this is not all he is searching for. The dog death seems to have an effect on him which brings him to talk more about his mother, who has also passed away, although the emotion shown for both differs immensely. Christopher appears to be searching for wellington's killer but the reason is very broad. This represented on page 28 he states “ I decided that I was going to find out who killed Wellington even though Father had told me to stay out of other people's businesses.” Christopher potentiality has a connection to Wellington because he was unable to fully cope with his mother's death. The author suggest that by finding Wellington's killer he will potentially come to peace about his mother's death. He can also be searching for new experiences or coming out of his shell This is seen where he talks meeting bew people seen on page 35 where he says "So talking to the other people in our street was brave. But if you are going to do detective work you have to be brave, so i had no choice" . This quote elaborates on the fact that he is pushing for new experiences even if they are out of his comfort zone. He shows dedication when something, such as animals or potentially his mother drives him. As the story ccontinues, Christopher most likely will develop a new found understanding on how the world work.
Has the protagonist matured? If they haven’t grown changed, why?
In “The curious incident of the dog in the night-time,” by Mark Haddon, Christopher finds a dog named Wellington murdered by a gardening fork. Despite people telling him not to investigate Christopher decides to do some detective work to find out who the murderer is. In doing so he begins to mature by going outside his comfort zone. One way he does this is by talking to his neighbors who are strangers to him. Haddon writes “I do not like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before. They are hard to understand...So talking to other people in our street was brave. But if you are going to do detective work you have to be brave, so I had no choice.” (Page 34-35) This demonstrates how Christopher’s detective work is moving him outside his comfort zone. In order to do his detective work he must do talk to his neighbors which he doesn’t like to do. If the detective work didn’t require talking to strangers Christopher wouldn’t talk to his neighbors.
Another way Christopher is moving out his comfort zone is by lying. Christopher doesn’t like lying because the ambiguity of the lies he could tell hurts his heads. As well he says that he never tells a lie. When his father hears Christopher is continuing to investigate Wellington's death, his dad wants Christopher to make a promise. Haddon writes “I did know what it meant when you say you promise something. You have to say that you will never do something again and then you must never do it because that would make the promise a lie. I said “I know
Father said, “Promise me you will stop doing these things. Pomise that you will give up this ridiculous game right now, OK?”
I said, “I promise.’”(Page 50) This also reveals Christopher stepping out of his comfort zone because he decided to lie. While this is not a complex lie that would hurt Christopher’s head it is still a lie that he says he never does. This is different from Christopher’s behavior at the police station where he tells the truth that didn’t help him. He could have told a simple lie like he just did but then he still wouldn’t tell any lie. These two examples convey Christopher’s development early on in the book.
What is the character searching for? While reading “ the curious incident of the dog in the night - time” many readers may think that Christopher is really searching for who killed the dog. The more I read into the story I feel that he uses this case or situation to try and gain some experience so that he actually figure out another case. For instance Christopher’s mother passed away around 2 years ago and she died from heart attack. He always talks about his strong love for his mother and how loved he felt from his mother. Christopher is a very curious person, and he likes to know everything and reasons why things are the way that they are. Since Christopher is like this I feel the death of his mother has impacted him a lot because she had a heart attack that was completely unexpected. On page 27 it states a conversation with Christopher and his father telling him that his mother had passed away. “ Father said that she died of a heart attack and it wasn’t even expected. I said, What kind of heart attack ? because I was surprised… Father said that he didn’t know what kind of heart attack she had and now wasn’t the moment to be asking questions like that”. Christopher being the way he is of course he reacted in a un normal way and asked what kind of heart attack his mother had. Christopher didn’t really have time to react to his mother death because he was to worried thinking about what kind of heart attack she had, since his father never told him what kind of heart attack she had Christopher never had like a full/real response on how his mother died. Since Christopher loves to know why things happen the way they do I can imagine that it has been killing him inside not only what kind of heart attack killed his mother, and because of that I feel like he is taking this “who killed the dog incident” into making it a bigger deal because he can’t live with the fact knowing that he will never know how his mom died if he can’t figure out who killed the dog. For Christopher not always having the ability to always know why things happen the way they do it kills him inside because he wants to know everything, because of this I feel that this story is going to be a developing story because it's going to show how Christopher changes throughout the story how he learns from his life.
The nature of his quest is to find out who killed the dog Wellington that Mrs. Shears had in her garden. This all started because Christopher found the dog dead in front of her yard with a large pitchfork stuck in it. Christopher noticed all of this because he is a very observant protagonist and this meant that he noticed everything that happened at this so called crime scene with Wellington. Christopher has behavioral problems like not liking to be touched and also not liking to be yelled at. This is important because it all connects to what his quest is. When he found the dog he tried to comfort it and hold it even though it was already dead. Mrs. Shears saw him and yelled at him and this is important because he doesn’t like being yelled at so he tries to block it out and then when the police arrived he hit one of the cops because he doesn’t like being touched. He also is a very honest person and most importantly Christopher says in the book that he does stupid things. His father who plays a really important role in his life said that he should stop trying to find out who killed the dog. Now the father plays an important role in his life because he is the only parent figure he has because Christopher’s mom died. What Christopher wants to do is find out who killed the dog and this is because I believe he cares about Mrs. Shears because him and her used to have a good relationship as he talks about what she did after his mom died. He explains that after his mom died, she came over a lot and cooked a lot for him and then he talks about how she got a divorce also and then this is when he implies that the divorce left her with a lot of time on her hands because she didn’t have to do anything for her husband anymore so she focused a lot of her time on them, because she knew that Christopher’s dad and him were going through trauma because of his mother’s passing. This also suggests that Mrs. Shears cared about his family enough to come over a lot and help around there house. This can reveal that Mrs. Shears and Christopher’s dad had a strong friendship but that has also since passed because she stopped coming over a lot it says. What I notice the most is that Christopher investigates further to find out who did it to let her know what happened. I believe that Christopher wants to find out who killed her dog to make her happy.
IQ: What Pushes the character to continue his quest?
Christopher never loses focus when he is trying to do something. I would say that his personality is what keeps him focused on whether it’s figuring something out or trying to help people or anything else. His mindset is always focused on what he is set out to do, and rarely is able to be distracted by anything or anyone. His mood does not frequently change mostly because he doesn’t tend to get off track and this contributes to the tone in which the story is told. Christopher’s knack for wanting to solve mysteries is what pushes him to continue his current quest. Also, his natural curiosity that enables him to constantly ask questions to help himself understand the most complex questions only aid him more in achieving his ultimate goal. Christopher has behavioral issues that only make his thinking differ from everyone else, but in a way makes him unique around the people he interacts with in the first few pages of the story. We see that he his kind kid who only wants to help those who may be in need. We also see that Christopher is kid who reacts only on instinct and does not really provide us to know whether or not he has a thinking process to his actions. When Christopher hits the police officer because the police officer touches him it is just another example of Christopher doing what in his mind was the only thing to do.
The main character Christopher is writing a mystery novel about a murder of the next door neighbor's dog whom had been stabbed by a garden fork. The story switches from the novel and Christopher talking to a character named Siobhan. Throughout his mystery novel Christopher is explaining the events happening and his way of reacting to them, and as the story progresses you see the difference in how any other person might have done in the situation he was in rather than how he dealt with it. In chapter 11, page 7 and 8 Christopher explains his interaction with an officer who was called to the crime scene. He acted differently than anyone else would, example “He was asking too many questions and he was asking them too quickly. They were stacking up in my head like loaves in the factory where Uncle Terry works. The factory is a bakery and he operates the slicing machines. And sometimes a slicer is not working fast enough but the bread keeps on coming and there is always a bread-slicing machine…..” Also, “The Policeman said, ‘I’m going to ask you once again….’ I rolled back onto the lawn and pressed my forehead to the ground again 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. The policeman took hold of my arm and lifted me onto my feet. I didn’t like him touching me like this. And this is when I hit him.” This entire chunk of evidence shows the way Christopher had acted towards the officer as it being an action differently than most people. It’s almost like he believes he is living in the fantasy of a Mystery Novel of which he loves. He purposely went up to the dead dog and hugged and it he reacted negatively towards the cop causing everything to go down and he isn't even upset about it. It seems more as if Christopher is attempting to live the life of his favorite detective Sherlock Holmes for at least one day in his life and this opportunity is the perfect time to do so.
Question: How has the protagonist change over the course of the text?
In the course of the story Christopher has been trying to find out who had killed the dog, Wellington. Christopher has made it his mission to find out who was wellington's killer. We can see a major change at pg 50 when his father says, “I'm going to make you promise, Christopher. And you know what that means when i make you promise .” Christopher can not lie so by making this promise with his dad he has to stop investigating about the death of Wellington. But since he had really wanted to try to find out who it was he might break that promise and do something that he has never done before. When Christophe goes out to try to do detective work he realizes that he will have to talk to strangers which he hates to do, but he says that so talking to other people in our street was brave.
The character has this “quest” in which he is trying to find out who had killed the dog in his neighborhood. He is very attached to this quest for he follows his own way of living in his personal reality. He finds the dog dead and is accused multiple times of being the person who killed the dog. After getting yelled at by the owner, arrested and told to leave the situation alone, he continues to search for who the murderer was. Being the observant and insightful person that he is, Christopher follows what he believes and takes pride in his interest. Though his father told him to “leave it” and before told him to “Stay out of other people’s business”, Christopher did not understand what this had meant. The impact that the father has on his autistic child causes the character to want to continue his quest. Trying to take someone away from what the desire in such a condition will not cause them to listen and to stop. It would make them rebel in a way that they did not know they were capable of doing so. Christopher does not mean any harm in what he says or does, but he is very strong and independent, and will continue to follow what he desires. While continuing on the search for the murderer, Christopher comes to a “distaction” by one of the neighbors. Mrs. Alexander attempts and gets her way through Christopher. Being mentioned multiple times, he does not like to have conversations with people. This social interaction is something that causes him to stay quiet. Thus why he says that conversations are “ where people say things to each other which aren’t questions and answers and aren’t connected”
Jacqueline Lopez Larios What is the nature of the protagonist quest?
In the book “The curious incident of the dog in the night-time" Christopher’s quest is to discover who murdered Mrs.Shear’s dog. In my perspective the nature quest for christopher is to stand out to people on the type of person he is. Christopher mentions about how he wants his name to define who he is. This can be seen in page 16 when he talks about the meaning of his name. “ Mother used to say that it meant Christopher was a nice name because it was a story about being kind and hopeful but I do not want my name to mean a story about being kind and hopeful. I want my name to mean me.” Christopher wants his name to define who he actually is as a person not by, a saint nor by what others define the name. Christopher show others how he stands out doesn’t matter if he autistic. This can be seen through the book how he engaged on discovering the mystery of the death of the dog. Christopher notices the very small details and is able to remember them is can be seen in chapter 67 when Christopher is going door by door in this neighborhood investigating the murder crime; Christopher remembers all his neighbor's names by the small details of their physical appearance. Christopher can recognize and admit to his actions such as, recognizing that he can’t lie and admitting that his he gets touch no matter who they are he going to him them because he doesn’t being touched or hugged by people. Since he doesn’t like things being left into interpretation he rather likes things to be predictable. For example in page 24 when he can predict how the day is going to go by the number of red or yellow cars his sees on his way to school.
Sorry for the late comment! I thought it posted last week but it has come to my attention that it did not.
Alex Castillo
Commentary: The curious incident of the dog in the night-time This poem seems to portray the life of a troubled child, Christopher, who is autistic. He has a rather sad life story, and does not seem to have many friends. His only friend seems to be Siobhan, a special needs carer. This is definitely an initiation story, as to Christopher wants to find out who killed the dog, Wellington, but ends up finding more about himself in the end. (I watched the play, so I know the plot.) During the first 50 pages, he tries to find out who killed Wellington, but most people don’t care/don’t know. His dad wants him to stop, saying on page 50, “(...)Look at me, you are not to go asking Mrs. Shears about who killed that bloody dog. You are not to go asking anyone about who killed that bloody dog.”. Christopher does not seem to comprehend human expressions. For example, he does not understand a lot of jokes. He does not understand human emotions, on page 3, saying, “Then she drew some other pictures (Pictures of faces) but I was unable to say what these meant.” For me, this story is not about this kid trying to solve a mystery about a dead dog, but rather, investigating the dead dog seems to be the start of something for Christopher, something he cannot comprehend, but he will try to.
The character’s motivation to continue his quest is his curiosity to solve a puzzle or mystery which ends up with a logical reason and as he gather clues or try to, he finds out other information also. On page 2, the narrator says “I stroked Wellington and wondered who had killed him, and why.” This implies that his curiosity encouraged his thinking and thought about who and why someone killed the dog. On page 5, the narrator, himself, states that he likes murder mystery novels because it's a puzzle and at the end of the puzzle, there’s always a logical reason. In other words, he likes things with logical reasons and don't like anything that doesn't have any evidence to it. On page 24 as he described “..4 red cards in a row made it a Good Day, 3 red cards in a row made it a Qutie Good Day, and 5 red cards in a row made it a Super Good Day, and why 4 yellow cars made it a Black Day” and said “I liked things to be in a nice order. And one way of things being in a nice order was to be logical.” This conveys that he likes things being predictable because it has sequence and he knows whats going on. A mystery is similar to that because there’ll always be a why, what, where, when, how and thats the order in the mystery. It’ll also be the logical reason why that criminal did what he/she did. On page 31 when he tries to find clues, he trespass Mrs.Shears lawn and Mrs.Shears found out and said that she’ll call the police if he doesnt leave and this reveals that his curiosity pushes him to trespass someone’s property just to find clues for solving the mystery. On page 49, when Christopher was being yelled at by his father, their discussion including his investigation on the dead dog and this made his dad really upset. This demonstrates that his curiosity is hurting his relationship with his dad because his his dad starts to yell at him about investigating and bringing a name up which the dad doesnt want to hear.
Thomas McMahon
ReplyDeleteEnglish
Ms. Mcginnis
10/16/15
11C
Commentary: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time” by Mark Haddon is a novel written in the eyes of a special needs child. He seems to have had a rough life, as he is being raised by a single dad after his mom had a heart attack, and he is bullied in school for having Autism. He seems to see the world through very different eyes because of his condition. For example, when his mom died, instead of becoming emotionally hysterical, he asks his father what type of heart attack it was, and analyzes their conditions. He is not emotionless, as we can see on page 3, where he states his actions after seeing a dog with a garden fork through it:
“I pulled the fork out of the dog and lifted him into my arms and hugged him...I like dogs. You always knows what his dog is thinking.”
However, he tends to think of things in a more logical, rational way. Apart from analyzing how his mom died instead of crying about it, this is also displayed in his quest to find out who killed the previously mentioned dog. Christopher seems to be a person who wants to know all of the information. So for at least him, it wouldn’t be logical to just leave it at that. Instead, he takes the information that was given to him and attempts to figure out what’s left. Despite his logical and rational way of thinking, he still has no understanding of human emotions due to his autism. However, he states that he likes dogs because you can always tell what their thinking, which makes me think that Christopher can only comprehend basic human emotion, or things with only one meaning. This was previously explained where he’s shown multiple pictures of faces. He is able to comprehend what is happy and what is sad, but not other more complex faces. These faces he is shown have multiple meanings, which is why he is not able to comprehend them.
Question: How far does the protagonist dive into the adult world, a lot or a little and why?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, even by page 50 I can see the change that has already started with Christopher, because he starts to leave his comfort zone and is diving into the adult world further. We can see this when he starts to go around investigating over the killing of Wellington the dog. Christopher hints that he likes to stay within himself but with this case he goes out of his way. “And she said “It’s very nice of you to come and say hello.” I didn’t reply to this either because Mrs. Alexander was doing what is called chatting, where people say things to each other which aren’t questions and answers and not connected.” (P.40) This quote continues to show how Christopher is a very linear person and that he doesn’t like change. Solving the case of Wellingtons death causes Christopher to step out of his comfort and dwell into the adult world. I think that Christopher hasn’t “dived” in to where he’s practically an adult now but more that he’s getting his feet wet and testing it out hence him stepping out of his comfort zone.
Jack Doyle
ReplyDelete11C
Ms. McGinnis
Commentary
EQ: How will this journey help Christopher understand the world better?
Christopher separates the world between logical and illogical theories. By page 50 Christopher has his first clue as to who killed Wellington. After searching his neighbourhood up and down he has come to the conclusion that the only reason someone had the intention to kill Wellington was to make Mrs. Shears “sad”. The only person with any bad history with her seems to be her former husband Mr. Shears. On page 49 author Mark Haddon elaborates on this by writing “Father banged the table with his fist really hard so that the plates and his knife and fork jumped around and my ham jumped sideways so that it touched the broccoli, so I couldn’t eat the ham or the broccoli anymore. Then he shouted, ‘I will not have that man’s name mentioned in my house.’” For his whole life, Christopher has been self absorbed in his own interests, and when something is making him uncomfortable he usually deters from the issue and leaves it behind. While this is convenient for him, it can have a negative effect on the people around him, whom he doesn't usually concern himself with. When Christopher's father explodes about Mr. Shears, Christopher starts to gain a little understanding about peoples sensitivity a little better, which helps him recognize if there's a problem and if he is apart of that problem. On the next page of the book Christopher recognizes his father’s sensitivy to the issue of the death of Wellington that Christopher is exploring, and then promises not to partake in trying to find out who committed the murder on his father’s behalf. This convey’s growth because Christopher is sacrificing his investigation to make his father happy.
Danny Ramirez
ReplyDeleteEnglish
10/16/15
What is the character searching for?
I believe that the character is searching for how the dog died. But I believe it's deeper than that.
I think he's searching for answers to why he's the way he is. He uses the dog's death to spark a journey that’ll make him do things he usually wouldn’t do. As we know Chris likes to find answers and likes knowing the truth but he doesn’t like things like talking to strangers, people touching him, just everything that comes with social interaction. But since he put himself on this quest he is trying to push himself into situations where events like this are necessary, such as the talking to strangers. He pushes himself to do all these things because he wants to find out who killed Wellington. On page 34 he says “Talking to strangers is not something I usually do. I don't like like talking to strangers. This is not because of the Stranger Danger… I do not like strangers because I do not like people i have never met before” revealing that on his journey to find out who killed Wellington he is going to have to talk to people he has never met. He has already been put in this position a couple of times before. I had to talk to the police office and had to deal with Mrs.Shears. Each time he responded in ways that expected to him but I believe he doesn’t want to respond like does.
Jourdon Strobe
ReplyDeleteEnglish
Ms. Mcginnis
10/16/15
EQ: What is the character searching for?
I think that in "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time", Mark Haddon makes the protagonist a child to show he's searching for more than just a murderer. Christopher, an autistic child, is searching for the killer of Wellington, Mrs. Shears dog. Although Wellington is his main investigation as a "detective", Christopher is also searching for answers to questions he can't answer alone because of his autism. To help him find these answers is his teacher, Siobhan. Siobhan is the only person who REALLY understands Christopher. This can be seen on page three when Christopher says "I got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant." The quote illustrates that there are other things Christopher is searching for besides Wellington's killer, such as complex emotions that he was born without an understanding of because of his neurological disorder.
Ashley Kwong
ReplyDeleteHas the protagonist matured? If they haven’t grown changed, why?
In “The curious incident of the dog in the night-time,” Christopher searches for the murderer of Wellington. As he searches for the murder of Wellington, he asks his neighbors investigative questions. Christopher matures throughout the text, by doing things on his own. For example, as stated in the text on page 34, “Talking to strangers is not something I usually do. I do not like talking to strangers...I do not like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before.” He matures because, he became brave enough to talk to strangers, even if he didn’t want to. He wanted to discover who killed Wellington, therefore the only way was to talk to strangers. Christopher dislikes meeting new people, because he thinks they are hard to understand. He’s very unsocial, however, as he overcomes his fear of talking to strangers demonstrates that he has matured throughout the text. Adding on, he also stands up for himself. He didn’t listen to what his father said about getting into other people’s business. On page 29, “I decided that I was going to find out who killed Wellington even though Father had told me to stay out of other people’s business.” Even though his father told him to not deal with Mrs. Shears dog, Christopher still decided to investigate. This demonstrates that Christopher has matured, because he ignored his father's orders, and did what he wanted to do. However, there are times when Christopher hasn’t shown much change. He does overcomes his fear by meeting new people, however as he talks to his neighbors, he still feels uncomfortable. For example, on page 38, “Then he laughed. I do not like people laughing at me, so I turned and walked away.” Due to the fact that Mr Wise laughed at him, Christopher felt uncomfortable so he left. However, there could’ve been a possibility that Mr Wise knew answers to the murder of Wellington, but Christopher left due to the uncomfort of his laughing. Christopher demonstrated that he hasn’t grown change based on this specific evidence, because instead of ignoring him, and straightforwardly asking him questions, he felt discomfort and walked away.
Michael Ramsay
ReplyDeleteMs. Mcginnis
10/16/15
11C
What pushes the character to continue his quest?
Throughout the story “The curious incident of the dog in the night-time” by Mark Haddon, Christopher continues his quest motivated by Wellington the dog. Christopher is on a mission to find out who and why someone would kill the dog and he is going to find out by acting as if he was in a mystery movie. He will reflect someone who usually does mystery and takes the same path to find out the answer. “I said, ‘I was doing detective work trying to find out who killed Wellington.’” (page, 48.) This indicates that Christopher is motivated to find out who killed Wellington because he wants to show he can detect and find out the real killer of Wellington. This means that Christopher will go to other people’s homes to question them on whether or not they had seen anything at the time of the murder, or even think about possible scenarios of who and why the killer did what he did. You know Wellington is the motivation of Christopher because he also comes out of his comfort zone. “Talking to strangers is not something I usually do. I do not like talking to strangers.” (page 34). This implies that Christopher knows he is autistic and that he has trouble starting conversations and answering to people but he will do it for Wellington because he cares about finding out who killed him. Christopher feels as if people sees him as stupid so he wants to prove other people wrong. So by trying to solve the mystery of Wellington it will show people that he is capable of doing much more. “I am going to prove that I’m not stupid.” (page, 44). This conveys that Christopher is motivated to show people he is not stupid. He wants to show that he is capable of doing much more.
Alden Radoncic
ReplyDeleteQuestion: How has the protagonist changed throughout the course of the story so far?
In “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” Mark Haddon uses characterization to show how the protagonist, Christopher, is pushed to change throughout the beginning of the story so far. The main protagonist, Christopher, is a teenager who has autism spectrum disorder. Christopher’s autism almost always gets in the way of how he socializes with other characters throughout the course of the book, especially to people he doesn’t know. On page 34, the day Christopher has decided to investigate the murder of Mrs. Shear’s dog, Wellington, he explicitly states “I do not like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before. They are hard to understand. It is like being in France, which is where we went on holiday sometimes when Mother was alive, to camp. And I hated it because if you went into a shop or a restaurant or on a beach you couldn’t understand what anyone was saying, which is frightening. It takes me a long time to get used to people I do not know.” Christopher is frightened and uncomfortable by the unknown. If Christopher interacts with someone he doesn’t know, he typically wouldn’t talk to them at all (in this case, strangers in general.) This indicates that Christopher has a very difficult time socializing with most people as a result of his autism.
However, when delving a bit further into the book, Christopher seems to be pushed to change when he decides that he wants to investigate and find the murderer of Wellington (Mrs. Shear’s dog.) On pages 35-36, Christopher sets out to talk to people in the houses around him to investigate the murder of Wellington. “So talking to the other people in our street was brave. But if you are going to do detective work you have to be brave, so I had no choice...I made sure I had my Swiss Army knife in my pocket and I went out and I knocked on the door of number 40…” Christopher’s sudden determination and motivation to find who killed Wellington seems to push him into talking to people he does not know around his house. The use of the phrase “...I had no choice…” implies that he is forcing himself into the vast unknown. Christopher is pushing himself out of his comfort zone in order to find Wellington’s killer, despite his autism. This goes to show that Christopher’s determination and motivation allows himself to change without his autism holding him back.
How do the characteristics of the protagonist push him to continue his quest?
ReplyDeleteAt the start of the book it can be seen that Christopher is different and makes observations that others might overlook. The chapters of the book are prime numbers which suggest that Christopher has a strong connection to math. Numbers are consistent and have patterns which reveal something about Christopher’s personality. While he is able to understand difficult math concepts and remember all of the countries and their capital cities, Christopher has a difficult time connecting emotions with expressions. The reader can infer that he is precise and analytical because he doesn’t like having to interpret anything. This can be seen on page 3 when Christopher is talking to Siobhan, his therapist. “I got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant. I kept the piece of paper in my pocket and took it out when I didn’t understand what someone was saying.”. Christopher uses these pictures as a definite guide to understanding other’s emotions which proves to be ineffective. This part of his character shows that Christopher looks for immutable answers to the questions or problems that he faces.
His analytical mind mixed with his curiosity encourages Christopher to continue investigating Wellington’s death, even after his father makes him promise to stop asking people about the dog. A possible motive fueling his obsession with Wellington could be that dogs are predictable and easier for him to understand than people. This idea can be seen on page 4 when Christopher is explaining why he likes dogs. “I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy. sad. cross. and concentrating. Also dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot speak.” This quote conveys to the reader that it was easier for Christopher to relate to a simple animal than a complicated being. We can only guess the driving forces behind his incessant exploration of the dog’s death. One can infer that his motivations were infact a complicated juncture of reasons formed from compulsive behavior as well as emotional attachment issues.
Doris Gasic
ReplyDeleteMs. Mcginnis
English
18 October 2015
E.Q: What is the nature of the protagonist’s quest?
In the first few chapters of “curious incident of the dog in the night time”, we see the main protagonist Christopher who has autism spectrum disorder, petting his neighbor’s dead dog, Wellington. This immediately tells us that Wellington was very important to Christopher. As the book progresses, Mrs. Shears, the owner of the dead dog and Christopher’s neighbor discovers that Wellington is dead and starts to blame Christopher since he is the only one petting the dog at midnight. Christopher tries to defend himself and convince Mrs. Shears that he did not kill Wellington, and that in fact he loved him. This now causes the protagonists quest to arrive, Christopher is now determined to find out who killed Wellington and why because he loved the dog and considered him as a friend. As we continue to read we see Christopher stopping house-to-house asking if they killed Wellington or asking if they knew who did it. We see this when Christopher approaches his other neighbor, Mrs. Alexander asking questions about Wellington, “…’Do you know who killed Wellington?” (Pg. 39) this quote immediately tells us that Christopher is determined to figure out who murdered his neighbors dog Wellington. Not only does Christopher continue to ask who killed Wellington but also he says something very unique, “And she said, “We haven’t talked before, have we.” I said, ‘No. I don’t like talking to strangers. But I’m doing detective work.” (Pg. 39). This conveys that the dog, Wellington has forced Christopher to converse with people although he doesn’t really like it. It implies that Wellington has made a positive impact and continues to on Christopher’s life. Thus, the nature’s quest is more than to just find who murdered Wellington but it is to learn to take small and innocent risks, such as socializing with people. These small risks such are extremely difficult to accomplish with just an ordinary person. Christopher being autistic makes it even more difficult to communicate with people however he still attempts to because of Wellington.
I agree with this commentary and it also poses the question:
DeleteDo Christopher’s personality traits play a role in what causes him to continue his quest?
In “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” the author illustrates Christopher’s characteristics by having him explain his emotions + what he observed throughout certain situations. It is clear from the beginning of the book that Christopher has a difficult time understanding people + connect with them on a personal level. I find it interesting that Christopher is more willing to have physical contact with a dog than a human. On page 3 it can be seen that Christopher is comfortable hugging Wellington’s lifeless body. “I pulled the fork out of the dog and lifted him into my arms and hugged him. While Christopher is completely comfortable with Wellington he struggles with physical contact with other people. “And Mother put her arms around me and said, ‘Christopher, Christopher, Christopher.’ And I pushed her away because she was grabbing me and I didn’t like it.” (Page 191). Christopher’s journey is fueled by his search for answers and not being able to understand people compels him to expand his knowledge.
Victoria Todd-Henry
ReplyDelete11C
10-16-15
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time
EQ: To what extent does the protagonist change in the course of the story?
The story starts of when the main character Christopher finds the neighbor's dog Wellington dead with a pitch fork inside of him. He proceeds to remove the fork from the dog and then decides to hold the dog and then the police arrive and Christopher proceeded to assault the police officer because he felt that the officer touched him inappropriately so they take him into jail, question him and Christopher is intrigued with the whole legal system and when the officer questioned him Christopher didn’t want to hold back from telling the truth as to why he hit the officer due to his autism he tends to be childlike and little kids don't tend to tell lies. On page 34 Christopher is stating that he doesn't like being around people who he's not familiar with and it shows how old he really is mentally,“Talking to strangers is not something I usually do. I don't like like talking to strangers. This is not because of the Stranger Danger… I do not like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before," this shows his maturity level because you wouldn't hear an adult or even a teenager saying that they must not talk to strangers.
Christopher so far hasn't really changed much in the story because it's only the beginning but he's very strategic and he likes to be through when it comes to this that matter to him and his therapist Siobhan is very helpful and has his best interest at all times. I think so far what's holding Christopher back is society because they don't want understand him and too busy too just have a conversation with him.
What pushes the character to continue his quest?
ReplyDeleteThe novel “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time” the author portrays Christopher, a growing teen with autism as a very observant and intellectual young man whose drive is to find the killer of the dog, wellington. Mark Haddon foreshadows this as through the story Christopher discovers this is not all he is searching for. The dog death seems to have an effect on him which brings him to talk more about his mother, who has also passed away, although the emotion shown for both differs immensely. Christopher appears to be searching for wellington's killer but the reason is very broad. This represented on page 28 he states “ I decided that I was going to find out who killed Wellington even though Father had told me to stay out of other people's businesses.” Christopher potentiality has a connection to Wellington because he was unable to fully cope with his mother's death. The author suggest that by finding Wellington's killer he will potentially come to peace about his mother's death. He can also be searching for new experiences or coming out of his shell This is seen where he talks meeting bew people seen on page 35 where he says "So talking to the other people in our street was brave. But if you are going to do detective work you have to be brave, so i had no choice" . This quote elaborates on the fact that he is pushing for new experiences even if they are out of his comfort zone. He shows dedication when something, such as animals or potentially his mother drives him. As the story ccontinues, Christopher most likely will develop a new found understanding on how the world work.
What pushes the character to continue his quest?
ReplyDeleteThe novel “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time” the author portrays Christopher, a growing teen with autism as a very observant and intellectual young man whose drive is to find the killer of the dog, wellington. Mark Haddon foreshadows this as through the story Christopher discovers this is not all he is searching for. The dog death seems to have an effect on him which brings him to talk more about his mother, who has also passed away, although the emotion shown for both differs immensely. Christopher appears to be searching for wellington's killer but the reason is very broad. This represented on page 28 he states “ I decided that I was going to find out who killed Wellington even though Father had told me to stay out of other people's businesses.” Christopher potentiality has a connection to Wellington because he was unable to fully cope with his mother's death. The author suggest that by finding Wellington's killer he will potentially come to peace about his mother's death. He can also be searching for new experiences or coming out of his shell This is seen where he talks meeting bew people seen on page 35 where he says "So talking to the other people in our street was brave. But if you are going to do detective work you have to be brave, so i had no choice" . This quote elaborates on the fact that he is pushing for new experiences even if they are out of his comfort zone. He shows dedication when something, such as animals or potentially his mother drives him. As the story ccontinues, Christopher most likely will develop a new found understanding on how the world work.
Ben Mulholland
ReplyDeleteHas the protagonist matured? If they haven’t grown changed, why?
In “The curious incident of the dog in the night-time,” by Mark Haddon, Christopher finds a dog named Wellington murdered by a gardening fork. Despite people telling him not to investigate Christopher decides to do some detective work to find out who the murderer is. In doing so he begins to mature by going outside his comfort zone. One way he does this is by talking to his neighbors who are strangers to him. Haddon writes “I do not like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before. They are hard to understand...So talking to other people in our street was brave. But if you are going to do detective work you have to be brave, so I had no choice.” (Page 34-35) This demonstrates how Christopher’s detective work is moving him outside his comfort zone. In order to do his detective work he must do talk to his neighbors which he doesn’t like to do. If the detective work didn’t require talking to strangers Christopher wouldn’t talk to his neighbors.
Another way Christopher is moving out his comfort zone is by lying. Christopher doesn’t like lying because the ambiguity of the lies he could tell hurts his heads. As well he says that he never tells a lie. When his father hears Christopher is continuing to investigate Wellington's death, his dad wants Christopher to make a promise. Haddon writes “I did know what it meant when you say you promise something. You have to say that you will never do something again and then you must never do it because that would make the promise a lie. I said “I know
Father said, “Promise me you will stop doing these things. Pomise that you will give up this ridiculous game right now, OK?”
I said, “I promise.’”(Page 50) This also reveals Christopher stepping out of his comfort zone because he decided to lie. While this is not a complex lie that would hurt Christopher’s head it is still a lie that he says he never does. This is different from Christopher’s behavior at the police station where he tells the truth that didn’t help him. He could have told a simple lie like he just did but then he still wouldn’t tell any lie. These two examples convey Christopher’s development early on in the book.
What is the character searching for?
ReplyDeleteWhile reading “ the curious incident of the dog in the night - time” many readers may think that Christopher is really searching for who killed the dog. The more I read into the story I feel that he uses this case or situation to try and gain some experience so that he actually figure out another case. For instance Christopher’s mother passed away around 2 years ago and she died from heart attack. He always talks about his strong love for his mother and how loved he felt from his mother. Christopher is a very curious person, and he likes to know everything and reasons why things are the way that they are. Since Christopher is like this I feel the death of his mother has impacted him a lot because she had a heart attack that was completely unexpected. On page 27 it states a conversation with Christopher and his father telling him that his mother had passed away. “ Father said that she died of a heart attack and it wasn’t even expected. I said, What kind of heart attack ? because I was surprised… Father said that he didn’t know what kind of heart attack she had and now wasn’t the moment to be asking questions like that”. Christopher being the way he is of course he reacted in a un normal way and asked what kind of heart attack his mother had. Christopher didn’t really have time to react to his mother death because he was to worried thinking about what kind of heart attack she had, since his father never told him what kind of heart attack she had Christopher never had like a full/real response on how his mother died. Since Christopher loves to know why things happen the way they do I can imagine that it has been killing him inside not only what kind of heart attack killed his mother, and because of that I feel like he is taking this “who killed the dog incident” into making it a bigger deal because he can’t live with the fact knowing that he will never know how his mom died if he can’t figure out who killed the dog. For Christopher not always having the ability to always know why things happen the way they do it kills him inside because he wants to know everything, because of this I feel that this story is going to be a developing story because it's going to show how Christopher changes throughout the story how he learns from his life.
Reynaldo Alamo
ReplyDelete10/16/15
Section C
What is the nature of the protagonist’s quest?
The nature of his quest is to find out who killed the dog Wellington that Mrs. Shears had in her garden. This all started because Christopher found the dog dead in front of her yard with a large pitchfork stuck in it. Christopher noticed all of this because he is a very observant protagonist and this meant that he noticed everything that happened at this so called crime scene with Wellington. Christopher has behavioral problems like not liking to be touched and also not liking to be yelled at. This is important because it all connects to what his quest is. When he found the dog he tried to comfort it and hold it even though it was already dead. Mrs. Shears saw him and yelled at him and this is important because he doesn’t like being yelled at so he tries to block it out and then when the police arrived he hit one of the cops because he doesn’t like being touched. He also is a very honest person and most importantly Christopher says in the book that he does stupid things. His father who plays a really important role in his life said that he should stop trying to find out who killed the dog. Now the father plays an important role in his life because he is the only parent figure he has because Christopher’s mom died. What Christopher wants to do is find out who killed the dog and this is because I believe he cares about Mrs. Shears because him and her used to have a good relationship as he talks about what she did after his mom died. He explains that after his mom died, she came over a lot and cooked a lot for him and then he talks about how she got a divorce also and then this is when he implies that the divorce left her with a lot of time on her hands because she didn’t have to do anything for her husband anymore so she focused a lot of her time on them, because she knew that Christopher’s dad and him were going through trauma because of his mother’s passing. This also suggests that Mrs. Shears cared about his family enough to come over a lot and help around there house. This can reveal that Mrs. Shears and Christopher’s dad had a strong friendship but that has also since passed because she stopped coming over a lot it says. What I notice the most is that Christopher investigates further to find out who did it to let her know what happened. I believe that Christopher wants to find out who killed her dog to make her happy.
Jordan Sievers
ReplyDeleteEnglish
11C
11/18/15
IQ: What Pushes the character to continue his quest?
Christopher never loses focus when he is trying to do something. I would say that his personality is what keeps him focused on whether it’s figuring something out or trying to help people or anything else. His mindset is always focused on what he is set out to do, and rarely is able to be distracted by anything or anyone. His mood does not frequently change mostly because he doesn’t tend to get off track and this contributes to the tone in which the story is told. Christopher’s knack for wanting to solve mysteries is what pushes him to continue his current quest. Also, his natural curiosity that enables him to constantly ask questions to help himself understand the most complex questions only aid him more in achieving his ultimate goal. Christopher has behavioral issues that only make his thinking differ from everyone else, but in a way makes him unique around the people he interacts with in the first few pages of the story. We see that he his kind kid who only wants to help those who may be in need. We also see that Christopher is kid who reacts only on instinct and does not really provide us to know whether or not he has a thinking process to his actions. When Christopher hits the police officer because the police officer touches him it is just another example of Christopher doing what in his mind was the only thing to do.
What is the nature of the protagonist quest?
ReplyDeleteThe main character Christopher is writing a mystery novel about a murder of the next door neighbor's dog whom had been stabbed by a garden fork. The story switches from the novel and Christopher talking to a character named Siobhan. Throughout his mystery novel Christopher is explaining the events happening and his way of reacting to them, and as the story progresses you see the difference in how any other person might have done in the situation he was in rather than how he dealt with it. In chapter 11, page 7 and 8 Christopher explains his interaction with an officer who was called to the crime scene. He acted differently than anyone else would, example “He was asking too many questions and he was asking them too quickly. They were stacking up in my head like loaves in the factory where Uncle Terry works. The factory is a bakery and he operates the slicing machines. And sometimes a slicer is not working fast enough but the bread keeps on coming and there is always a bread-slicing machine…..” Also, “The Policeman said, ‘I’m going to ask you once again….’ I rolled back onto the lawn and pressed my forehead to the ground again 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. The policeman took hold of my arm and lifted me onto my feet. I didn’t like him touching me like this. And this is when I hit him.” This entire chunk of evidence shows the way Christopher had acted towards the officer as it being an action differently than most people. It’s almost like he believes he is living in the fantasy of a Mystery Novel of which he loves. He purposely went up to the dead dog and hugged and it he reacted negatively towards the cop causing everything to go down and he isn't even upset about it. It seems more as if Christopher is attempting to live the life of his favorite detective Sherlock Holmes for at least one day in his life and this opportunity is the perfect time to do so.
Question: How has the protagonist change over the course of the text?
ReplyDeleteIn the course of the story Christopher has been trying to find out who had killed the dog, Wellington. Christopher has made it his mission to find out who was wellington's killer. We can see a major change at pg 50 when his father says, “I'm going to make you promise, Christopher. And you know what that means when i make you promise .” Christopher can not lie so by making this promise with his dad he has to stop investigating about the death of Wellington. But since he had really wanted to try to find out who it was he might break that promise and do something that he has never done before. When Christophe goes out to try to do detective work he realizes that he will have to talk to strangers which he hates to do, but he says that so talking to other people in our street was brave.
What pushes the character to continue his quest?
ReplyDeleteThe character has this “quest” in which he is trying to find out who had killed the dog in his neighborhood. He is very attached to this quest for he follows his own way of living in his personal reality. He finds the dog dead and is accused multiple times of being the person who killed the dog. After getting yelled at by the owner, arrested and told to leave the situation alone, he continues to search for who the murderer was. Being the observant and insightful person that he is, Christopher follows what he believes and takes pride in his interest. Though his father told him to “leave it” and before told him to “Stay out of other people’s business”, Christopher did not understand what this had meant. The impact that the father has on his autistic child causes the character to want to continue his quest. Trying to take someone away from what the desire in such a condition will not cause them to listen and to stop. It would make them rebel in a way that they did not know they were capable of doing so. Christopher does not mean any harm in what he says or does, but he is very strong and independent, and will continue to follow what he desires.
While continuing on the search for the murderer, Christopher comes to a “distaction” by one of the neighbors. Mrs. Alexander attempts and gets her way through Christopher. Being mentioned multiple times, he does not like to have conversations with people. This social interaction is something that causes him to stay quiet. Thus why he says that conversations are “ where people say things to each other which aren’t questions and answers and aren’t connected”
Jacqueline Lopez Larios
ReplyDeleteWhat is the nature of the protagonist quest?
In the book “The curious incident of the dog in the night-time" Christopher’s quest is to discover who murdered Mrs.Shear’s dog. In my perspective the nature quest for christopher is to stand out to people on the type of person he is. Christopher mentions about how he wants his name to define who he is. This can be seen in page 16 when he talks about the meaning of his name. “ Mother used to say that it meant Christopher was a nice name because it was a story about being kind and hopeful but I do not want my name to mean a story about being kind and hopeful. I want my name to mean me.” Christopher wants his name to define who he actually is as a person not by, a saint nor by what others define the name. Christopher show others how he stands out doesn’t matter if he autistic. This can be seen through the book how he engaged on discovering the mystery of the death of the dog. Christopher notices the very small details and is able to remember them is can be seen in chapter 67 when Christopher is going door by door in this neighborhood investigating the murder crime; Christopher remembers all his neighbor's names by the small details of their physical appearance. Christopher can recognize and admit to his actions such as, recognizing that he can’t lie and admitting that his he gets touch no matter who they are he going to him them because he doesn’t being touched or hugged by people. Since he doesn’t like things being left into interpretation he rather likes things to be predictable. For example in page 24 when he can predict how the day is going to go by the number of red or yellow cars his sees on his way to school.
Sorry for the late comment! I thought it posted last week but it has come to my attention that it did not.
ReplyDeleteAlex Castillo
Commentary: The curious incident of the dog in the night-time
This poem seems to portray the life of a troubled child, Christopher, who is autistic. He has a rather sad life story, and does not seem to have many friends. His only friend seems to be Siobhan, a special needs carer. This is definitely an initiation story, as to Christopher wants to find out who killed the dog, Wellington, but ends up finding more about himself in the end. (I watched the play, so I know the plot.) During the first 50 pages, he tries to find out who killed Wellington, but most people don’t care/don’t know. His dad wants him to stop, saying on page 50, “(...)Look at me, you are not to go asking Mrs. Shears about who killed that bloody dog. You are not to go asking anyone about who killed that bloody dog.”. Christopher does not seem to comprehend human expressions. For example, he does not understand a lot of jokes. He does not understand human emotions, on page 3, saying, “Then she drew some other pictures (Pictures of faces) but I was unable to say what these meant.”
For me, this story is not about this kid trying to solve a mystery about a dead dog, but rather, investigating the dead dog seems to be the start of something for Christopher, something he cannot comprehend, but he will try to.
Ada Ng:
ReplyDeleteWhat pushed the character to continue his quest?
The character’s motivation to continue his quest is his curiosity to solve a puzzle or mystery which ends up with a logical reason and as he gather clues or try to, he finds out other information also. On page 2, the narrator says “I stroked Wellington and wondered who had killed him, and why.” This implies that his curiosity encouraged his thinking and thought about who and why someone killed the dog. On page 5, the narrator, himself, states that he likes murder mystery novels because it's a puzzle and at the end of the puzzle, there’s always a logical reason. In other words, he likes things with logical reasons and don't like anything that doesn't have any evidence to it. On page 24 as he described “..4 red cards in a row made it a Good Day, 3 red cards in a row made it a Qutie Good Day, and 5 red cards in a row made it a Super Good Day, and why 4 yellow cars made it a Black Day” and said “I liked things to be in a nice order. And one way of things being in a nice order was to be logical.” This conveys that he likes things being predictable because it has sequence and he knows whats going on. A mystery is similar to that because there’ll always be a why, what, where, when, how and thats the order in the mystery. It’ll also be the logical reason why that criminal did what he/she did. On page 31 when he tries to find clues, he trespass Mrs.Shears lawn and Mrs.Shears found out and said that she’ll call the police if he doesnt leave and this reveals that his curiosity pushes him to trespass someone’s property just to find clues for solving the mystery. On page 49, when Christopher was being yelled at by his father, their discussion including his investigation on the dead dog and this made his dad really upset. This demonstrates that his curiosity is hurting his relationship with his dad because his his dad starts to yell at him about investigating and bringing a name up which the dad doesnt want to hear.
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