I am currently reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, and am really enjoying it. It is about a boy named Christopher John Francis Boone. Christopher has some type of disability, making his life quite hard already. On top of that, he has plenty of trouble at home.
In my opinion, Christopher's disability pretty much causes all of his problems. The author never tells us what exactly he has, although I would assume it is autism, as he is more socially disabled than mentally. He is incredibly smart, especially in math, but he cannot relate to people at all. The blurb says that he "knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and ever prime number up to 7,057." He also will scream if even his own parents try to touch him in any way, and relates many times better to dogs than humans.
The hardest thing happening in the text is probably his inability to relate to anyone. Because of this, he often does not perceive events how they were in reality. He likes having fixed definitions and formulas for everything that will always work in any possible case. For example, when someone lies to him, even if it is to protect him, he only sees it as lying is bad, and he shuts that person out of his life as much as possible. He does not really have the ability to add in any other factors that will change from situation to situation. I don't agree with everything the person that lied to Christopher did, but unlike Christopher, I can see that part of the reason the person did this was to protect him. He cannot hug his parents, they have developed another way to show that they love him that involves less contact, but in his teens he is already probably better at math than they ever were or will be. I think that Christopher's way of relating to people, caused by his condition is the hardest thing in the text for everyone around him, and himself although he does not see it. It really alienates him from everybody else. I wonder if he knows just how different he is, and how?
In the book, you almost only see Christopher's point of view. He is not able to read the emotions of others, aside from things as basic to whether or not they are happy, mad, or sad. Because of this, you do not really get to go too deeply into the thoughts of anyone in the book aside from Christopher. I like this, because the author does a great job of portraying what it would be like to have Christopher's condition, and I think this is very interesting. He does not understand how others feel, but I don't think he understands his own emotions very well either. I think the author might leave the opinions of others out because without them, you really get a sense of Christopher's world, and what life is like on a daily basis for him.
For justice, I do not really think that Christopher's condition is unjust, but it is unfair. Nobody inflicted it on him, it just happened, but he did not do anything to deserve something like that just happening. I think it might be slightly unjust that his parents cannot get their act together and give him a good childhood. They did not do anything to deserve a child this difficult to care for though, so I guess in is not really unjust, but again unfair for Christopher. Although, it is also unfair for his parents; their lives would be a lot easier if he did not have this condition. I don't know if justice will ever be served. I doubt that his parents will solve their problems, and if he is autistic, you cannot really cure that, only treat it.
I think I mostly resist the text when I know something that Christopher does not. When something is happening to Christopher, and he sees it differently than how it is. I just wish so badly for him that he could understand everyone else. Or that he could have someone who truly understood him. I think this is because I picture how much better his life would be in many situations if he was without his disorder. Once I picture it like that, I hate that everything is so difficult for him, because of the one thing he did not really deserve. I also resist when I can tell what is going to happen, and that it is going to hurt him. I almost don't want to actually see it happen, but I keep reading. Sort of like I sympathize with Christopher.
I feel bad that this one thing defines his entire life so much and it always will. His condition does not have any positive sides, it only hurts him, and he did not deserve it in any way. At one point, he talks about a happy dream he often has. In this dream everyone on earth has died aside from the people with his disorder. He makes his parents die in the dream, but keeps all the people like him, even though he has never met them. He says that one reason he keeps them is because they are the only quiet people who would not bother him. In a way, it would not really matter if they were alive or dead in his dream land because he would never have any interactions with them at all. But to me, and probably deep down to Christopher, it makes all the difference that he keeps them. I wonder if he feels at all connected to them, or relates to them? Or he feels that they are the only people that he really feels comfortable around and not intimidated by? In my opinion, this is one of the few points in the book where you clearly see Christopher's feelings on an important topic.
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