In your reading of the novel, what is one major theme that stood out to you? What examples from the text serve as evidence of this theme? Why?
39 comments:
Anonymous
said...
One major theme in the book that stood out to me was the idea of good vs evil. In the Curiousity Case of the Dog in the Night Time, there are multiple examples of this. Some are when Chris's dad doesn't tell him about his mom being alive. Other's are red vs yellow and brown. I think this theme makes the book more interesting and gives it morals. It makes it interesting because some good vs evil comparisons become switched and very unexpectedly.
One major theme in this book was definitely logic vs mystery. The whole idea of how far can logic go the deeper in to a mystery you go. Once you start to go further into a mystery most of the time a lot of things lack logic. If all mysteries were logical they would be solved in a flash. By pursuing different concepts other than logic, that is when Christopher pushes his father to admit he is the murderer. He pursued questioning the neighbors and being adventurous, not necessarily logical, due to the danger factor, but certainly served him well in his hunt to find wellington's killer. Pablo
I feel that a major theme in Curious is the ability to predict. Christopher is comforted by the ability to know what happens next, or why things happen. For example, in the begining of the novel, Christopher explains his logic for knowing whether the day is going to be good or bad: "...4 cars in a row made it a good day, and 3 red cars in a row made it a quite good day, and 5 red cars in a row made it a super good day, and 4 yellow cars in a row made it a black day, which is a day when i dont speak to anyone and sit on my own and dont eat my lunch and Take No Risks." The ability to predict is a theme because of Christophers comfort to solve. Whether he needs to solve a mystery, or a math puzzle, to figure out what the ending is lets christopher not have the shock of suprise, which as we know makes him cross. To figure out what comes next is a main theme because of the needs Christopher has; solving gives him comfort.
The concept of human nature is intermingled in the text of Curious Incident.What better perspective to see ourselves than through a lens more “alienated” from us. Unlike “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding , this book questions some of our daily aspects of life as opposed to the more dark half of our emotions. Christopher merely does not comprehend the trends which we have acquired over time, such as enjoying sunshine but not rain. Both may be harmful or pleasant. There is no clear logic behind this, and Christopher’s questioning of these eccentricities really creates the appeal of this book. The book also exposes Christopher being more like others than he had previously thought. Christopher lying to his father, his fear of the unknown, his favorites, all of which are small aspects that we incorporate into our daily lives, but it is not completely logical.
To me, a major theme that played throughout the book is logic and belief. Christopher mentions religion and how it is not logical and that is can't be true in the book. We've discussed this in previous blog posts so that really explains what religion has to do with Christopher buy there are other examples such as one reason why this book started. The mystery of who killed wellington. Christopher investigates this and only looks at the logical ways and reasons of who and why killed wellington. Having his dad kill wellington was a huge surprise to christopher because it just didn't seem possible. -nico
I think one of the main themes in the book is the relationship between logic and emotions. Logic vs. emotions is something Christopher really struggles with. In a perfect world for Christopher everything would be logical, mathematical, and/or scientifical. Christopher doesn't really understand complex emotions. Christopher's parents wish that he could understand emotions, so that he could understand about their relationship. I think towards the end of the book Christopher starts to understand emotions better. At the end of the book Christopher talks about his goals. He talks about how achieving his goals would make him happy.Through out the book Christopher and everybody around him struggles with the fact that he doesn't understand emotions. I think what makes this book interesting is Christopher's struggle with what makes sense logically vs. what makes sense emotionally or morally.
From reading this book I really understand and respect the people with Asperger Syndrome. For me the major theme is that Christopher doesn't have any goals than do the A-level in math. Through out the book he sets a lot of goals, and he pushes himself to do things he is afraid of, like going to London and be crowded places. And at the end of the book he's made a plan to do a lot of A/levels in math a physics, going to college and live in a flat and become a scientist. Hanna
A major theme in the book is order and logic. Christopher cannot process the idea of god and can't believe in something he cannot see or touch. Christopher also always likes everything in his life to be set in stone, not having to worry about making decisions on the fly. Christopher has to explain everything with science and can't believe anything anyone says unless he can prove it with math. The phrase Divine Intervention means nothing to him because he can't process the idea that there is one person who created everything on the planet.Math is the mind behind all of his decisions, and what makes sense to him may not make any sense to the larger population and vice versa. His idea that seeing a certain amount of red cars indicates a good day, and where seeing yellow cars will mean it's a bad day makes zero sense to me.
A major theme was logic vs. reality. There was always a complication between logic and reality, and when he would apply it to a situation or not. When he was talking about how a human is like a computer this was figured out by logic but when it came to a situation between his own emotions and a real situation his theory that a human is like a computer was forgotten. He kept to his word and said that computers and humans both share an aspect of lack of emotion because he never experienced it but when a real situation came to him between his trust for his father and the letters from his mother, he became emotional.
A major theme is imagination vs order. This stood out to me as Christopher has difficulty describing logic to other people than that of logic to him self. Some examples could included the dream and how he talks about religion. In his dream, he imagines the impossible. For example, the dream refers to the stores being replenished and having electricity. This is how imagination comes into play. Order is like the reality. For example, Toby dies. Or when he discovers what his father does is like a wake up call to reality.
I think a major theme in this story was hope. When Christopher was constantly brought down when his father kept saying to drop the case of who killed Wellington, he was secretly still trying to find out. And when he was trying to get to London to visit his mother, there were policemen trying to persuade him to go home. Again, Christopher didn't give up. He still wanted to get what he was reaching for.
One important theme in this book is the concept of certainty vs. uncertainty. The idea of human life and society is related directly to the unknown. In society, we understand metaphoric symbols and illogical belief even if it has no specific meaning in the literal world. If one looks at the subliminal nature of society from a direct, logical, or literal view, it will be entirely undefined, and yet symbolically and figuratively it’s perfectly defined. There are numerous examples in this book such as the human mind vs. the computer and science vs. religion among many others, and even in life itself where one must look beyond reason and explanation because there is something more to our existence.
I think that one major theme that stood out to me the most in "The Curious Incident of the dog in the nighttime" is the theme of probability and realistic ness vs. improbability and desire. Throughout the whole book the conflict of what Christopher wants to do and can't do contradict with each other. The whole idea of Christopher going to London, finding his mom, and becoming and scientist and go to space, for a boy with Asperger Syndrome seems unrealistic. The is a continuous fight in the book of what is probable for Christopher to accomplish vs. something that seems out of the reach for someone like him to accomplish but he desires. In the end, Christopher gets through several different situations it didn’t seem likely he would be able to deal well with. It shows that Christopher is able to achieve so much more than what people think in generally probable or realistic but Christopher’s desires let him do more.
A recurring theme that I found stood out in the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was curiosity. The book begins with the idea of trying to bring readers in with a mystery, believing that people will be interested in the story if it begins with a mystery because of humans natural curiosity. Christopher himself is a very curious person, his first main goal was to find out who killed Wellington, while others might have just let it be Christopher never gave up on his hunt for finding Wellington's killer. Christopher is an observer which shows a curiosity of the world around him by noticing every small detail that other's do not.
One major theme in this book is using trust in the outside world. This stood out to me because it is a theme that most people in the world are dealing with everyday. Christopher is faced with this challenge many times when he is on his own. "I made a decision that I would have to find out how to get to the train station and I would do this by asking someone and it would be a lady." From this you can tell that this was an important decision that Christopher had to make. He needed to ask for directions but he didn't feel comfortable with it. It was something he had to do though and he had to trust other people trust that he was capable of doing so. When Christopher is independent in the book he often has to interact with other people whether it is a police officer, stranger on a train, or someone who works at a store. People (and Christopher) have to have trust in other people and need to use their instincts. They also need to know that they can handle trusting other people.
a major theme that stuck out for me was sameness. sameness is a monotonous feeling. this shows frequently throughout the book. Christopher is always trying to keep things the same so that his life can be plain. a concept welcomed by those suffering with asbergers syndrome.for example, when Christopher is in the train he runs over his daily time table and how everything has to happen at this specific time or he will not be able to function. this relates to another side affect of asbergers syndrome sensory overload. sensory overload is when an individualwith the syndrome is overwhelemed with their sense. this is why Christopher must keep sameness in his life. this is why it is a major theme.
Throughout the entire book a theme that was never mentioned but one that i found was survival. In the entire book all Christopher did was overcome obstacles which for some people were not there. With Christopher's condition these very challenging obstacles were easy for "normal" people without Christopher's condition. For example the entire trip to London he dodged obstacles, such as how to get to the train station, how to buy a ticket, how to deal with all the people in the station, claustrophobia, having to talk to strangers and finding his mothers house once he got to London. When he dodged all the different obstacles the thing that kept him going was his goal. Even though for us buying a ticket and going on a train to somewhere new is easy, Christopher sacrificed so much to get where he needed and the only way he got their was by just barely getting past and surviving through every obstacle or challenge that he had to overcome.
i find that the theme of logic stood out to me but i am also thinking that the idea of a kind of balance in this book stood out as well. as we began to read more and more of this book i find it has a yin yang kind of sense to it. christopher himself is a man of logic and reason yet the outside world isn't always based on those things. it seemed to me like there was always a fight between to halves of a whole. some examples are when christopher was explaining religion. he explained it as if it were a word in a dictionary, it's definition not what it means to people. in that it looks like there is a battle between two opposites logic, reason, science vs. imagination, myth, and religion. every thing in Christopher's mind is one side of the yin yang. the entire book seems like a scale simply trying to find its balance.
One theme that stood out to me was math. Math means the world to Christopher and in someways it is. If you think about it, Christopher can only think about the world and everyday life as math. One of the only things Christopher is skilled at, is math. Christopher is also very good at math and one of his goals is to ace the A-level math test. Christopher love mystery stories because the have an answer to them. Christopher's favorite book is a mystery novel and Christopher says, "I like "the Hound of the Baskervilles" because... there are clues and Red Herrings". Christopher can not understand human nature very well because they there is no direct answer to it, thats one of the things aspergers syndrome prohibits him from doing.
I think a major theme in the book is a child being stuck in a grown up world. In the book Christopher is stuck trying to understand and deal with all the problems that the adults are having and that are affecting him as well. Christopher's mother had an affair with a neighbor and left Christopher and his father for the neighbor, but when Christopher's father found out about this he told Christopher that his mother was dead instead of the truth. This was hard for Christopher to process and he was confused by it, but when he was just getting used to this he found letters that proved that his mother was still alive and he found out that his father had killed the neighbors dog Wellington. Through out this book Christopher has to make sacrifices like almost not taking his A level maths, because of the adults in this life and their problems. Christopher is always trying to make sense of the problems that are affecting him because the adults are not explaining them to him. All this would be very hard for a child without Asperger's but Christopher has trouble with simple regular emotions so it is extremely hard to understand all these complex emotions but he is also really smart so he uses his intelligence to resolve things.
trust is one of the major themes in this book. in most of christopher's struggle are dealing with the issue of trusting people. it takes him along time to begin to trust someone. i remember in the beginning of the book he talks about this new teacher and his expanded way he has that he has to go through with a person before trusting them. he is using the example of this new teacher in school. he is not currently sure if he trusts this teacher because he doesn't know her. so he goes through this whole long process of observing the teacher and very slowly getting to know her he starts to trust her. also the whole issue of trust forced him to go on this journey when he could not trust his father anymore.
personally, the main theme was mystery and coping with problems. Christopher has his problems with being touched and being near other people. Christopher has a form of Alzheimer’s syndrome that makes him socially inadequate and very logic oriented. his main problem is coping with this. he can't be near people he doesn't know and can’t be touched by anyone. trying to solve mysteries without the aid of social skills can be tough. when you can't talk to someone you can’t relate to. christeners father tries to keep him happy but he has some trouble doing this because the two don't relate
the mystery aspect of this book comes mostly from his mother who was supposed to be dead. she is alive and living with a friend of hers who is her new spouse for a short time. Christopher finds letters in his father’s room from his mother. being logic oriented, Christopher is completely lost.
I think that a major theme in this book is logic vs. reality. Because Christopher's logical and factual ways many times works in his favor and sometimes limits him. One example of this is when Christopher determines how he will spend his day on how many red or yellow cars pass. I feel that this sometimes limits him in that he is unable to develop his social skills and can get in the way of his learning.This lack of social abilities can also get in the way of soling the mystery of who killed Wellington because it is very hard to solve a mystery when you are afraid of talking to people. He then somewhat overcame this fear and took a rick and decided to question the neighbors. Christopher primarily relies on logic for everything but he then realized that socializing is reality and in order to reach his goal, he mush rely not only on logic.
One major theme in this book is the concept of a boy dealing with Aspergers syndrome. Throughout the book it is verbally clear that Christopher is not like other boys his age. He is obviously struggling with an ability to be more social or accepting towards other people. The idea of this boy having aspegser’s syndrome creates a very complicated character that is living under adult circumstances. Due to his health and living situation, Christopher is unable to handle everything that occurs within his life. The reader grasps a clear idea of how overwhelmed he gets. One example of this from he book is when he is in the train station. He is unable to handle all he noise and bustle that is going on. Being in the station causes him to moan and try to keep out everything that is going on in the outside world. This theme really creates a certain mood and tone in who Christopher is. But he is not just the boy with aspergers syndrome. He is also the boy with split parents which is also something that creates a daily obstacle for him.
I think a major theme in this book is what you want to do and how you have to overcome some of the things that do not let you do what you want to do. An example of this was that he wanted to get to his mothers house but the way he thinks would not let him travel and alone and to places where he does not know people. He overcame his fears and remarkably somehow got to his mothers house in London. Another thing is that he wants to become a scientist when he grows up which is nearly impossible for an autistic kid to do but he still is fighting to get to that dream of one day becoming a scientist.
One major theme is this book is logic vs. reality. In the beginning of the book Christopher used a lot of logic and lived in his on little world, which was school, home, the shop at the corner. Christopher didn' really go anywhere else then those places. Everything that he did was basically logical. Like when he says that if someone is not here anymore why would you have to be sad. And how he took his fathers words literally. When he was told not to talk about Mr. Shears or Wellington, he would say something like if I don't mention them but someone else brings them into the conversation. Which meant that he wasn't breaking his promise because he didn't bring it up. In this little world that Christopher is in he seems normal because he talks about watching tv, going on the computer, doing math. He seems 'normal" but the second half of the book Christopher is in the outside world. Christopher seems so different when he is around what we would call "normal" people. The way he groans on the train and is the size of an adult men is weird. Another theme would be fantast vs. reality.
One of the major themes that stood out to me was logic vs. emotions. In the book, Christopher as Aspbergers Syndrome which causes him to be different from society. He acts differently both socially and emotionally. In the beginning, Christopher is trying to solve a mystery about the death of a dog named Wellington. As the book progresses, we learn more about his life, and his history and the relationship he has with people. Christopher has friends, such as his father, Siobhan, etc. However, his friends are the people he has known for a long time. He does not like strangers and he does not talk to them because of a fear of socializing. Christopher explains his history, and his family and his mother's death. When he explains it, he seems different when he reacts about someone's death, especially about the death of his mother. Christopher's reaction, instead of crying, was asking questions. Christopher was asking questions instead of crying because, maybe, he doesn't have emotions or they do not overcome logic. When it comes to feelings, logic always overcomes emotion. As the book progresses some more, we learn that Christopher's mother is actually alive. We learn this when Christopher finds a letter from his father's room. He reads the letter and begins asking questions to himself. Normally, the reaction you would get is excited, happy, and sometimes crying. However, Christopher was asking questions. He was curious about so many things that logic came before his emotions. -Emma Francesca Zita [ ♥ ]
In the beginning of the book, I thought that the theme would be how an autistic person could make a great detective and still solve crimes. But, as I read on, I found a new theme. Christopher shifts from trying to figure out who killed Wellington to trying to solve the mystery of his mother’s “death”. Christopher ends up pursuing the question of his mom’s disappearance and his father’s lie almost by accident. The theme then becomes not how an autistic person can be a detective but how it is impossible to understand anything “real” if you can’t understand human emotions.
Christopher simply cannot “understand”. “ Then I was really confused because Mother had never worked as a secretary for a firm that made things out of steel. Mother had worked as a secretary for a big garage in the center of town. And Mother had never lived in London. Mother had always lived with us. And Mother had never written a letter to me before.”
He stumbles upon a great and completely solvable mystery that is very important to his life but since Christopher does not think it is logical and it is not the mystery he is working on he just moves on. I think the main theme of the book is Christopher’s complete ability to be a detective on an intellectual level but his complete inability on an emotional level.
Christopher realizes, at the same time, that one, his father killed Wellington and two his father has been hiding his mother’s existence for many years (which means his mother abandoned him). He had a break down and even though it’s not on an emotional level you think that Christopher’s feeling something—something that he cannot understand. Finally, after his breakdown the first thing he does is get away from his dad, not because he is mad at him about the lie, but because he is afraid of a man who “murdered” a dog. “I had to get out of the house. Father had murdered Wellington. That meant he could murder me, because I couldn’t trust him, even though he had said ‘ Trust me,’ because he had told me a lie about a big thing.”
Christopher’s logic is so absolute that even at the end of book when he thinks about what his life could be in the future, he still does not think about how his mother abandoned him. Christopher’s complete lack of emotion stops him from being a detective.
The one major theme that stood out to me was the idea of how people see us. For Christopher he is oblivious to the people around him who judge and scrutinize everything he does, every move he makes. He looks around and see's a world that is a mystery to him. Everything around him isn't competly familier. The language for instance. He doesn't understand a variety of phrases that people say, he doesn't understand sarcasm, the way people twist words, and he can eve process the simplest commands such as 'be quiet.' His house is another example. He likes to think that he knows everything there is, and that things will stay the way thy are, but thats not reality. If Christopher likes it or not, the sofa will never be in exactly the same position it was yesterday and the toothpaste will never be exactly where he put it last. There are factors that he doesn't include. He can't process the idea that someone else is living in the house and the chair is going to get moved one way or another.
A major theme in Curious Incident was definitely logic vs. emotions. Christopher doesn't exactly express his emotions the way others do. When he is told his mother passes away, instead of reacting sadly, he starts thinking of the logic of how she had died. He has a hard time figuring out emotions and doesn't understand them well at all. Another theme in the book is hope. When he is trying to go to London to visit his mother, there are policemen trying to get him not to go. However he keeps pushing towards his goal. At the end of the book he talks about his goals and how achieving them makes him happy.
A major theme to me is going to have to be trust. Not only does Christopher lose trusts in his father, there are also little snips in the book where Christopher is all alone and he feel that he can sometimes not trust anybody because somebody may be hurting him or he might be in a space where he does bot want to be.
When Christopher lost trust in his father, that was the incident in Whig he found out that him father was the man who killed Wellington, and he had kept the secret that his mother was alive for a very long time. Christopher felt threatened, but in my personal opinion, you have to lose trust in someone and then you are threatened. If you trust the person there is no need to be scares of the person.
Christopher even has to deal with little things in the trust section. For example, a small sample of his trust was that he trusted the policeman at the station would get him safely to the train and so he could buy his ticket, but he has left. He trusted Mrs. Alexander to watch Toby, but instead said she would tell his dad that he was running away from home. I think the author was trying to show the complex parts of putting your trust into other people's hands.
I think one of the biggest themes in the Curious Incident of the dog in the Nighttime is to tell the truth. Christopher feels he has no choice but to tell the truth.
We see from the beginning of the book that Christopher creates problems for himself by telling the truth. He gives short answers, and they are mostly yes or no answers. Christopher responds with short answers because I feel that he is trying to escape from conversations because there may be something to complex for him to answer.
I think Christopher responds with short answers so he does not have a mental breakdown, because there was a quote that said that the policeman was asking to many questions for Christopher to handle, and a few pages later he ended up hitting the policeman. To conclude my thoughts, Christopher doesn't just tell the truth to be honest, but to move along, and escape many questions.
A major theme in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime is truth because there are a lot of mistakes about truth within the book. Christopher starts writing a book and does some investigating without telling his father about it because his father told him not to go around into other people's businesses. Siobhan asked if he was going to tell his father and all Christopher said was no. This shows that Christopher did always tell the truth but most of the time he did. Christopher's father also doesn't tell him about his mother being dead when she was really alive and living with Mr. Shears. Christopher found out by letters sent from his mother and decided to go live with her after his father lied to him and told him that he killed wellington.This shows no trust and truth between Christopher and his father, but before this everything was fine between them. -Bri ♥♥
From my perspective, I believe that a large theme within 'curious incident' is underlying love. I am sure that even though he does not know how to articulate it, Christopher deeply loves both of his parents, even though some times it is difficult to see. The relationship between Christopher and his dad is rather complex for various reasons, one of which is that Father chose to hide that his mother had left them by pretending she was dead, which unfortunately, was not the best solution. I am sure that he did this to protect Christopher from the hardships in life. Christopher reacted strongly when he found out the truth, but it was fully in his right.
Christopher and his mother had a similarly difficult relationship due to the fact that she was not patient with Christopher and allow him to function is his own way as a younger child. Also, she was absent for most of his adolescent years, but regardless of her distance, she loved him. She attempted to express her feelings by writing him letters which were intercepted by his father and hidden. Even though they did not have much physical contact, his mother truly loved him. She thinks it is best for him if he grows up without her, as she cannot understand him.
Both of his parents committed actions that they thought would render positively, but in reality, just injured their relationship with Christopher. In very different ways, they hurt him, but also allowed him to find himself and believe in his own powers.
I think that one major theme in this book is love because it shows up often in vauge, but important ways. For instance the only reason Christopher's mohter left him was because she loved him. She saw that Christopher and his father had a connection and relationship that she didn't have with Christopher so she left; she thought if she stayed, it might make Christopher's life complicated. Another example in the book is when Christopher is in jail and he and his dad touch hands instead of hugging. This shows that his dad loves him because he's aware that Christopher doesn't like hugs, so he found an alternative for them. Anothe rexample is when Christopher's dad comes to London to ask him to come back home with him. This shows that no matter how hard Christopher is to raise, he still wouldn't give him up. Basically love shows up in this book often, through Chistopher and his parents.
A major theme could be loss? Christopher loses many things during the course of the book, not only physically, but mentally as well. He has lost his mother, he is afraid to live in the house with his father when he learns he killed the neighbor’s dog. His comfort is disrupted and he is forced to trek in a world he is unfamiliar with.
39 comments:
One major theme in the book that stood out to me was the idea of good vs evil. In the Curiousity Case of the Dog in the Night Time, there are multiple examples of this. Some are when Chris's dad doesn't tell him about his mom being alive. Other's are red vs yellow and brown. I think this theme makes the book more interesting and gives it morals. It makes it interesting because some good vs evil comparisons become switched and very unexpectedly.
One major theme in this book was definitely logic vs mystery. The whole idea of how far can logic go the deeper in to a mystery you go. Once you start to go further into a mystery most of the time a lot of things lack logic. If all mysteries were logical they would be solved in a flash. By pursuing different concepts other than logic, that is when Christopher pushes his father to admit he is the murderer. He pursued questioning the neighbors and being adventurous, not necessarily logical, due to the danger factor, but certainly served him well in his hunt to find wellington's killer.
Pablo
I feel that a major theme in Curious is the ability to predict. Christopher is comforted by the ability to know what happens next, or why things happen. For example, in the begining of the novel, Christopher explains his logic for knowing whether the day is going to be good or bad: "...4 cars in a row made it a good day, and 3 red cars in a row made it a quite good day, and 5 red cars in a row made it a super good day, and 4 yellow cars in a row made it a black day, which is a day when i dont speak to anyone and sit on my own and dont eat my lunch and Take No Risks." The ability to predict is a theme because of Christophers comfort to solve. Whether he needs to solve a mystery, or a math puzzle, to figure out what the ending is lets christopher not have the shock of suprise, which as we know makes him cross. To figure out what comes next is a main theme because of the needs Christopher has; solving gives him comfort.
The concept of human nature is intermingled in the text of
Curious Incident.What better perspective to see ourselves than through a lens more “alienated”
from us. Unlike “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding , this book questions some of our daily
aspects of life as opposed to the more dark half of our emotions. Christopher merely does not comprehend the trends which we have acquired over time, such as enjoying sunshine but not rain. Both may be harmful or pleasant. There is no clear logic behind this, and Christopher’s questioning of these eccentricities really creates the appeal of this book. The book also exposes Christopher being more like others than he had previously thought. Christopher lying to his father, his fear of the unknown, his favorites, all of which are small aspects that we incorporate into our daily lives, but it is not completely logical.
To me, a major theme that played throughout the book is logic and belief. Christopher mentions religion and how it is not logical and that is can't be true in the book. We've discussed this in previous blog posts so that really explains what religion has to do with Christopher buy there are other examples such as one reason why this book started. The mystery of who killed wellington. Christopher investigates this and only looks at the logical ways and reasons of who and why killed wellington. Having his dad kill wellington was a huge surprise to christopher because it just didn't seem possible.
-nico
I think one of the main themes in the book is the relationship between logic and emotions. Logic vs. emotions is something Christopher really struggles with. In a perfect world for Christopher everything would be logical, mathematical, and/or scientifical. Christopher doesn't really understand complex emotions. Christopher's parents wish that he could understand emotions, so that he could understand about their relationship. I think towards the end of the book Christopher starts to understand emotions better. At the end of the book Christopher talks about his goals. He talks about how achieving his goals would make him happy.Through out the book Christopher and everybody around him struggles with the fact that he doesn't understand emotions. I think what makes this book interesting is Christopher's struggle with what makes sense logically vs. what makes sense emotionally or morally.
From reading this book I really understand and respect the people with Asperger Syndrome. For me the major theme is that Christopher doesn't have any goals than do the A-level in math. Through out the book he sets a lot of goals, and he pushes himself to do things he is afraid of, like going to London and be crowded places. And at the end of the book he's made a plan to do a lot of A/levels in math a physics, going to college and live in a flat and become a scientist.
Hanna
A major theme in the book is order and logic. Christopher cannot process the idea of god and can't believe in something he cannot see or touch. Christopher also always likes everything in his life to be set in stone, not having to worry about making decisions on the fly. Christopher has to explain everything with science and can't believe anything anyone says unless he can prove it with math. The phrase Divine Intervention means nothing to him because he can't process the idea that there is one person who created everything on the planet.Math is the mind behind all of his decisions, and what makes sense to him may not make any sense to the larger population and vice versa. His idea that seeing a certain amount of red cars indicates a good day, and where seeing yellow cars will mean it's a bad day makes zero sense to me.
BRANDON
A major theme was logic vs. reality. There was always a complication between logic and reality, and when he would apply it to a situation or not. When he was talking about how a human is like a computer this was figured out by logic but when it came to a situation between his own emotions and a real situation his theory that a human is like a computer was forgotten. He kept to his word and said that computers and humans both share an aspect of lack of emotion because he never experienced it but when a real situation came to him between his trust for his father and the letters from his mother, he became emotional.
A major theme is imagination vs order. This stood out to me as Christopher has difficulty describing logic to other people than that of logic to him self. Some examples could included the dream and how he talks about religion. In his dream, he imagines the impossible. For example, the dream refers to the stores being replenished and having electricity. This is how imagination comes into play. Order is like the reality. For example, Toby dies. Or when he discovers what his father does is like a wake up call to reality.
I think a major theme in this story was hope. When Christopher was constantly brought down when his father kept saying to drop the case of who killed Wellington, he was secretly still trying to find out. And when he was trying to get to London to visit his mother, there were policemen trying to persuade him to go home. Again, Christopher didn't give up. He still wanted to get what he was reaching for.
One important theme in this book is the concept of certainty vs. uncertainty. The idea of human life and society is related directly to the unknown. In society, we understand metaphoric symbols and illogical belief even if it has no specific meaning in the literal world. If one looks at the subliminal nature of society from a direct, logical, or literal view, it will be entirely undefined, and yet symbolically and figuratively it’s perfectly defined. There are numerous examples in this book such as the human mind vs. the computer and science vs. religion among many others, and even in life itself where one must look beyond reason and explanation because there is something more to our existence.
I think that one major theme that stood out to me the most in "The Curious Incident of the dog in the nighttime" is the theme of probability and realistic ness vs. improbability and desire. Throughout the whole book the conflict of what Christopher wants to do and can't do contradict with each other. The whole idea of Christopher going to London, finding his mom, and becoming and scientist and go to space, for a boy with Asperger Syndrome seems unrealistic. The is a continuous fight in the book of what is probable for Christopher to accomplish vs. something that seems out of the reach for someone like him to accomplish but he desires. In the end, Christopher gets through several different situations it didn’t seem likely he would be able to deal well with. It shows that Christopher is able to achieve so much more than what people think in generally probable or realistic but Christopher’s desires let him do more.
A recurring theme that I found stood out in the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was curiosity. The book begins with the idea of trying to bring readers in with a mystery, believing that people will be interested in the story if it begins with a mystery because of humans natural curiosity. Christopher himself is a very curious person, his first main goal was to find out who killed Wellington, while others might have just let it be Christopher never gave up on his hunt for finding Wellington's killer. Christopher is an observer which shows a curiosity of the world around him by noticing every small detail that other's do not.
One major theme in this book is using trust in the outside world. This stood out to me because it is a theme that most people in the world are dealing with everyday. Christopher is faced with this challenge many times when he is on his own.
"I made a decision that I would have to find out how to get to the train station and I would do this by asking someone and it would be a lady." From this you can tell that this was an important decision that Christopher had to make. He needed to ask for directions but he didn't feel comfortable with it. It was something he had to do though and he had to trust other people trust that he was capable of doing so. When Christopher is independent in the book he often has to interact with other people whether it is a police officer, stranger on a train, or someone who works at a store. People (and Christopher) have to have trust in other people and need to use their instincts. They also need to know that they can handle trusting other people.
a major theme that stuck out for me was sameness. sameness is a monotonous feeling. this shows frequently throughout the book. Christopher is always trying to keep things the same so that his life can be plain. a concept welcomed by those suffering with asbergers syndrome.for example, when Christopher is in the train he runs over his daily time table and how everything has to happen at this specific time or he will not be able to function. this relates to another side affect of asbergers syndrome sensory overload. sensory overload is when an individualwith the syndrome is overwhelemed with their sense. this is why Christopher must keep sameness in his life. this is why it is a major theme.
Throughout the entire book a theme that was never mentioned but one that i found was survival. In the entire book all Christopher did was overcome obstacles which for some people were not there. With Christopher's condition these very challenging obstacles were easy for "normal" people without Christopher's condition. For example the entire trip to London he dodged obstacles, such as how to get to the train station, how to buy a ticket, how to deal with all the people in the station, claustrophobia, having to talk to strangers and finding his mothers house once he got to London. When he dodged all the different obstacles the thing that kept him going was his goal. Even though for us buying a ticket and going on a train to somewhere new is easy, Christopher sacrificed so much to get where he needed and the only way he got their was by just barely getting past and surviving through every obstacle or challenge that he had to overcome.
i find that the theme of logic stood out to me but i am also thinking that the idea of a kind of balance in this book stood out as well. as we began to read more and more of this book i find it has a yin yang kind of sense to it. christopher himself is a man of logic and reason yet the outside world isn't always based on those things. it seemed to me like there was always a fight between to halves of a whole. some examples are when christopher was explaining religion. he explained it as if it were a word in a dictionary, it's definition not what it means to people. in that it looks like there is a battle between two opposites logic, reason, science vs. imagination, myth, and religion. every thing in Christopher's mind is one side of the yin yang. the entire book seems like a scale simply trying to find its balance.
One theme that stood out to me was math. Math means the world to Christopher and in someways it is. If you think about it, Christopher can only think about the world and everyday life as math. One of the only things Christopher is skilled at, is math. Christopher is also very good at math and one of his goals is to ace the A-level math test. Christopher love mystery stories because the have an answer to them. Christopher's favorite book is a mystery novel and Christopher says, "I like "the Hound of the Baskervilles" because... there are clues and Red Herrings". Christopher can not understand human nature very well because they there is no direct answer to it, thats one of the things aspergers syndrome prohibits him from doing.
I think a major theme in the book is a child being stuck in a grown up world. In the book Christopher is stuck trying to understand and deal with all the problems that the adults are having and that are affecting him as well. Christopher's mother had an affair with a neighbor and left Christopher and his father for the neighbor, but when Christopher's father found out about this he told Christopher that his mother was dead instead of the truth. This was hard for Christopher to process and he was confused by it, but when he was just getting used to this he found letters that proved that his mother was still alive and he found out that his father had killed the neighbors dog Wellington. Through out this book Christopher has to make sacrifices like almost not taking his A level maths, because of the adults in this life and their problems. Christopher is always trying to make sense of the problems that are affecting him because the adults are not explaining them to him. All this would be very hard for a child without Asperger's but Christopher has trouble with simple regular emotions so it is extremely hard to understand all these complex emotions but he is also really smart so he uses his intelligence to resolve things.
trust is one of the major themes in this book. in most of christopher's struggle are dealing with the issue of trusting people. it takes him along time to begin to trust someone. i remember in the beginning of the book he talks about this new teacher and his expanded way he has that he has to go through with a person before trusting them. he is using the example of this new teacher in school. he is not currently sure if he trusts this teacher because he doesn't know her. so he goes through this whole long process of observing the teacher and very slowly getting to know her he starts to trust her. also the whole issue of trust forced him to go on this journey when he could not trust his father anymore.
personally, the main theme was mystery and coping with problems. Christopher has his problems with being touched and being near other people. Christopher has a form of Alzheimer’s syndrome that makes him socially inadequate and very logic oriented. his main problem is coping with this. he can't be near people he doesn't know and can’t be touched by anyone. trying to solve mysteries without the aid of social skills can be tough. when you can't talk to someone you can’t relate to. christeners father tries to keep him happy but he has some trouble doing this because the two don't relate
the mystery aspect of this book comes mostly from his mother who was supposed to be dead. she is alive and living with a friend of hers who is her new spouse for a short time. Christopher finds letters in his father’s room from his mother. being logic oriented, Christopher is completely lost.
I think that a major theme in this book is logic vs. reality. Because Christopher's logical and factual ways many times works in his favor and sometimes limits him. One example of this is when Christopher determines how he will spend his day on how many red or yellow cars pass. I feel that this sometimes limits him in that he is unable to develop his social skills and can get in the way of his learning.This lack of social abilities can also get in the way of soling the mystery of who killed Wellington because it is very hard to solve a mystery when you are afraid of talking to people. He then somewhat overcame this fear and took a rick and decided to question the neighbors. Christopher primarily relies on logic for everything but he then realized that socializing is reality and in order to reach his goal, he mush rely not only on logic.
One major theme in this book is the concept of a boy dealing with Aspergers syndrome. Throughout the book it is verbally clear that Christopher is not like other boys his age. He is obviously struggling with an ability to be more social or accepting towards other people. The idea of this boy having aspegser’s syndrome creates a very complicated character that is living under adult circumstances. Due to his health and living situation, Christopher is unable to handle everything that occurs within his life. The reader grasps a clear idea of how overwhelmed he gets. One example of this from he book is when he is in the train station. He is unable to handle all he noise and bustle that is going on. Being in the station causes him to moan and try to keep out everything that is going on in the outside world. This theme really creates a certain mood and tone in who Christopher is. But he is not just the boy with aspergers syndrome. He is also the boy with split parents which is also something that creates a daily obstacle for him.
I think a major theme in this book is what you want to do and how you have to overcome some of the things that do not let you do what you want to do. An example of this was that he wanted to get to his mothers house but the way he thinks would not let him travel and alone and to places where he does not know people. He overcame his fears and remarkably somehow got to his mothers house in London. Another thing is that he wants to become a scientist when he grows up which is nearly impossible for an autistic kid to do but he still is fighting to get to that dream of one day becoming a scientist.
One major theme is this book is logic vs. reality. In the beginning of the book Christopher used a lot of logic and lived in his on little world, which was school, home, the shop at the corner. Christopher didn' really go anywhere else then those places. Everything that he did was basically logical. Like when he says that if someone is not here anymore why would you have to be sad. And how he took his fathers words literally. When he was told not to talk about Mr. Shears or Wellington, he would say something like if I don't mention them but someone else brings them into the conversation. Which meant that he wasn't breaking his promise because he didn't bring it up. In this little world that Christopher is in he seems normal because he talks about watching tv, going on the computer, doing math. He seems 'normal" but the second half of the book Christopher is in the outside world. Christopher seems so different when he is around what we would call "normal" people. The way he groans on the train and is the size of an adult men is weird. Another theme would be fantast vs. reality.
One of the major themes that stood out to me was logic vs. emotions. In the book, Christopher as Aspbergers Syndrome which causes him to be different from society. He acts differently both socially and emotionally. In the beginning, Christopher is trying to solve a mystery about the death of a dog named Wellington.
As the book progresses, we learn more about his life, and his history and the relationship he has with people. Christopher has friends, such as his father, Siobhan, etc. However, his friends are the people he has known for a long time. He does not like strangers and he does not talk to them because of a fear of socializing.
Christopher explains his history, and his family and his mother's death. When he explains it, he seems different when he reacts about someone's death, especially about the death of his mother. Christopher's reaction, instead of crying, was asking questions. Christopher was asking questions instead of crying because, maybe, he doesn't have emotions or they do not overcome logic. When it comes to feelings, logic always overcomes emotion.
As the book progresses some more, we learn that Christopher's mother is actually alive. We learn this when Christopher finds a letter from his father's room. He reads the letter and begins asking questions to himself. Normally, the reaction you would get is excited, happy, and sometimes crying. However, Christopher was asking questions. He was curious about so many things that logic came before his emotions.
-Emma Francesca Zita [ ♥ ]
In the beginning of the book, I thought that the theme would be how an autistic person could make a great detective and still solve crimes. But, as I read on, I found a new theme. Christopher shifts from trying to figure out who killed Wellington to trying to solve the mystery of his mother’s “death”. Christopher ends up pursuing the question of his mom’s disappearance and his father’s lie almost by accident. The theme then becomes not how an autistic person can be a detective but how it is impossible to understand anything “real” if you can’t understand human emotions.
Christopher simply cannot “understand”. “ Then I was really confused because Mother had never worked as a secretary for a firm that made things out of steel. Mother had worked as a secretary for a big garage in the center of town. And Mother had never lived in London. Mother had always lived with us. And Mother had never written a letter to me before.”
He stumbles upon a great and completely solvable mystery that is very important to his life but since Christopher does not think it is logical and it is not the mystery he is working on he just moves on. I think the main theme of the book is Christopher’s complete ability to be a detective on an intellectual level but his complete inability on an emotional level.
Christopher realizes, at the same time, that one, his father killed Wellington and two his father has been hiding his mother’s existence for many years (which means his mother abandoned him). He had a break down and even though it’s not on an emotional level you think that Christopher’s feeling something—something that he cannot understand. Finally, after his breakdown the first thing he does is get away from his dad, not because he is mad at him about the lie, but because he is afraid of a man who “murdered” a dog. “I had to get out of the house. Father had murdered Wellington. That meant he could murder me, because I couldn’t trust him, even though he had said ‘ Trust me,’ because he had told me a lie about a big thing.”
Christopher’s logic is so absolute that even at the end of book when he thinks about what his life could be in the future, he still does not think about how his mother abandoned him. Christopher’s complete lack of emotion stops him from being a detective.
The one major theme that stood out to me was the idea of how people see us. For Christopher he is oblivious to the people around him who judge and scrutinize everything he does, every move he makes. He looks around and see's a world that is a mystery to him. Everything around him isn't competly familier. The language for instance. He doesn't understand a variety of phrases that people say, he doesn't understand sarcasm, the way people twist words, and he can eve process the simplest commands such as 'be quiet.'
His house is another example. He likes to think that he knows everything there is, and that things will stay the way thy are, but thats not reality. If Christopher likes it or not, the sofa will never be in exactly the same position it was yesterday and the toothpaste will never be exactly where he put it last. There are factors that he doesn't include. He can't process the idea that someone else is living in the house and the chair is going to get moved one way or another.
A major theme in Curious Incident was definitely logic vs. emotions. Christopher doesn't exactly express his emotions the way others do. When he is told his mother passes away, instead of reacting sadly, he starts thinking of the logic of how she had died. He has a hard time figuring out emotions and doesn't understand them well at all. Another theme in the book is hope. When he is trying to go to London to visit his mother, there are policemen trying to get him not to go. However he keeps pushing towards his goal. At the end of the book he talks about his goals and how achieving them makes him happy.
A major theme to me is going to have to be trust. Not only does Christopher lose trusts in his father, there are also little snips in the book where Christopher is all alone and he feel that he can sometimes not trust anybody because somebody may be hurting him or he might be in a space where he does bot want to be.
When Christopher lost trust in his father, that was the incident in Whig he found out that him father was the man who killed Wellington, and he had kept the secret that his mother was alive for a very long time. Christopher felt threatened, but in my personal opinion, you have to lose trust in someone and then you are threatened. If you trust the person there is no need to be scares of the person.
Christopher even has to deal with little things in the trust section. For example, a small sample of his trust was that he trusted the policeman at the station would get him safely to the train and so he could buy his ticket, but he has left. He trusted Mrs. Alexander to watch Toby, but instead said she would tell his dad that he was running away from home. I think the author was trying to show the complex parts of putting your trust into other people's hands.
I think one of the biggest themes in the Curious Incident of the dog in the Nighttime is to tell the truth. Christopher feels he has no choice but to tell the truth.
We see from the beginning of the book that Christopher creates problems for himself by telling the truth. He gives short answers, and they are mostly yes or no answers. Christopher responds with short answers because I feel that he is trying to escape from conversations because there may be something to complex for him to answer.
I think Christopher responds with short answers so he does not have a mental breakdown, because there was a quote that said that the policeman was asking to many questions for Christopher to handle, and a few pages later he ended up hitting the policeman. To conclude my thoughts, Christopher doesn't just tell the truth to be honest, but to move along, and escape many questions.
A major theme in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime is truth because there are a lot of mistakes about truth within the book.
Christopher starts writing a book and does some investigating without telling his father about it because his father told him not to go around into other people's businesses. Siobhan asked if he was going to tell his father and all Christopher said was no. This shows that Christopher did always tell the truth but most of the time he did.
Christopher's father also doesn't tell him about his mother being dead when she was really alive and living with Mr. Shears. Christopher found out by letters sent from his mother and decided to go live with her after his father lied to him and told him that he killed wellington.This shows no trust and truth between Christopher and his father, but before this everything was fine between them.
-Bri ♥♥
From my perspective, I believe that a large theme within 'curious incident' is underlying love. I am sure that even though he does not know how to articulate it, Christopher deeply loves both of his parents, even though some times it is difficult to see.
The relationship between Christopher and his dad is rather complex for various reasons, one of which is that Father chose to hide that his mother had left them by pretending she was dead, which unfortunately, was not the best solution. I am sure that he did this to protect Christopher from the hardships in life. Christopher reacted strongly when he found out the truth, but it was fully in his right.
Christopher and his mother had a similarly difficult relationship due to the fact that she was not patient with Christopher and allow him to function is his own way as a younger child. Also, she was absent for most of his adolescent years, but regardless of her distance, she loved him. She attempted to express her feelings by writing him letters which were intercepted by his father and hidden. Even though they did not have much physical contact, his mother truly loved him. She thinks it is best for him if he grows up without her, as she cannot understand him.
Both of his parents committed actions that they thought would render positively, but in reality, just injured their relationship with Christopher. In very different ways, they hurt him, but also allowed him to find himself and believe in his own powers.
I think that one major theme in this book is love because it shows up often in vauge, but important ways. For instance the only reason Christopher's mohter left him was because she loved him. She saw that Christopher and his father had a connection and relationship that she didn't have with Christopher so she left; she thought if she stayed, it might make Christopher's life complicated. Another example in the book is when Christopher is in jail and he and his dad touch hands instead of hugging. This shows that his dad loves him because he's aware that Christopher doesn't like hugs, so he found an alternative for them.
Anothe rexample is when Christopher's dad comes to London to ask him to come back home with him. This shows that no matter how hard Christopher is to raise, he still wouldn't give him up. Basically love shows up in this book often, through Chistopher and his parents.
A major theme could be loss? Christopher loses many things during the course of the book, not only physically, but mentally as well. He has lost his mother, he is afraid to live in the house with his father when he learns he killed the neighbor’s dog. His comfort is disrupted and he is forced to trek in a world he is unfamiliar with.
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