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  • Essay / The author's perspective on personal challenges in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a novel by Mark Haddon

    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Discuss how the perspective of Haddon's personal challenges are conveyed in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. In your response, make detailed reference to the prescribed text. Haddon's view that individuals are capable of overcoming personal challenges is expressed in the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time through an empathetic view of Christopher primarily as a young man confronting the challenges that life presents to him . By providing readers with the protagonist's unique perspective on transformative events and his relationships with significant others, Haddon allows readers to be immersed in Christopher's experiences of himself and other characters while undergoing a process painful maturation. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Haddon explores Christopher's shift between different perceptions of truth and lies to overcome the challenge of facing the pain that the truth can bring. The use of lists for Christopher's "Chain of Reasoning", as he speculates on the identity of the prime suspect in the dog's murder, allows readers to become involved in his thought process and his perspective on the truth, also helping to establish the genre of detective fiction. While Christopher's search for the truth about the identity of Wellington's killer contributes to this, Haddon's use of lists shows how Christopher finds security in asserting the facts and what is true through logical reasoning. However, as Christopher's perspective that the truth can only bring safety is called into question when he discovers the truth that his father killed Wellington, the genre transforms into a bildungsroman. Haddon uses this to accentuate Christopher's particular understanding of truth and lies. Christopher's struggle to grow and develop his perception is highlighted by the juxtaposition of his need to adhere to the truth and his need to escape the consequences of telling the truth in "I didn't know what to say...it was illegal to steal things, but he was a police officer so I had to tell the truth,” following his decision to lie to the officer. The juxtaposition conveys Christopher's dilemma between choosing to follow the law and following his own perception of the truth, thus highlighting how Christopher is forced to develop his perspective that no safety can be found in lying when confronted with his limitations . Therefore, Christopher's ability to develop a mature perception of truth and lies shows how a change in perspective allows individuals to overcome personal challenges. Haddon explains how Christopher is able to overcome his personal challenges in communicating with others by showing Christopher's perspective on communication. Haddon uses illustrations of emoticons to symbolize Christopher's difficulty reading facial expressions beyond "happy" and "sad", allowing readers to compare their interpretations of the emoticons to Christopher's point of view, thus highlighting Christopher's challenge in communicating with others when he does not understand. their emotions. Christopher's method of overcoming this challenge by developing his own method of communication is conveyed in the scene where he and his father touch fingers, because "I don't like hugging people...and that means he loves me.”.