Monday, December 14, 2009

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (201-250)

Summary:
He met a police officer at the train station. The Police officer questioned him, and talked to him about where he was going. They went together then to get the money from an ATM machine. He then went and bought the ticket for 17 Pounds. The train as departing in 5 minutes, in Platform 1. He got on the train. Just as the train was about to depart, the police man came in and said "Christopher, Your dad is looking for you". Then when the train started to move, he started swearing. Chris did not want to see his father, but he was going to HAVE to see it, just because it was the police. The train would stop at the next station, and then they would take him in a car. He then goes to the bathroom. He hated the bathroom in the train because "it smelled of poo" and "it was brown" and he hated the color brown. After he went to the bathroom, he hid behind a shelf full of bags and luggages. I think he did this so that he couldn't go back to the police officer. He finally aarrived at London, and asked where is his mothers house(he gave them the address). Then the lady behind the counter told him to go to the Bakerloo Line and he had to go to Northbound and that was the direction of Willesden. He lost Toby, his pet rat, so he went looking for him. Afetr a while, he found him, and took him. He was on the rails, and a train was coming, He got hold of Toby, but a man in diamond socks pulled Chris to safety. He was MAD and PISSED at him. He first was bleeding, then he had dirty clothes from trying to pull Chris up, and then he had missed his train.Chris decided to get on a train after 8 more had come by, and finally get on it.

(That's when I stopped reading)


Quote:
"And he had dreadlocks, which is what some black people have, but he was white, and dreadlocks is when you never wash your hair and it looks like old rope" (Haddon 203).


Reaction:
First, when I read this, I thought it was a little bit stereotypical. Classifying that "black people" are the only ones that have dreadlocks is very rude. Not to mention that he was rude when he said "it looks like old rope". I think that this kid would get in trouble in real life if he was this rude, but then again, it's just some author that writes like a idiot and then blames it that the main character, is autistic.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (150-200)

Summary:
Chris talks about his first school teacher, which was named Julie. She asked CHristopher if he knew what was ain a tube. The Tube was named "Smarties", so Chris assumed that smarties were in the tube. What was really in the tube was a pencil. Then Chris talks about how the mind works. After that, Chris was sitting on his bed looking at the ground. His father admitted that he would say the truth from now on, and that he would be honest with his son. HE admitted that every human makes mistakes, and that HE had killed wellignton. It was because of an argument they had, and that Mrs. Shears (The dogs owner), cared more about the dog than about him. He then killed the dog. After Chris found out, he waited until 1:20 AM and ran away from the house. He hid behind a shed, and took his pet, Toby, and a coat and a "Special food" box. He stayed awake until 3:47 AM. Once mornign came, Father tried to search for his son, but couldn't find him. Chris then heard his van, and him driving away, so it was safe to come out. He decided that he needed to go live with his mom, which lived in London. It was a very frightening thought that he would go somewhere he ad never been by himself. He walked to school, which took him 47 minutes. He saw his father's van parked outside the school, so he ran and asked a lady where the train station is. He went to the trains station.

Quote:
"Can I get you anything to eat, Christopher?" (Haddon 162)

Reaction:
I hate how parents try to make up for things once they have done something wrong, and I hate how they try to do very little small things and make it seem like t is alright. I HATE when they do that. If you have something to say, just come clean and be honest. If you lie, it will only hurt you more in the future.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (101-150)

Summary:
Early on this section of the book, Christopher describes that his memory is like a film, and he is very good at remembering things. He could tell you something exactly how and when it happend when he was 6 years old. He is 15 now, and very smart for a 15 year old. Although he has behavioral problems, he still does his best, and will be taking a A Level Math class, and he promises to himself that he is going to get an A.
When Christopher got home from school later in the week, he put his book that he was writing down on the table. After that, he went to the living room and watched Blue Planet. That is a show about the world and about the differant ecosystems. His dad comes home, and Christopher forgets that he put the book down on the table. He was "relaxing his guard" (Haddon 109). Christopher's dad gets mad, and is mad that he is writing a book about this. He gets so mad, that he hits Christopher and he hits him back. After the fight, his father takes the book, and goes outside.
A day later, his dad took Christopher to the Zoo. It was to cheer Christopher up. He said things like "I love you Christopher, do you understand that? I do get angry cometimes, but that is because I get worried" (Haddon 118). Christopher said Yes, I understand that you love me, probably just to get his father off his back. After the day they went to the Zoo, he started talking about how he was trying to find the book that his dad took away from him. He started searching, and couldn't find it anywhere. Last place he would search was his fathers bedroom. After a while, he finds this box with a bunch of letters and his book in it. He looks at the letters for awhile, but then hears his fathers van pull up in the drive way. He knew it was time to get out of his fathers room. He took one letter out, and hid the letter under his mattress so his dad wouldn't find it. He didn't bother taking the boo, because if his father found out then his would get angry at him... AGAIN.

He reads the letter, and then finds out that his mother writes to him, and she lives somewhere else, and that she has a differant job. She also lives in London. Now, at this point in the book, Christopher and
I do not know whats going on. This part confused me. And that's when I stopped reading.

Quote:
"And Father said, "I love you very much, Christopher. Don't you ever forget that. And I know I lose my rag occasionally. I know that I get angry. I know I shout. And I know I shouldn't. But I do it only because I worry about you, because I don't want to see you getting into trouble, because I don't want you to get hurt" (Haddon 118).

Reaction:
My reaction to this quote was...ehh. It was a good excuse for what Chris's father said...but I believe it was more of a rush. I think that the author did not think and did not know what to write, so he just wrote some BS. "Oh, Look I'm an author, and I can write whatever I want to and make the reader wonder" is basically the attitude he has about this book. In fact, I don't even feel like I'm reading a book anymore. It is just him, jumping around from topic to topic in each chapter. Really boring. Was expecting more from this book.

And now a question to all those reading that can be answered in the comments section bellow:
Is the author merely leaning on his characters to make up for a lackluster narrative?

In this case the young autistic lead character is used as a scapegoat, in that, any flaws in continuity, poor pacing or awkward dialog can be easily hand-waved by raising the little red autism flag and saying these details washed straight over the character, nullifying the author from any criticism.