“The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time”, A Book That Shows Us What The Autistic Mind Is Like
Christopher John Francis Boone he is 15 years old. She knows all the countries in the world, their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He loves mathematics, he relates well to animals, but does not have the understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand being touched and always seeks routine, order and predictability in his daily life, as this makes him feel safe and secure.
The above description corresponds to a child with Asperger Syndrome, a subtype of Autism included within the autistic spectrum, whose main characteristics are difficulty in social interaction, affectivity and communication, lack of empathy and sensitivity towards others, tendency to egocentrism. , naivety and gullibility, lack of knowledge of limits and social norms, as well as restricted and repetitive interests.
Also, a certain obsession with routine, order and turning everyday acts into rituals The main difference between Asperger Syndrome and the other subtypes of the autism spectrum is that These people do not have a delay in their intelligence, sometimes being higher than average, as in the case of high-functioning autistic people. However, this particular child is part of a work of fiction.
The autism spectrum experienced in the first person
Christopher He is the protagonist of the novel The curious incident of the dog in the middle of the night (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is its original title). The story is narrated in the first person by this 15-year-old boy with Asperger’s Syndrome who lives with his father in Swindon (Wiltshire, United Kingdom).
It is a novel by British writer Mark Haddon which won the Withbread Book of the Year Award in 2003, the Best First Book for Young Readers Award in 2005, and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in 2004. As a young man, Haddon worked with autistic people, allowing him to reliably describe the thoughts of a child with the condition.
The story begins when Christopher finds his neighbor’s dog dead in the garden, and is initially blamed for the event. From here on, the routine and order that Christopher had created around his life slowly falls apart as he investigates who the dog’s real killer was.
The brilliance of the novel lies in Mark Haddon’s choice of narrator: torturous and emotion-filled moments are described by a child who cannot imagine the emotion The effect is dazzling, making it a fun and moving story, while giving us a different point of view of human behavior and helping us understand how an autistic person thinks, lives and feels.
Locked in their world, there is great difficulty in communicating with people with autism, and it can be an almost impossible task to understand the reason for their strange actions, exaggerated reactions or their impassive behavior regarding different stimuli. Haddon tries to capture the ideas and reasoning that Christopher has throughout the events that happen in his life, events seen from a totally different perspective than the one we are used to
A didactic and enjoyable reading
The curious incident of the dog in the middle of the night It lacks long and tedious descriptions, and its reading becomes agile thanks to the dialogues between the characters and the simple explanations of the protagonist. Furthermore, among the plot of the story, you can find mathematical and logical proofs such as the explanation of the Monty Hall problem, both scientific and historical curiosities such as the Cottingley fairies, and some literary references, especially to Sherlock Holmes novels.
A highly recommended book for those people interested in autism, since they will learn in an entertaining and playful way what it really means to experience this behavioral disorder without necessarily resorting to theoretical manuals.
