Stranger Danger

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is by Mark Haddon. The book takes place in a little town in England. In that town, there is a kid with special needs named Christopher. Christopher used to live with his father and mother, but his mother died a few years ago. He loves to do math. He knows all the countries in the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. Christopher doesn’t understand emotions very well, however. One night he discovers his neighbor’s dog stabbed to death, which makes him sad because he likes dogs. He does what he thought to be the most logical thing and began hugging it, except his neighbor Mrs. Shears came out and saw him and the dog, which made it look like he had killed him. When the police came he got very frustrated with them and decided to hit one of the officers, so he was taken to the station and his dad had to come bail him out. Once he got home Christopher decides to investigate the murder of the dog because he enjoys murder mysteries, the only bad part is that he has to speak with strangers. “I do not like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before. They are hard to understand.” (34) Christopher’s fear of talking to strangers makes sense. The first person point of view makes it easier to understand what Christopher feels like when he interacts with a stranger, for example, the book shows how the real reasons he doesn’t like strangers, and how he gets to feel comfortable around new people, it really helps to understand how he feels because third-person point of view wouldn’t be as accurate. This shows that Christopher is very shy and irritable, he clearly doesn’t like new people, and it says that he will someone who he doesn’t’ know if they touch him.  Last week I had to go sell tickets to support the basketball team and it could’ve been better. I felt it was a little awkward going to people’s houses and asking them for money, even if it was for the basketball team, especially people you don’t. The worst part is going inside a gate and knocking on the door of a house with a long walkway because those are the houses where you’re really invading people’s privacy. The difference between Christopher and my phobia of talking to strangers is for me I would consider it awkward/embarrassing, especially when asking for money, while if Christopher sees a stranger he might begin to feel sick or get very angry or scared. He might possibly run away or hit them.