A Characterisation of Christopher Boone

Christopher John Francis Boone is the main character and protagonist of the book “ The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime” by Mark Haddon published in 2003. He is fifteen years old and lives in Swindon, a small town located in South-west England. By telling about his life completely changing after his neighbour´s dog was killed, Christopher gives the reader an insight into his very special way of seeing the world. Having Asperger Syndrome (AS), a form of autism, Christopher´s behavior and mindset considerably differ from the pattern we would judge as normal. The following characterisation is based on the chapters 1-59 and is therefore not able to include all aspects mentioned in the book.  

 

Christopher is an onlychild and lives together with his father and his rat Toby. His mother died  of a heart attack at the age of 38 two year ago Her death was very unexpected, especially  because she was very concerned about a healthy lifestyle (p.36 ll. 1-7), and left a gap in the family (p.37 l.8). She attached great importance to literature (p.5 l. 24) and social competences like friendlyness and willingness to help (p.20 ll19/20), so that it might be difficult for her to have a child with deficiences in social and communication skills. In some points she perhaps longed so strongly for Christophert behaving more normally, that she lost the connection to reality (p.24 ll.1-3). In spite of this possible conflict Christopher liked his mother and was concerned about her wellfare (p. 29 ll.16 ff and p.35 ll 24/25). After her death Ed Boone raises up Christopher on his own.

He has an own business doing heating maintenance and boiler repairing, so he is always able to be reached if Christopher needs him (p.17 ll.10/11).In general it is conspicuous that he tries hard to understand his son and does not hold him responsible for things being a result of the AS (p.26 ll.3-7 and p.21 ll.10-16). Explaining some of the special pattern of behaviour being typical for AS, the father often mediates in conflicts or misunderstandings between Christopher and people who do not have any experience in dealing with such a mental disorder (e.g. the policeman p.22 ll.3/4). Worried about Christopher getting into trouble his father wants him to keep out of  everything which could cause conflicts (p.26 ll.8-13). Despite of all his efforts there are still moments in which he is frustrated and angry with Christopher (p.27 ll.1-6). But most of the time he is quite sucessful in hiding such feelings and pretending that he is fine to spare Christopher (p.27 ll19-21, p.28 l.23 and p.29 ll.25 ff.).

Another important person in Christophers life is his teacher Siobhan. They have known each other for eight years and she is one of the few persons Christopher shares his thoughts and feelings with. Christopher asks her for advice and also puts it into action most times (p.5 ll.19 ff.). Things seeming confusing and not understandable to him become clearer with Siobhan´s illustrative and honest explinations (p. 19 ll.3 ff.). Taking him seriously, Siobhan gives Christopher the signals he needs for understanding what he is expected to do (p.39 ll. 1-15). The two can discuss without someone losing face or persisting in imcompatible positions (p.6 ll. 2 ff.). All these are reasons for the unusual trusting relationship and the affection Christopher feels for Siobhan (p.39 ll.1-3).

 

However, Christopher generally has  a lot of problems in social contact. As a result of the Asperger Syndrome he behaves differently from others in many points and is therefore often thought of as strange. He can not put himself in somebody´s place and is also not able to imagine how others might feel or think in certain situations (p.29 ll.1/2 and p.2 l.14). Only things happened to himself are conceivable for him (p.5 l.22), although he theoretically has the ability of abstract thinking. Another difficult aspect is his incompetence to understand implied signals like body language or figuratively used words e.g. metaphors (p. 20 l.5 and p.19 ll.3 ff.). So he just reacts to direct signals he knows like obvious emotions or conflicts (p.27 ll.4 “I could tell he was angry because he was shouting(…)”).

All this makes it impossible for him to engage in social interactions as normal, that is why it easily comes to misunderstandings between him and people not knowing much about AS (p.22 ll.3-10). His fundamental honesty as well as his unusual and inapproperiate seeming  reactions could look like impoliteness or indifference for outsiders (p.36 ll.3-11 and p. 39 l.26). In priciple Christopher endeavours to cope with his environment and to make himself understandable (p. 7 ll.23ff. and p.8 ll.14/15), even if he actually prefers to be alone (p.2 ll.11/12). If the person opposite respects his special needs like not being touched or needing time to understand the situation, Christopher can deal with social contacts much better. The feeling of having a structure and being safe, which determined his whole life, is very important for him. So he handles  social situations much better for which he has a special behaviour pattern (p. 26 ll.3/4). He can not apply this rules to a situation being different from the one he know (p.38 ll.3 ff. and p.17 ll3 ff.), so that changes make him feel upset and unsure how he should behave the best.

Christopher has a clear definition for everything he knows including the obligatory consequences for the future (p.18 ll.2-4and p.33 ll.21-23). According to this he often speaks like demonstrating a mathematic evidence ( many causal sentences and phrases like “This is because…”). His thoughts follow a system of cause and effect, which gives him the feeling of safety (p. 32 ll.14/15). If something does not fit in this system, Christopher becomes stressed and shows special patters of behaviour to evade the situation (e.g groaning). Information (ecspecially dates and unchangable facts or features) make unknown things less frightening for him. He is very observing and notices a lot of details other people would not, in which he shows a remarkably good memory (p. 37 l.13 and p.5 ll.20-12). Christopher is extremely interested in mathematics, physics and logical puzzles and also very talented in these areas. Things he can classify and assess their reaction like dogs or machines generally fascinates him because they give him the feeling of being able to cope with the situation. About themes he is interested in he has a high knowledge and very precise vocabulary, whereas his choice of words is limited and looks more childish in general topics (p.12 ll6 ff.).

Christopher is aware of his abilities and can also see the intellectual differences between him and his contemporaries at school. He is proud of  his gifts, even if he does not think of himself as very intelligent, and has some plans for the future (p.33 ll.10-15). He dreams of becoming an astronaut although he knows this is improbable. His ability of self-reflection and reference to reality becomes very clear during the whole chapter 47, which is however limited to the rational point of view.

 To conclude all my thoughts I think of Christopher as someone living in two worlds – his  own and the normal we know all by ourselves. While he can manage things very well as long as they are in his special system of thinking, the everyday life is complicated and confusing for him. In spite of this he has found his own way of dealing with this circumstandes being supported by his father and Siobhan. His all-round being different from what we are used to makes him to a fascinating and lovely person and his often naive looking view of the world  makes the reader think about his own philosophie of life and discover new aspects he had never thougth of before.