Schoey93
Member
This thread is mainly for The curious incident of the dog in the night time by Mark Haddon. I have not read nor studied Hamlet, so you are invited to contributed any ideas or notes on Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Close study of a text: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon.
[*]Plot: The novel is about a boy who suffers from social anxiety. It is NOT stated anywhere in the book that he has a mental illness such as Autism, although if the novel has been updated post-2006, then please inform myself and anyone else viewing this thread unsure of this. The boy, Christopher, is 15 years old. He loves math and can focus solely on math. He also loves physics. He sits his math A-level (British uni entrance exam) that year. His mother is dead but he did not, unfortunately, get to go to the funeral. He likes red, but not yellow or brown. He is superstitous. He can't do chatting. He doesn't know about his mother and Mr Shears "doing sex together". He is a negative thinker, generally. His positivity and dreams for the future are sometimes dashed.
[*]Belonging: Christopher must find a way to belong and function in society. His is ill-equipped to handle the challenges and pressures that come with every day life, and does not belong. However, he does not believe that he needs to belong and enjoys imagining that he is the only human being on the planet. His pet rat and one of his carers at his special school are his best friends. His carer's name is Siobhan. She helps him write his detective novel about who killed Mrs Shear's dog and why. By the way, the person who killed the dog is (change of font colour - upcoming spoiler) Christopher's father, who was jealous.
[*]Language: get your English Standard teacher to read the book aloud, it is littered with swears. The effect of this language is to communicate such things as desperation, disaster, anxiety and anger. Usually the use of swear words in crude and unnecessary. In my opinion, that generalisation applies here, too. The swearing was effective at highlighting Christopher's anger, but really, a more creative rather than logical description of the novel's most important event (spoiler incoming in a different coloured font) When Christopher discovers that his mother is still alive and that his father has been lying to him for years, and killed the dog to get revenge at Mrs Shears who had been spending time with him and Christopher, but spent more valuable and longer amounts of time with her dog, Wellington.
[*]Events: important events, such as Wellington's murder (the dog), Christopher getting sent to jail, him deciding to write a book, and his discovery that his father is a liar and killed Wellington, and hid his mother's existence from him need to be analysed when writing essays about the novel. Please also remember to anaylse language, as mentioned above. Question you may wish to ask yourself about Module B include: How did this event contribute to the overall development of the story? How important was this event? How did Christopher and the characters around him change as a result of this event?
[*]Seeking help: Christopher is adept at seeking help. How does this help him belong in society?
[*]Ask your teacher to discuss the novel with you. It is a great Module B text and it is very funny, and charming. It is a wonderful novel. Please enjoy it!
James
P.S: Add any comments you wish to make, any thoughts on The Curious Incident... or Hamlet and essay responses (attachment) or notes made on either of the two texts, or even both.
Thank you!
Close study of a text: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon.
[*]Plot: The novel is about a boy who suffers from social anxiety. It is NOT stated anywhere in the book that he has a mental illness such as Autism, although if the novel has been updated post-2006, then please inform myself and anyone else viewing this thread unsure of this. The boy, Christopher, is 15 years old. He loves math and can focus solely on math. He also loves physics. He sits his math A-level (British uni entrance exam) that year. His mother is dead but he did not, unfortunately, get to go to the funeral. He likes red, but not yellow or brown. He is superstitous. He can't do chatting. He doesn't know about his mother and Mr Shears "doing sex together". He is a negative thinker, generally. His positivity and dreams for the future are sometimes dashed.
[*]Belonging: Christopher must find a way to belong and function in society. His is ill-equipped to handle the challenges and pressures that come with every day life, and does not belong. However, he does not believe that he needs to belong and enjoys imagining that he is the only human being on the planet. His pet rat and one of his carers at his special school are his best friends. His carer's name is Siobhan. She helps him write his detective novel about who killed Mrs Shear's dog and why. By the way, the person who killed the dog is (change of font colour - upcoming spoiler) Christopher's father, who was jealous.
[*]Language: get your English Standard teacher to read the book aloud, it is littered with swears. The effect of this language is to communicate such things as desperation, disaster, anxiety and anger. Usually the use of swear words in crude and unnecessary. In my opinion, that generalisation applies here, too. The swearing was effective at highlighting Christopher's anger, but really, a more creative rather than logical description of the novel's most important event (spoiler incoming in a different coloured font) When Christopher discovers that his mother is still alive and that his father has been lying to him for years, and killed the dog to get revenge at Mrs Shears who had been spending time with him and Christopher, but spent more valuable and longer amounts of time with her dog, Wellington.
[*]Events: important events, such as Wellington's murder (the dog), Christopher getting sent to jail, him deciding to write a book, and his discovery that his father is a liar and killed Wellington, and hid his mother's existence from him need to be analysed when writing essays about the novel. Please also remember to anaylse language, as mentioned above. Question you may wish to ask yourself about Module B include: How did this event contribute to the overall development of the story? How important was this event? How did Christopher and the characters around him change as a result of this event?
[*]Seeking help: Christopher is adept at seeking help. How does this help him belong in society?
[*]Ask your teacher to discuss the novel with you. It is a great Module B text and it is very funny, and charming. It is a wonderful novel. Please enjoy it!
James
P.S: Add any comments you wish to make, any thoughts on The Curious Incident... or Hamlet and essay responses (attachment) or notes made on either of the two texts, or even both.
Thank you!
Last edited:
