mod 5

  Thesis: In the post-modern literature novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon there are persistent themes of both coming-of-age and emotions versus logic which are supported by the various elements of fiction developed by Haddon, the protagonist Christopher’s interior dialogue, and several flashbacks and the use of ambiguity.

Outline:

I.         Introduction

A.       Attention grabber

B.       History/info on Haddon and novel

C.       Thesis

II.       Body Paragraph 1 – Theme: Coming-of-Age

A.       What is a coming-of age?

B.       In this novel, the protagonist Christopher faces some hard truths, faces his fears, and solves a mystery. The storyline showcases Christopher learning and growing, and in the end, he looks back at what he has accomplished and has set some new goals for himself with confidence.

1.        “And I am going to pass it and get an A grade. And in two years’ time I am going to take A-level physics and get an A grade. And then, when I’ve done that, I am going to go to university in another town. And it doesn’t have to be in London because I don’t like London and there are universities in lots of places and not all of them are in big cities. And I can live in a flat with a garden and a proper toilet. And I can take Sandy and my books and my computer.

” (Haddon, p. 131)

III.      Body Paragraph 2 – Theme: Emotions vs. Logic

A.       Explanation of emotions vs. logic

B.       “like Father, who has to carry a little packet of artificial sweetening tablets around with him to put in his coffee to stop him from getting fat, or Mrs. Peters, who wears a beige-colored hearing aid, or Siobhan, who has glasses so thick that they give you a headache if you borrow them, and none of these people are Special Needs, even if they have special needs. (Haddon, p. 43-44). Ray explains how Christopher uses logic in this passage “This passage suggests that it is the need that defines disability, not the person. Therefore, disability is relative.” (Ray)

C.       Christopher has a difficult time , but reading others facials expressing and expressing his own emotions, but can easily rattle off the prime numbers up to 7,057. To help Christopher with this one of his teachers named Siobhan would draw circle faces with different emotions and label them.

1.        “I got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant. I kept the piece of paper in my pocket and took it out when I didn’t understand what someone was saying. But it was very difficult to decide which of the diagrams was most like the face they were making because people’s faces move very quickly.” (Haddon, p. 13)

IV.      Body Paragraph 3 – Interior Dialogue

A.       What is interior dialogue

B.       Why is Christopher’s interior dialogue important to the story? It gives us insight into who Christopher is, what he likes, what he doesn’t, how is mind processes, etc.

C.       “The process of novel-writing that structures Haddon's work functions as an account of Christopher's struggles with his own Theory of Mind--that is, with his on-again, off-again ability to interpret the mindsets of those around him. By writing an autobiographical novel in which he consciously reflects on his own ToM, Christopher effectively shows not only how he is different (a fact that he presents as self-evident, not as remarkable), but also how he is similar to his prospective readers.” (William) William explains how Haddon uses Christopher’s interior dialogue to let the readers inside his mind and get to know him.

D.       As Christopher is in the beginning of his detective work to find out who killed Wellington, he visits Mrs. Shears.

1.        “When I looked through the window I could see a fork that looked exactly the same as the fork that had been sticking out of Wellington. It was lying on the bench by the window and it had been cleaned because there was no blood on the spikes. I could see some other tools as well, a spade and a rake and one of those long clippers people use for cutting branches which are too high to reach. And they all had the same green plastic handles like the fork. This meant that the fork belonged to Mrs. Shears. Either that or it was a Red Herring, which is a clue which makes you come to a wrong conclusion or something which looks like a clue but isn’t.” (Haddon, p. 28)

V.       Body Paragraph 4 – Flashbacks

A.       What is a flashback?

B.       The author uses flashbacks in the novel to both set the stage and for added context. For example, in the following quote Haddon sets the stage for why Christopher’s mother is not in the picture any more.

1. “Christopher arrives home from school one day and, when no one answers the door, he lets himself in with a key that's hidden outside. His dad gets home, but neither of them knows where Christopher's mom is.” (Haddon, p.23)

VI.      Body Paragraph 5 – Ambiguity

A.       The meaning of ambiguity

1.        “Ambiguity about diagnosis influences both Haddon’s and Stork’s novels,

with notably different results.” (Orlando, p. 324) Ambiguity as a writing technique can have different effects, and while only the author knows it’s true intent, in Christopher’s case we are left to make our own conclusions.

2.        “Readers are never explicitly made aware of what makes Christopher "not normal," but his ostensible "disability"--possibly Asperger's Syndrome, a high functioning form of autism--shapes the narrative. In this article, I offer a disability studies analysis of the text, and conclude that the novel presents a liberatory model of disability, in part precisely because Christopher's disability is never named, raising the possibility that disability is in the eye of the reader, not the character himself.” (Ray)

3.        Much like the ambiguity, surrounding the differences of Christopher, the author Haddon also uses ambiguity through the other characters. A great example of this is when Christopher’s father tells him he won’t be seeing his mother for a while, “Your mother has had to go into the hospital… She needs rest. She needs to be on her own… It’s an ordinary hospital. She has a problem…a problem with her heart.” (Haddon, p. 24) The way the author ambiguously sets this scene, prompts the reader to think something is up, foreshadowing if you will.

 

VII.    Body Paragraph 6 – Examples of postmodern literature

A.       What is postmodern literature:

B.       Characteristics of this genre: “According to Lewis ( 2001 ), boundary breaking, excess, indeterminacy, parody, and performance are five strategies or devices evident in postmodern picturebooks (and novels).” (Pantaleo, p. 325)

C.       Support: “link between the crossover success

of Curious Incident and its postmodern revisitation of the detective formula.

Haddon’s decision to play with the conventions of the clue-puzzle version of the

genre presents the reader with both a gripping, and humorous, plot and some clever

metanarrative reflections, in a brilliant example of the ‘‘dual address’’ (to use

Barbara Wall’s (1991) term) that is the mark not only of many great postmodern

texts but also of classic children’s literature.” (Ciocia, p. 321)

VIII.   Conclusion

A.       Relate back to intro

B.       Restate thesis

C.       Clincher