The Morality of Mistake-Making
"It is the way in which we address the mistakes we have made
that truly shows what kind of person we are."
Regardless of the perceived righteousness of their intentions, humans are incapable of avoiding making mistakes in their judgement. On occasion, the things they consider doing are so morally abhorrent that it is impossible for them to ignore the feeling in the back of their minds warning them that people will inevitably end up getting hurt as a direct result of their actions. Despite being aware of their implications, people make self-serving, harmful decisions regularly. In his novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, author Mark Haddon describes the journey of an autistic teenager by the name of Christopher Boone, explaining how the selfish actions of others repeatedly threw his life into disarray. Through description, first person narration, and characterisation, Haddon shows that the mistakes made in one’s life don’t determine one’s nature as a writer, as a member of society, nor as a human being.
Though often plain and long-winded, Haddon’s descriptions of the various environments in his novel are intricately tied to the way Christopher absorbs information. Most people are able to learn through observation, shaping the way they do things, such as writing, by basing themselves off of others. However, Christopher is unable to learn through observation. He can only do what people have told him to do. When it comes to improving his writing, Christopher doesn’t learn from reading books written by other people. Instead, he learns by listening to suggestions by his teacher, Siobhan. So, when Siobhan tells him to add descriptions in his story to make it more interesting, he mistakenly goes above and beyond, describing even the most mundane feature of his surroundings with an abundance of detail. Though his misinterpretation of his teacher’s suggestion slows down the pace of his story, it doesn’t make Christopher a bad writer. His story has everything a good mystery novel needs, from the intrigue of Wellington’s death to the plot twists when he discovers that his mother is still alive and that his own father killed Wellington.
Instead of writing from an outsider’s perspective, Haddon chose to write his novel from Christopher’s point of view, allowing readers to understand the motives behind the protagonist’s actions. Had the story been written in any other character’s perspective, readers might have a harder time empathising with Christopher, who presents many of the symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome (AS), a disorder on the autism spectrum. True to the roots of the word “autism,” which roughly translates from Greek to “isolated self,” Christopher’s social and emotional awareness is strictly limited to his own mind. In other words, the symptoms of his disorder include being unable to tell how others are feeling by their facial expressions, as well as being entirely incapable of tolerating being touched by anyone who does not have his explicit permission to do so. These out-of-the-ordinary characteristics make it difficult for people who have little experience with Autism Spectrum Disorders to understand why he acts differently from others. For example, when a police officer tries to lift him up off the ground after interrogating him, Christopher responds by hitting the officer. The officer promptly arrests him, having the impression that Christopher reacted to him violently because he has no respect for authority. Readers of the novel, on the other hand, understand that Christopher actually likes policemen because they “have uniforms and numbers and you know what they are meant to be doing” (Haddon, page 4).
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, being written from a first person perspective, spends a great deal of time building the character of Christopher Boone in the minds of readers, shedding light on his quirks, strengths, and weaknesses. Nevertheless, the secondary characters in the novel, particularly Christopher’s parents, are far more responsible for Christopher’s troubles than Christopher himself. A few years before the events of The Curious Incident take place, Christopher’s mother abandons him and his father. The mother apologises to Christopher for having left through a letter, implying that she knew how hard it would be for father and son to go on without her, but left anyway. A few years later, however, when Christopher shows up at her London apartment in fear of his father, she takes advantage of this opportunity to make things better, taking him under her wing instead of turning him away. While the mother was once misguided enough to abandon her family, she has clearly evolved over the years, and is willing to do whatever it takes to make it up to her son. Like his estranged wife, Christopher’s father makes some decisions that negatively impact Christopher. When the mother picks up and leaves for London, the father spitefully tells Christopher that his mother has died of a heart attack and prevents Christopher from seeing the letters she sends him. He also lies to his son about having killed Wellington, pretending he has no clue who’s responsible. Things change when Christopher discovers the letters his mother was sending him from London. The father comes clean about everything and apologises profusely to Christopher for all his wrongdoing. Though Christopher is hesitant to cooperate, his father makes a sincere effort to rebuild the burned bridge between him and his son.
In Mark Haddon’s novel, neither of Christopher’s parents are purely good or purely evil human beings, just as Christopher is neither a perfectly law abiding citizen nor a delinquent. Christopher and his parents each make their own mistakes — some far more severe than others — though nobody is defined by their mistakes. This message can be carried into our own lives. Though the mistakes we make can be seriously harmful to other people, they don’t determine whether we’re good or bad people. Instead, it is the way in which we address the mistakes we have made that truly shows what kind of person we are. Being accountable for our actions, doing the best we can to make up for our mistakes, and making an effort to be better human beings are all steps that we can take to make sure that we’re not the people our lapses in judgement make us out to be.
Ryan
Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. New York: Doubleday, 2003. Print.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 6 Oct. 2014.
SparkNotes. SparkNotes. Web. 6 Oct. 2014. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-night-time/>.
"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Apr. 2014. Web. 6 Oct. 2014.
Though often plain and long-winded, Haddon’s descriptions of the various environments in his novel are intricately tied to the way Christopher absorbs information. Most people are able to learn through observation, shaping the way they do things, such as writing, by basing themselves off of others. However, Christopher is unable to learn through observation. He can only do what people have told him to do. When it comes to improving his writing, Christopher doesn’t learn from reading books written by other people. Instead, he learns by listening to suggestions by his teacher, Siobhan. So, when Siobhan tells him to add descriptions in his story to make it more interesting, he mistakenly goes above and beyond, describing even the most mundane feature of his surroundings with an abundance of detail. Though his misinterpretation of his teacher’s suggestion slows down the pace of his story, it doesn’t make Christopher a bad writer. His story has everything a good mystery novel needs, from the intrigue of Wellington’s death to the plot twists when he discovers that his mother is still alive and that his own father killed Wellington.
Instead of writing from an outsider’s perspective, Haddon chose to write his novel from Christopher’s point of view, allowing readers to understand the motives behind the protagonist’s actions. Had the story been written in any other character’s perspective, readers might have a harder time empathising with Christopher, who presents many of the symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome (AS), a disorder on the autism spectrum. True to the roots of the word “autism,” which roughly translates from Greek to “isolated self,” Christopher’s social and emotional awareness is strictly limited to his own mind. In other words, the symptoms of his disorder include being unable to tell how others are feeling by their facial expressions, as well as being entirely incapable of tolerating being touched by anyone who does not have his explicit permission to do so. These out-of-the-ordinary characteristics make it difficult for people who have little experience with Autism Spectrum Disorders to understand why he acts differently from others. For example, when a police officer tries to lift him up off the ground after interrogating him, Christopher responds by hitting the officer. The officer promptly arrests him, having the impression that Christopher reacted to him violently because he has no respect for authority. Readers of the novel, on the other hand, understand that Christopher actually likes policemen because they “have uniforms and numbers and you know what they are meant to be doing” (Haddon, page 4).
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, being written from a first person perspective, spends a great deal of time building the character of Christopher Boone in the minds of readers, shedding light on his quirks, strengths, and weaknesses. Nevertheless, the secondary characters in the novel, particularly Christopher’s parents, are far more responsible for Christopher’s troubles than Christopher himself. A few years before the events of The Curious Incident take place, Christopher’s mother abandons him and his father. The mother apologises to Christopher for having left through a letter, implying that she knew how hard it would be for father and son to go on without her, but left anyway. A few years later, however, when Christopher shows up at her London apartment in fear of his father, she takes advantage of this opportunity to make things better, taking him under her wing instead of turning him away. While the mother was once misguided enough to abandon her family, she has clearly evolved over the years, and is willing to do whatever it takes to make it up to her son. Like his estranged wife, Christopher’s father makes some decisions that negatively impact Christopher. When the mother picks up and leaves for London, the father spitefully tells Christopher that his mother has died of a heart attack and prevents Christopher from seeing the letters she sends him. He also lies to his son about having killed Wellington, pretending he has no clue who’s responsible. Things change when Christopher discovers the letters his mother was sending him from London. The father comes clean about everything and apologises profusely to Christopher for all his wrongdoing. Though Christopher is hesitant to cooperate, his father makes a sincere effort to rebuild the burned bridge between him and his son.
In Mark Haddon’s novel, neither of Christopher’s parents are purely good or purely evil human beings, just as Christopher is neither a perfectly law abiding citizen nor a delinquent. Christopher and his parents each make their own mistakes — some far more severe than others — though nobody is defined by their mistakes. This message can be carried into our own lives. Though the mistakes we make can be seriously harmful to other people, they don’t determine whether we’re good or bad people. Instead, it is the way in which we address the mistakes we have made that truly shows what kind of person we are. Being accountable for our actions, doing the best we can to make up for our mistakes, and making an effort to be better human beings are all steps that we can take to make sure that we’re not the people our lapses in judgement make us out to be.
Ryan
Works Cited
Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. New York: Doubleday, 2003. Print.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 6 Oct. 2014.
SparkNotes. SparkNotes. Web. 6 Oct. 2014. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-night-time/>.
"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Apr. 2014. Web. 6 Oct. 2014.
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