Curious incident quotes

Repetition of and

- reflects his anxiety as he absorbs new details - new places cause sensory overload - as a refusal of sorts to differentiate or understand, he simply links events chronologically

And father said "**** Christopher, please" and there were tears dripping off his face and not one said anything for a while

C is really hurt bc doesn't put hand out for his father. C feels close to mom but really his dad did everything for him. Style: c is incapable of interpreting the emotional seriousness of the situation. C's tone is flat and emotionless. Dad curses bc he's in pain. This shows disconnect between father and c because c doesn't get dad's pain even with tears.

And then there was a sound like people fighting with swords and the sweat was running down my face under my hair and I was moaning not groaning but different like a dog when it hurt it's paw and I heard the sound but I didn't realize it was me at first"

C uses violent imagery to show the way his mind works when he's overwhelmed. "and: shows his anxiety" he doesn't realize he's the one making noise

"I also said that I cared about dogs because they were faithful and honest, and some dogs were cleverer and more interesting than some people. Steve, for example needs help to eat his food" (6)

Chris compares people to dogs. Chris is being honest, and he doesnt know its wrong, but its insulting to others. He talks sbout his classmates in a negatice way because hes unaware of his own disability.

It is sort of being silly. But in life you have to take lots of decisions and if you don't you would never do anything because you would spend all your time choosing between things you could do

Chris doesnt understand that its arbitrary to dislike certain colors but he cant handle making decisions, so his dislike of these colors has nothing to do w aesthetic it limits his choices.

I had to get out of the house. Father had murdered Wellington. That meant he could murder me because I couldn't trust him, even though he had said trust me because had told a lie about a big thing.

Chris equates murdering a dog to a human.

All the other children at my school are stupid. Except I'm not meant to call them stupid, even though this is what they are. I'm meant to say that they have learning difficulties or that they have special needs. But this is stupid because everyone has learning difficulties... and everyone has special needs

Chris is blunt, he think he can always say the truth even if its inappropriate. He points out absurdity of language and thinks politically correct language is flawed. His language is deemed hurtful by others, but he doesnt realize that.

"I had been hugging the dog for 4 minutes when I heard the screaming" (4)

Chris is holding a dead dog and isnt reporting information like others would. The style normalizes the abnormal. It also shows how easily chris gets distracted.

And I know I can do this because I went to London on my own and because I solved the mystery of who killed Wellington and I found my mother and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything

Chris is very confident. He's grown and did things that he thought he wasn't capable of. He thinks it's logical that he can do anything but really it's not

"I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has 4 moods. Happy sad, cross and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk." (3)

Chris likes dogs because they are easy to understand. Dogs are straight-forward with their emotions while humans have the ability to mask their true feelings and thr truth through lies.

And this is how I recognize someone if I don't know who they are. I see what they're wearing or if they have a walking stick or funny hair or a certain type of glasses or they have a particular way of moving their arms and I do a search through my memories to see if I have met them before

Chris memorizes every detail. He identifies people in a way others dont. He compares his memory to a dvd player and perceives the world as a jumble of specific details.

"I put my hands over my ears and closed my eyes and rolled forward till I was hunched up with my forehead pressed onto the grass. The grass was wet and cold. It was nice" (4)

Chris purposefully blocks the world out and he finds pleasure in being in his own world.

"The word metaphor means carrying something from one place to another, and it comes from the Greek words [meta} which means from one place to another and [feron ] which means to carry, and it is when you describe something by using a work for something that it isnt...I think it should be called a lie" (15)

Chris takes umbrage at metaphors. He doesnt understsnd that they are inaccurate descriptions. His intelligence is literal.

"I wondered whether Mrs. Shears had told the police that I had killed Wellington and whether, when the police found out that she had lied, she would go to prison. Because telling lies about people is called slander." (14)

Christopher cant distinguish between a lie and accusation. Christopher doesnt read behind intentions of what people say.

"If I try to say the joke to myself, making the word mean 3 different things at the same time, it is like hearing 3 different pieces of music at the same time, which is uncomfortable and confusing and not nice like white noise. It is like 3 people trying to talk to you at the same time about different things" (8)

Christopher is incapable of understanding jokes and he is comforted by white noise

Fear equation on page 136

Christopher is running away from home and explains that normally he would have been much more frightened of new places but that his fear remains constant because his fear of new places is inversely proportionate to his fear of his father so that his total fear remains constant. As he distances himself from his father that fear lessons, but his fear of new places increases so that he's not any more frightened on the sidewalk than he was in his house. The use of an equation to represent his feelings is very telling. It's a translation of sorts. He converts the irrational (emotions) to the rational (mathematics)

My book was approximately 25 cm x 25 cm x 1 cm so it couldn't be hidden in a very small place which meant that I didn't have to look in really small places

Christopher writes exactly as he think and he doesnt assume anything, he uses facts.

But I knew the room couldn't be swinging back and forward so it must have been something which was happening in my head

Christopher's mental emotions has physical affects on his body but he cant process or understand this.

Mom had not had a heart attack. Mom had not died. Mother had been alive all this time. And father had lied about this.i tried really hard to think if there was any other explanation but I couldn't think of one. And then I couldn't think of anything at all because my brain wasn't working properly

Christpher always has to have an answer, the truth. This writing is like syllogism. It is too much for him to handle. He doesnt want to believe that his father lied to him.

I said that some people who worked in an office came out of their house in the morning and saw that the sun was shining and it made them feel happy, or they saw that it was raining and it made them feel sad but the only difference was the weather didn't have anything to do with whether they had a good or bad day

His pratice of determing whether its a good or bad day is an arbitrary system. He simplifies his life. Others use weather to determine the quality of their day. However weather can actually affect one's mood but colors of cars dont.

Illustration of Christopher's perception of the signs in the train station (169-170)

Illustrates attention to detail. After a few seconds becomes jumbled helps readers understand his mind and each sign is equally important

And this [the case of the cottingley fairies] shows that sometimes people want to be stupid and they do not want to know the truth

People dont want to know the truth to make things easier for themselves. Christopher thinks hes better than others, but really, he simplifies his life in different ways too.

"And mother got flu and I had to spend three days with father and stay in his house. But it was ok because sandy slept on my bed so he would bark if anyone came into the room during the night. And father made a vegetable patch in the garden and I helped him" (220)

Sandy, the dog, represents hope of chris and father getting closer again and also represents slow process of building trust. Garden represent him and his fathers relationship and shows that it will grow and develop naturally.

I see everything that is why I don't like new places

When c walks into a new place he notices everything so it's overwhelming for him to take everything in. He can't differentiate important details from unimportant ones

And when mother and Mr. Shears argued I took the little radio from the kitchen and I went and sat in the spare room and I tuned it halfway between 2 stations so that all I could hear was white noise and I turned the volume up really loud and held it against my ear and the sound filled my head and it hurt so that I couldn't feel any other sort of hurt, like the hurt in my chest

White noise is a way for him to isolate himself. His hurt in his chest is a heartache but he doesn't understand his emotions. (Use of and)