English 485: Expedition Adolescence

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a novel written by Mark Haddon. Just looking at the cover of the book and reading the title, I honestly didn’t even know what this book was going to be about. As I began reading, I got a bit confused as the chapters were going back and forth from Chris, the main character and narrator, telling a story about a dog to talking about his personal life explaining why he is different than most people basically explaining his autism. It was hard to keep on reading, so I found myself listening to the audiobook version which helped and kept me interested. I think that overall the author did a great job at not only portraying adolescents, but also portraying adolescents dealing with autism in this novel. While reading this article, I had to stop and research more about autism. I feel that knowing a bit more helped me enjoy the story better. The website I used that provided me with so much information was https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-are-...

In Mark Haddon’s novel, the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, we are introduced to a fifteen year old boy named Christopher who has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).  Christopher excels in solving problems through the use of logic and lives his day-to-day life by transversing his own mentally advanced, logical systems.  Christopher lives alone with his father due to his mother’s alleged death two years prior to the beginning of the novel.  Much like the other novels we have read, Christopher’s parents play a very significant role in his growth as an adolescent over the course of the novel.   During the introduction of the novel, the audience is introduced to Christopher’s father through his own eyes; this requires the reader to delve deeper to truly understand his father’s characterization and what impact he has on Christopher.  Early on, we can see that Christopher’s father is definitely protective towards him and expresses c...

Mark Haddon’s adolescent approach to autism is a moving piece that makes you think about the realities of everyday life for students who are on the spectrum. As readers we are taken on a journey that enhances our ability to understand the reasoning behind Haddon’s idea to create a character that has a unique perspective on life. Christopher is a character that makes you think twice about deciding rather or not if something is considered “normal”. In the novel an interaction between Christopher and his father is described as "He held up his right hand and spread his fingers out in a fan. I held up my left hand and spread my fingers out in a fan and we made our fingers and thumbs touch each other." (Christopher Boone, Chapter 31, p. 16). Knowing that Christopher is sensitive to touch, me as a reader I focus on the situation which it derives from. Haddon uses this to clarify that normal for me, is and can be opposite from those on the spectrum. If put in a si tuation  involv...

Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time was a novel based off of the adolescent life of Christopher Boone. I like how the book began with Christopher explaining how he was aware that he was different from other teenagers his age for example how he knew all the countries of the world and the capital cities, but he had a hard time understanding the different expressions that people used on their faces “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 when I didn’t understand what someone was saying.” This was something new that I learned because I  never knew that people on the autism spectrum did not know how to sympathize with others. I could not relate to this story at all I think that was one reason why I was not too intrigued by it however it did become interesting at certain points like when he finds out his mother never really passed and ended up meeting with her f...

In all honesty, it was very hard for me to maintain a motivation to read this book. The story of The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-Time takes readers through a journey of ups and downs as we see the main character Christopher go on an adventure that tests him in many ways and unveils some heavy things in his life his father had kept from him. This was a hard book for me to get into because of my prior lack of exposure to anyone on the spectrum. We get to see a lot of moments in the book where Christopher struggles with many things that naturally can come easy to many of us. He struggles with not having a basic understanding of how to read situations and people. In one example, we see Christopher in the train station say, "And when I am in a new place, because I see everything, it is like when a computer is doing too many things at the same time and the central processor unit is blocked up and there isn't any space left to think about other things" (pg 143). Thi...

Throughout this course we have discussed what effects adolescents when they are going through this stage of life. In the novel, “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time,” we are introduced to the Christopher a young boy that has autism. He is extremely intelligent and excels in anything that makes logical sense. While he is a bright child, he struggles understanding facial expressions, and social cues because of his condition. He also has things he gets focused on quite often, doesn’t like to be touched, stays away from strangers, and likes to stick to a schedule. In this novel however we see parents that don’t seem to be able to handle a child that has autism such as Christopher. This baffles the audience because every adolescent needs a parent to be their for them, and Christopher needs it just the same if not more because of his condition.             As we get towards the middle of the book, we start to see that Ch...

Honestly, of our three books, this was my least favorite reading but it had me posing the most questions of the three. I think it was my least favorite because I had a hard time relating to it due to my lack of knowledge about autism. One question I had was whether or not parents were more involved in their child's life if they had autism or less so involved than that of a child whose mind functions "normally." I couldn't find much on that so I'll ask whoever reads this, what do you think? I personally have seen both sides at the daycare where I work. Some parents are overly involved in their autistic child's life, more so than all the other parents and some care far less than they should and it shows in varying ways but it was shown in one instance with a boy in  how his "normal" sibling was fine but he had worn the same thing for three days- sometimes his parents would pick up his brother when they got off but leave him there until 6, when we close...

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time gave me an interesting take on what it is like to have autism as an adolescent. As I continued to read through the story, I felt like he was always overwhelmed with information. Words, sounds, sights, and actions stuck out to him significantly more than they would an average person. I could not imagine how stressful it would be to really never be able to give your brain a break. He was never able to shut everything out and just be himself. I connected with this book on some level, because I have a member in my family who is special needs, so I have seen some of the challenges that come with that. She is an adolescent with Down Syndrome, so it is different than autism, but it is still difficult to deal with. There was one time specifically that I remember walking through the subways of New York City with her and the rest of my family when someone yelled at her for walking too slowly. She could not speak up for herself and say, “I ha...

After reading The Curious Incident I have to say that I did not really enjoy this book. I did not think that the book was bad, but I did not like it. I had a very hard time getting into the novel. After reading the other two novels this one did not seem exciting. It was like there was no climax in the novel. One thing that I noticed about this novel was the parenting style. I think that over all Christopher's father loved him. He had his flaws but overall I think that he always did what he thought was right. I could tell that he was worried about Christopher whenever Christopher was taken in for hitting the police officer. Whenever his father gets to the police department he asked to see his son and when he got to Christopher he held up his hand to show that he want to hug him, but Christopher does not like being touched. His father messed up by hitting him, by hiding the letters from Christopher, and also by lying to Christopher about his mother being dead. I could see his love ...

After finishing The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time I can say with confidence that I enjoyed the previous two books a great deal more. I did not dislike the book and it is not a bad book. However, after finishing I could not help but feel less accomplished. When I finished the other two I felt a genuine sense of accomplishment that I did not receive after finishing The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time . I am not quite sure if this is due to the fact that this is a shorter book or if it is a result of the differing content between the two. I have a connection from my childhood that this book reminded me of while reading through Chris’ struggles. Growing up one of my best friends was autistic. I never actually knew that he was autistic. As children both Luke (our other friend) and I always knew that Diego was a little difference. That's how our parents and his always referred to him to us. They would say,”Now you two look after Diego on the way to the p...

In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, Haddon portrays what it is like for an adolescent with autism through the main character, Christopher. One thing that I find interesting is the character development of Christopher's parents throughout the novel. With this being the third book, I sometimes find myself comparing the parents in the different novels. Christopher's mom and dad both had their own idea of what they thought was best for Christopher. Christopher's dad thought he was doing what was best for Christopher when he told Christopher that his mom had passed away. This was an in the moment decision. However, I think this caused a lot of confusion for Christopher especially when he was reading the letters from his mom. It took him a few letters to realize that it was his mom writing the letters. The shock that Christopher felt, caused him to get sick. This is something that is seen throughout the novel. When something upset Christopher, ...

In my opinion, this book was eye-opening to the experiences and emotions of LGBTQ adolescents. I  did not realize how hard it is to come out, even when your family is supportive of it. Honestly, I would have liked to see Ari be bold and confident in who he was and what he wanted. Dante was a dynamic character who really came to find himself. Overall, this book was not one of my favorites. It was a slow building of the relationship between Dante and Ari that ended pretty quickly. I do not understand why moments like Ari’s fight with Julian are so rushed. Once the dialogue is over, there is very little explanation afterwards about Ari’s feelings. I agree with the author’s portrayal of adolescence. I think that oftentimes, teens hold in their feelings, just like Ari did. They even wrestle with them internally. Ari could not come to terms for the majority of the book about his feelings. I think that this text relates to the book we just read about Arnold with regard to family membe...

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Sáenz is a novel that explores multiple themes such as homosexuality and parental relationships, among many others.  These themes are exclusively examined through the lens of an adolescent boy, which provides a very unique perspective.   For almost the entire novel, Ari is stuck in a constant state of not understanding any of his feelings and acting to avoid any confrontation of his own feelings whatsoever; this wholeheartedly represents the emotional storm of adolescence.  By the end of the novel, the reader can conclude that much of Ari’s seeking to understand the universe was a gateway for understanding his emotions: “All this time I had been trying to figure out the secrets of the universe, the secrets of my own body, of my own heart.  All of the answers had always been so close and yet I had always fought them without even knowing it” (358).  Ari proclaims his realization of his storm ...

The entirety of this novel presents to the reader the importance of sexuality, anti-gay discrimination, and lastly isolation. Benjamin Alire Saenz creates a novel that encourages readers to dive deeper than the surface, and truly understand the complexities that comes along with discovering adolescent's sexuality, and emotional feelings. Ari is a teenage boy who has perfected the trait of being isolated from those around him, and this is a common issue that arises when it comes time for him to analyze is growing feelings for Dante. For Ari, isolation is a mechanism that he has carried from his childhood and believed in "... a rule that it was better to be bored by yourself than to be bored with someone else. I pretty much lived by that rule. Maybe that's why I didn't have any friends." In the novel, Saenz uses Ari's reasoning to help him come to terms with the fact that his behavior is why he failed to make connections with other teens except for Dante. While ...

The story  Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the Universe  focused on the different changes of adolescence and the thoughts of a homosexual teen. Ari was always to himself and didn't have many friends until Dante came along. They did friendly things like swim together, play outside and talk about books as well but over time the events in this story show how things become more intimate.  The author Benjamin Saenz shows how Ari worried about finding his true self and struggled to come to terms with the feelings he had for Dante. For example in the beginning when Ari constantly talked about the dreams he had and the "ghost" that lived within him I thought he would have came out earlier in the story instead of it being announced towards the end. Also, to me, the differences that Aristotle and Dante had with their fathers played a huge role in the way that they responded to their sexualities. Ari and his father would always have small talk and laugh here and the...

In  Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe  by Benjamin Saenz, the two main characters, Aristotle and Dante navigate social norms of adolescence. Their experiences weigh so much heavier because they are all for the first time. I think that it is crucial to consider how an adolescent views the intensity of a situation regardless of any personal retrospect. As a future educator I will have to set aside my "adult mind" to be more relatable to my students but at the same time be able to use my own education and experience to guide them away from possible mistakes.  One point I can make to how an adolescent views the world would be to a connection to time. For a fifteen year old, a year seems super long because it is only one-fifteenth of their life, but to a sixty year old, a year flies by because it is one-sixtieth of their life. It's all about perspective.  A reoccurrence that I found while reading was how often Ari compared normal insta...

     Benjamin Saenz develops a character through Ari that is extremely relate-able to kids who are facing the heavy obstacle of confronting their sexuality. What is impactful is not just the stereotypical norm for teens in this situation in coming out to their parents is shown, but also the internal battle between what Ari does not realize he is, and what he wants to be. Saenz shows how the internal battle is just as menacing as external conflicts as far as bullying and fears of judgement.           Dante's character does not line up with the stereotypical, homosexual teen experience. He is confident and comfortable in himself. If Saenz were to create a coming of age tale that would create a story line around just a guy like Ari, who experiences immense internal struggles and fears for his self image without a literary foil to oppose what Ari seems is impossible, the novel would be much less effective at showing a hopeful and practical coming of...

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe  tells the story of how Aristotle or Ari navigates his young adolescents despite having so many questions about his family and the world around him. Pretty early on in the book, we get to know Ari through his narrations as a lonely boy who tends to stick to himself a lot. Before Ari meets Dante, he sees himself as someone that doesn't really fit in with people his age group. Ari likes being alone and says, "Feeling sorry for myself was an art" (pg 13). He grew up in a family as the "odd man out" with siblings too old to relate to and an older brother who was out of his life. It wasn't until Ari later meets his best friend Dante that his life changes along with his perspective on people. Dante is very different than Ari in many ways. He has a close relationship with both his parents, he's confident, and he knows who he is. He doesn't have a hard time getting along with others and being friends...

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is an amazing book which explores the themes of mental health, homosexuality, and the adolescent experience. The book follows a young man named Ari and his developing relationship with a young man named Dante. Ari is plagued with self-doubt and confusion throughout. Much of this confusion and anger he feels seems to stem from his lack of knowledge of his brother. However, I believe that it is possible that Ari was using his brother as a scapegoat for the origin of his confusion. This confusion could likely be the feelings he has for Dante and his inability to understand them. Ari is an incredibly confused young man, confusion turns out to be one of the most prominent themes in the book. I feel he misplaced a lot of the confusion to other places of his life. I believe he did this because having thoughts like these can be incredibly scary. You are scared to face other people and even to face yourself because you have been told ...

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is about a boy named Ari and he meets a boy named Dante who befriends him. The two boys become best friends and they go through many challenges together. One of the biggest challenges would be their sexuality. Dante discovered who he was early on in the novel, but Ari didn't discover himself until the end of the novel. I think that the author made a very accurate representation of how homosexual adolescents deal with everyday life. The way that adolescents come out to their family and friends differs with each individual. Dante chose to come out to his friend first, and I think that had to do with how comfortable Dante was with Ari. Dante did not want to disappoint his family so he struggled to come out to them. His parents suspected that he was homosexual, but they did not know for sure until the accident in the alley. Dante's parents were not bothered by the fact that he was homosexual, they were only upset that Dante...

In the novel “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” by Benjamin Saenz, we are introduced to a young teen named Aristotle. Throughout the book we are able to see how he struggles to find himself, while keeping everything he feels inside. One of the main issues during the novel is that Ari feels as if he can’t come to anyone in his life about his problems because he feels like his own parents shut him out the majority of the time. For many adolescents its very important to have a good, and open relationship with their parents because they will always have someone to turn to no matter what happens in their life. Without this relationship adolescents will be afraid to come to their parents, which is one of the problems we see with Ari. One of the main things we see Ari deal with throughout this novel is the fact that he doesn’t know much about his older brother. The only thing anyone has ever told him is that he was sent to prison many years ago. He struggles with t...

In Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Saenz, the two main characters, Aristotle and Dante have two different home lives. Their home lives have a big impact on their adolescence, and I think this that this is a really important thing to remember as a future educator. A child's home life can have a big impact on their adolescence, personality, and success. Dante's parents are both professors, and Dante is an only child. Even though he has loving parents, all of the attention is on him since he has no siblings. I think this has pros and cons. Dante's parents are definitely authoritative. Therefore, they listen to Dante and communicate their feelings, but in the end, Dante's parents make the decisions that are best for him. Dante tells his parents almost everything, but the things about his sexuality he keeps to himself. I think that if he were to have another sibling, he may have been able to open up about that more so to his sibling fi...

I really enjoyed this reading because of how quick it is to digest and how Alexie addresses many social issues in a casual manner. He utilizes the narration of a rising freshman as well as insertion of cartoons to make the intensity of negative post-colonial effects and racism seem less overwhelming. As we discussed in class, "post-colonial theory looks at issues of power, economics, politics, religion and culture and how these elements work in relation to colonial hegemony." With this in mind, we may analyze how Arnold elaborates on the effects of colonization in the United States as well as westward expansion as his people would be considered the "colonized." The first glimpse we get at the effects of colonialism is where Mr. P describes to Arnold how he use to "teach" Native Americans. He says, "we beat them. That's how we were taught to teach you. We were supposed to kill the Indian to save the child" (pg 35). In my Native American short ...

Sherman Alexie successfully created a novel that approached the  acceptance  and rejection  of   poverty  and  privilege  and how jaded adolescents approached these mindsets by applying heavy emphasis on the differences that  separates yet  connects them. Alexie accomplished this by creating characters that are racial  and emotional  opposites, but still share the same complications of trying to live their lives around the immovable status quo. Characters such as Arnold and  Penelope  dream big dreams, but the harsh reality in each case is that Arnold is  an  Native American child living in poverty, while Penelope is limited by the small town minds surrounding her. Many of Arnold's understandings of his family's poverty state stems from him being a product of the environment he is accustomed to. If Arnold had false realities given to him throughout this novel Alexie would not have been able to create an adolescen...