Key Quotes Flashcards
1
Q
The points of the fork must have gone all the way through the dog and into the ground because the fork had not fallen over.
A
AO1
- The book starts with C reacting noting and reacting to the death
- C tries to analyse everything, no matter how unexpected, emotional or illogical it might seem to us/ other characters
- Foreshadows there will be more violence later (indeed from the person who did this)
- Christopher’s childhood innocence is corrupted (reinforced through Mrs Shears swearing at him)
- The fact that it’s a poodle + the gardening tool suggests this is a middle-class neighbourhood
- Poodle’s are not violent dogs so we assume this was a random undeserved act of violence
AO2
- Quite horrific imagery but plain analytical word choice: “must have”, “because”, “had not”…
- Subtly reveals information about the setting. A large poodle and garden fork suggesting somewhere rich and suburban
- Structure: Ending with most powerful detail - highlights the sheer violence (no pun intended)
- It is a bizarre image, setting up an amusing tone that challenges the reader
- Perhaps the dog is a symbol for Christopher. Naturally wild, he is at first groomed then beaten down and trapped by the tools and motives of those around him
- Metaphor for society (Romantic): modernisation has destroyed natural law
2
Q
I stroked Wellington
A
AO1
- Contrasts the earlier first impression of C as emotionless
- Shows he cares about animals
- He doesn’t have a conventional grasp of life and death
- Middle-class name for a dog
- Feels a personal connection
A02
- Uses the action to show C’s potential for emotion
- The Duke of Wellington was defeated by a French invasion, metaphor for adultery? Feeling of defeat? (Don’t mention this unless it’s super-relevant)
- Romantic hero: connects to nature, punished by society
3
Q
And I knew it meant “sad” which is what I felt when I found the dead dog
A
AO1
- Siobahn helps him to understand his own experiences
- Highlights his sense that the death was wrong/ bond with the dog
- Shows his difficulty with emotions: he doesn’t understand them naturally (especially in written symbols… which is why he uses diagrams instead)
- He is traumatised: relating everything back to that moment
- He wants to understand himself
A02
- Makes us feel far more sorry for C as it seems more direct and authentic than if Haddon had chosen “I felt sad about the dead dog”
- Simple, predictable language (this is how C would prefer things) despite the fact that the situation is actually highly complex
- Postmodern: in a conventional narrative, the emotion is inferred by the reader from the episode, here the order is experimental and the emotion is added in through a separate episode
4
Q
I put my hands on 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.
A
A01
- Symptom / clue that C has ASD
- He feels stressed by his surroundings and the ways in which people treat him
- He wants to block out the outside world
- Nature helps him feel calm
- There is nice grass here (unlike at his mum’s)
- Although this is a strange action, something about how simple and physical it is makes us understand C and feel empathy.
A02
- Simple specific imagery connects us with C and helps us to understand/ experience what he’s trying to do
- Goes from long to short sentences to show him regaining control
- He goes into a kind of foetal position: metaphor for him wanting to return to earlier childhood and reclaim his innocence?
- Romantic connection with / description of nature (as a source of escape from society)
5
Q
This is a murder mystery novel.
A
A01
- Sweet and amusing how seriously C takes himself (we’re thinking that it isn’t a proper murder mystery)
- MM novels are fiction. He views/reinterprets his life as fiction
- Turns out to be right: there actually is a big mystery but we didn’t believe him/ thought he was being childish
- He is trying to make sense of the world, like a detective
- There are areas in which he is confident; sees himself as an authority
AO2
- Tells us the genre (at least for the first half of the book)
- Dramatic irony: we’re thinking “not it isn’t, it’s a coming-of-age book about your life”)
- Postmodern; meta-textual (the book refers to itself) - this snaps the reader out of just following the story and makes them question what they are presented with. The meta-textual element also reflects on C: he is actually trying to find HIMSELF.
6
Q
And when people ask me to remember something I can simply press Rewind and Fast Forward and Pause like on a video recorder
A
A01
- He doesn’t recognise the natural human parts of himself
- He sees himself as a robot or computer
- Shows his ASD isn’t necessarily a disability: he can do some things better than others
- He feels separate from parts of his own mind
- People treat him like a bit of a freak/toy
A02
- Makes him more reliable as a narrator (since pressing Rewind and Fast Forward and Pause is what each chapter of the book is doing) This again would be meta-textual
- In this book he is remembering not because people tell him to (people tell him NOT to) but because he memory actually also works like the rest of us: as driven by emotions and goals.
- The capitalised words like “Rewind” highlight how automatic he thinks it all is, but this isn’t how we’ve come to view him by now
7
Q
I imagine that I am the only person inside [the submarine] and that it is not connected to a ship, but it can operate under its own power.
A
A01
- He wishes for independence
- He doesn’t want to be part of the community
- He thinks he can still maintain power and move ahead without anyone’s help (this is sort of proven right when he passes his A Level)
- Fascination with nature: especially huge sublime descriptions of it
A02
- He is the submarine: he goes below the surface of his community and family but wishes he could isolate himself
- The ship is his dad, who tries to take him to the right destination but C has become disconnected form him
- More Romantic and creative view of himself, contrasting against the earlier mechanical analytical characterisation
8
Q
[Dad to C] You go around raking up the past and sharing it with every Tom, Dick and Harry!
A
- Dad wants to keep things a secret
- Proves C is on to something, he got a response that is very personal and emotional out of his dad, which we didn’t expect
- The dad also wants to isolate and hide himself from others
- Dad wants to forget the past
A02
- Dad uses clichéd language; C is more articulate/intelligent than him in many ways
- Dramatic Irony: We want C to keep going and we know he only shared it with one (female) person and even there he received rather than gave information
- Haddon may have chosen the verb “raking up” to like to the garden tool in the dog, foreshadowing the dad’s guilt
9
Q
Holy fucking Jesus, Christopher. How stupid are you?
A
- We start to view the dad negatively
- Sets up a traditional conflict: we want C to win
- Not a very paternal or adult thing to say
- Insensitive of C’s ASD
- The dad has lost control (as C is about to)
- Doesn’t understand his son or how to get through to him
- He thinks he is clever (right) to hide all this info from C
AO2
- Mixture of swearing and taboo language shock reader. The dad has previously been a fairly controlled individual, hiding his emotions in drink.
- Dramatic irony as we see the dad as stupid and know C is on to something
- By pairing “Jesus” and “Chrisopher” in the structure of this sentence, a connotation to Jesus Christ is made: In a sense Christopher is sacrificing himself for the sins of his parents and neighbours.
10
Q
[Mother] is a very hot-tempered person
A
A01
- C parrots phrases others have said to him
- Sees his mum in a negative light because others do
- Shows us his mum was angry, energetic, impatient… (not suitable for C)
- Sad that this is how he remembers his mum
A02
- The word “very” actually trips us up a bit and makes us question if she really is or what this means - it seems to be referring to something specific. We didn’t get this sense from C’s descriptions of her actions.
- This characterisation gives a clue later about why she left
- A Romantic hero would view this as good: pure emotion being better than hidden emotion
11
Q
[After the fight with dad there was] a big rip in the sleeve of his green and blue shirt and he was breathing really deeply
A
A01
- These colours clash: he is out of touch with fashion and therefore society
- This detail makes this unexpected action feel more real
- C and this book have disturbed the dad’s normal life
A02
- After this point in the book, C’s relationship with his dad has a rip in it which grows until he runs away
- Christopher has “ripped through” his mask, his formal “shirt” and unleashed a more animalistic true nature
- The word “really” might highlight how C already feels guilty/worried about how he made his dad feel
12
Q
Tshirt:
BEER
Helping ugly people have sex
for 2000 years
A
A01
- Portrays the dad’s friend as a bit of an idiot; we can infer other things about him too e.g. he is laddish, immature
- More proof that C is smarter than many others in this community
- Adds humour and variety to the book
- We can infer this is drinking buddy, highlighting the dad’s own alcohol problem
- Another form of escape
A02
- This is a direct symbol from the “real” modern adult world
- Far less deep that C’s thoughts
- Actually quite depressing: suggesting a kind of loneliness and inability to communicate in this society
- Although it’s very 21st century in its layout and form, it’s actually of no real value: These modern developments signal a corruption of natural human relationships
13
Q
I looked up and saw Toby staring through the bars at me. I had to get out of the house. Father murdered Wellington. That meant he could murder me…
A
A01
- C feels unsafe
- This is the point where he starts his journey to find his mum
- Shows his emotions of disbelief, repulsion and fear
A02
- His repeated question all the way through the book has been “who killed Wellington”, the change to the word “murdered” here highlights how serious this is for C. Killing is something a killer in a fiction book does, but this is more, this is something truly wrong and immoral.
- Toby is a metaphor for his own feelings
- “I had to get out of the house” is unusual for C: he is rarely so direct about his own actions.
14
Q
In the dream nearly everyone on earth is dead
A
A01
- His casual attitude towards death
- He would rather be lonely/ he dreams of leaving everyone behind (and after his tough journey we can understand why)
- The fact that he says “nearly” suggests that in reality he still does have bonds with certain people
- He wants the destruction of society and for nature to rule
A02
- The dream is in contrast to the loud chaos of the action around him
- The dream is used to show his desires
- Quick shocking to us - pleasant dreams aren’t supposed to have death in them
15
Q
And I called the dog Sandy… And father made a vegetable patch in the garden and I helped him.
A
A01
- Happy ending, resolves the dead dog
- In a way, his family have been reunited by him and he has undone many of their errors
- He has progressed as a character, to being more responsible and others trusting him more (having proved himself)
- He gives his dad some purpose back, allows him to pursue beauty in the world / his own life
A02
- Nice, sweet informal name, unlike Wellington
- We can imagine its colour which makes it more cute and makes us happier for C
- Metaphor for re-growing their relationship
- C has in a sense brought lots of things back form the dead
- Achieved his quest as a Romantic hero , proving nature is more valuable than social ties
