Module B: Close Study of Liturature Flashcards
To memorise quotations from the text: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.
CHRISTOPHERS NARRATIVE VOICE
His voice is distinctive in the sense that he is detailed yet simplistic with his observations of people and places. As well as this, his avoidance of emotion enables readers to experience two stories, one through the Christopher’s perspective (where due to his lack of understanding fro emotion and empathy, often things don’t make sense) and the other through the reader’s (where we understand ever event due to our understanding of emotion and empathy).
“I put my hands over my ears and closed my eyes and rolled forward…”
CHRISTOPHERS NARRATIVE VOICE:
The use of REPORTED DIALOGUE expresses Christophers avoidance of emotion as he recounts events, where the use of VISUAL IMAGERY is present as not to miss any detail during the retelling. As well as this, his REPETITION of ‘and’ emphasises the reported nature of his descriptions.
“I said it was probably an aneurysm…like Mrs Hardy….died because she turned her head round…”
CHRISTOPHERS NARRATIVE VOICE:
The LONG SENTENCES SYNTAX emphasises Christophers’ need to explain events in simplistic and unnecessary detail, with no empathy for death. This expresses Christopher logical over emotional response as he explains how his mothers death couldn’t be from a heart attack. He was more interested in explaining why it was more likely an aneurysm rather than mourning over his mothers death.
CHRISTOPHER AS AN UNRELIABLE NARRATOR
Due to his psychological condition, Christopher becomes unreliable as he is unable to understand human emotions the same way the readers do. This causes him to experience behaviour problems which evidently affect the overall sentence structure of the novel as it changes according to his own emotional state.
“He was asking too many questions…too quickly…stacking up in my head like loaves…”
CHRISTOPHER AS AN UNRELIABLE NARRATOR:
The REPETITION of ‘too’ and the SIMILE of the ‘loaves’ emphasises how Christophers condition limits his ability to handle confrontation, which is seen throughout the book. The simile expresses Christopher’s feelings as he becomes more stressed as he is being questioned.
“I thought this might be another rhetorical question…I was starting to get scared and confused.”
CHRISTOPHER AS AN UNRELIABLE NARRATOR:
The HUMOUR and use of LONG SENTENCE SYNTAX highlights the distinctive quality of Christopher’s narrative voice which is evident through his unknowing use of humour when he’s unable to understand the terms of the situation. As a result of this, Christopher ends up saying words that aren’t coherent or don’t make sense, which is why his narrative voice is unreliable.
”..as if I was at the top of a really tall building…swinging backward and forward in a strong wind…”
CHRISTOPHER AS AN UNRELIABLE NARRATOR:
The SIMILE expresses Christopher’s physical reaction, highlighting the intensity of the situation as this only occurs when Christopher experiences high levels of distress. As well as this, the simile reveals how Christopher has become aware of his physical reaction, but unaware what has caused these extreme flood of emotions.
ORTHOGRAPHY
Christopher italicised, underlines or bolds things he finds interesting, allowing readers to experience his own thought process.
“Beer, helping ugly people have sex for 2,000 years.”
ORTHOGRAPHY:
The BOLD TEXT ORTHOGRAPHY expresses the HUMOUR of Mr Thompson’s brother’s shirt, highlighting how Christopher doesn’t understand that it’s funny as his lacks emotional understanding.
Orthography in Chapter 211
ORTHOGRAPHY:
The VARIOUS TYPES of ORTHOGRAPHY expresses Christopher’s internal conflict, represented through the visualisation of his writing which is.
DIAGRAM/EMOTICONS
Christopher uses these to better understand his findings, often assisting his explanations of objects, surroundings and math problems.
“I got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces…”
DIAGRAMS/EMOTICONS:
The EMOTICONS provide a visual representation of what Christopher asked Siobhan for, to better explain.
INTER-CHAPTERS
Christopher includes inter-chapters in his writing to take a break from the present events and, in a way, explain things in context from when they occurred. Each inter-chapter is usually placed before the event occurs in each chapter.
“I do not tell lies.”
INTER-CHAPTER;
The SHORT SYNTAX emphasises Christopher’s like for honesty and trust and how bee deems it as an import aspect of life. This alludes to the idea that his inability to lie is ‘logical’, using the inter-chapter to explain why he thinks honesty and trust is important as in the previous chapter, his father had lied to him and broken his trust.
