Haddon (36) says that, "Intuition can sometimes get things wrong. But logic can help you work out the right answer." Haddon (36) claims through Christopher that logic is the only way out; Christopher never found logic being that useful throughout the novel. For instance, despite the fact that prime numbers can easily be obtained by taking away all possible patterns, there are never specific rules ascertaining the same concept (Haddon 9). In addition, Mr. Jeavons claims that despite being a logical person Christopher was thinking illogically (Haddon 15). Lastly, Haddon (36) confirms that even though Christopher believed in finding the right answers through logical, it seems that the answers obtained were not right.
On a different perspective, Haddon (36) defines intuition as “what people use in life to make decisions.” Throughout this novel, Haddon has indicted the significance of intuition. It is intuition that guided Christopher throughout especially with respect to the acquisition of knowledge. For instance, Christopher made a decision based on the perceptions he had on the different faces. Christopher likes for mathematics and science was triggered and driven by the perception he had on the novels. Haddon (5) says that, “I do not like proper novels. I am veined with iron, with silver, and with streaks of common mud.” Hence, intuition affected many decisions in the novel.
Moreover, Haddon uses the literary technique of the "unreliable narrator" where the narrator gives a limited or possibly false version of the story, and the reader must work out the real story. One of the instances where the narrator gives an “unreliable narration” is when he is apprehended by the policemen. It is common knowledge that when one is apprehended then there is likely to be a tendency of panicking. Asserting that he was calmer was an “unreliable narration”. Through this “unreliable narration” the reader (I, for this matter) attained a different experience especially in respect to change of the scenarios and narrating environment (Haddon 10). Through the “unreliable narration”, I was able to have a calm reading environment.
It is worth noting that Haddon's novel provides a wonderful glimpse into the world of non-autistic persons, through the eyes of an autistic person. The autistic person is one who has a problem in understanding various aspects of language especially at an early age. In addition, autistic person has other problems that include non-verbal communications and poor social interactions. For instance, Christopher uses the tee-shirt slogan in order to quote specific comments on the ideas of chatting. The use of the tee - shirt slogan by Christopher proves beyond reasonable doubt that he had serious problems with languages during his early age hence; Christopher is an autistic person.
Amazingly, when bits and pieces of the world are isolated and discussed on the basis of non- autistic person and autistic persons, they modify our own perceptions of the world and thus the behavioral change. In this novel, Haddon provides various scenarios where Christopher isolates and interprets some aspect the non-autistic world thus altering the perceptions of the world. The first instance is Christopher’s isolation and interpretation of police arrest and being in prison (Haddon 10). Christopher asserted that the cell was very nice other than the fact that when he was told that he is under arrest he (Christopher) felt calm (Haddon 10). Analyzing this concept on this basis changes the perception of the world in respect to policemen and arrest.
Other instances where Christopher isolates and interprets aspects of non- autistic and autistic ways include his description of the events that took place with respect to lies and telling lies (Haddon 12). Christopher’s isolation and interpretation of the concept of lies is very autistic hence changing the world’s perception. It is very unfortunate that Christopher lied to the policemen that his mother had died when she was actually at the hospital (Haddon 14). Christopher claims that a lie is telling what has happened when it actually did not occur. In this case, Christopher tells a lie, which changes the perception of the world.
Work Cited
Haddon, Mark. The curious incident of the dog in the night-time. New York, NY; Vintage Books, 1995. Print.
