Author's Note-- As teenagers, we all have the feeling of wanting to be independent and not having our parents control our every move. In this novel (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon) the main character, Christopher, has autism and cannot do many things alone. This essay is purely about wanting to be independent and how Christopher must have felt all this time.
The Struggle to Become Independent
"No, you are not going out with your friends to see a movie tonight!" Wow, really Mom? Can't you just let me be independent and do whatever I want to do? I am able to control my own life once in a while; I mean, after all, they are my decisions. The scenario of a child wanting to leave the grasp of their own parents is all part of what every kid goes through - the need to feel independent. This type of situation is what happens in the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon.
Christopher, the main character, has autism. Autism is a mental condition that prevents someone from having good communicating skills and being able to form good relationships with anybody, with the effects also causing abstract behavior and not being able to fully understand difficult concepts. When he feels scared or under too much pressure, most of the time he basically shuts down, curls himself into a ball and tries to block out the world around him entirely. He is definitely an interesting type of character, but he still has the same teenage heart inside of him.
Most of the time teenagers have the tendency to feel that their parents are too controlling and don't let them do what they really want to do without the feeling of disapproval, hurting feelings, or getting in trouble. On the inside, the parents are kids at heart, so they know what it feels like to be in the child's situation. Because of this, they know what could happen from their earlier experiences, so they keep them in their arms to protect them. No matter how anybody thinks of it, parents actually do know a lot about the real world, hence their pastimes, but still, the feeling of being free as a child is under the layers.
Each and every time that a child gets free of the parent's clutch, they gain more and more confidence. Since Christopher cannot do most things by himself because of his disability, he has more inner strength to get done what he needs to get done individually more than most people. Every circumstantial problem that he runs in to, he has the desire to complete the task alone, and when he succeeds, I can't even imagine the feelings that he has running around inside of his tiny little body. By overcoming these obstacles, he gains confidence in his ability to face any challenge on his own.
