Marked Essay.Compare and Contrast the effect of the narrative point of view in 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Time' and 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' and how it keeps the reader engaged in the novels.

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STAGE 2 ENGLISH STUDIES

Individual Study

Compare and Contrast the effect of the narrative point of view in 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Time' and 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' and how it keeps the reader engaged in the novels.

The narrative point of view in both The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time written by Mark Haddon and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas authored by John Boyne are both similar and different in their respective ways. Both narrators are similar as they are on the quest for understanding into the happenings of their lives. The narrator of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a fifteen year old autistic boy who is in search for not only the murder of his favourite dog, but also the answers to aspects of his life he does not understand. This is very similar to the narrator in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, nine year old Bruno, as he is on a quest for understanding into what is happening to his family is relocated to Auschwitz. The difference between the two narrators is that Christopher Boone has Autism, a disability that is capable of affecting every aspect of life. It heavily affects the social understanding and actions of an individual, which is evident in the narration of Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time while Bruno is a nine year old boy, like any typical young boy is adventurous and lacks the social understanding to know about what is happening around him. The narrative points of view in the two novels are both similar and different in the ways of how they view society and it adds interesting and somewhat puzzling aspects in the way the story is presented to the reader and it is these characteristics of the narrators that keep the reader involved in the two novels.

The characteristics of both an autistic person as well as a young nine year old boy can be both similar and different in many aspects and it is evident in the narration in both texts. Christopher Boone, the narrator in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is fifteen years old and suffers from Autism." Autism is a spectrum disorder, and although it is defined by a certain set of behaviours, children and adults with autism can exhibit any combination of these behaviours in any degree of severity" (http://www.autismsociety.orgisite/PageServer?JServSessionldr011=sers297orLapp24a&pagename=about whatis char) It is evident in the way that Christopher narrates the novel that his behaviour patterns and ways of thinking do vary which provides the reader with an interesting view of society through the telling of Christopher. Because of the way Christopher explains things in the novel can be difficult for the reader to understand. One characteristic of Autism is having an obsessive attachment to an object or thing. One obsession Christopher was Maths at school which was easily his best subject. "These problems were difficult and interesting, but there was always a straightforward answer at the end" (Haddon, 2004, pg 78). Christopher uses mathematical equations in the novel to explain how he feels and also to work out what is happening around him. For example on page 81 Christopher uses a mathematical equation to help explain what is going through his mind and in his life. It is a very complex equation that for the average reader would be very difficult to understand. The use of Christopher as a narrator also provides the reader with an understanding into the mind of an autistic child and that keeps the reader engaged and interested in the novel. Christopher shows the reader an insight into how an autistic mind thinks in order to solve a problem, in his case, to solve who killed Wellington, the dog who was killed in the novel. On Page 53-4 Christopher gives an example of his thoughts by using the 'Chain of Thinking' as he described it. Christopher did it by asking himself a series of questions, providing himself with answers, and in a linear fashion, answered them all to find out why the person killed Wellington. It is behaviour like that, typical to an autistic mind that keeps the reader engaged in the novel.

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The narrator, Bruno, in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is nine years old and does not understand what is happening from his family when they 'move house'. The novel is written and narrated in a different manner to most other, more conventional novels. Throughout the novel there is a theme of a quest for knowledge and understanding, on the part of Bruno. To the reader the subject matter of the novel is very clear but the way the reader is kept engaged is to see how Bruno comes to an understanding of the events happening around him. A prime ...

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