The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Chapter 179 Quotes
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Chapter 179 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
Quote 4
Normally I would have got more and more frightened if I was walking to school, because I had never done it before. But I was frightened in two different ways. And one way was being frightened of being far away from a place I was used to, and the other was being frightened of being near where Father lived, and they were in inverse proportion to one another, so that the total fear remained a constant as I got further away from home and further away from Father [...] (179.71)
Christopher's world has been turned completely upside-down. School is no longer safe (because he's walking there for the first time), home is no longer safe, and his father is no longer safe. Unfortunately, the "total fear" continues to increase as he progresses on his journey.
Quote 5
And then I realised that there was nothing I could do which felt safe. [...] And then I imagine crossing out all the possibilities which were impossible, which is like in a maths exam, when you look at all the questions and you decide which ones you are going to do and which ones you are not going to do and you cross out all the ones which you are not going to do because then your decision is final and you can't change your mind. (179.23)
Look how naturally Christopher makes sure to limit his options, because he finds freedom so overwhelming and requires structure. This is a nice example, with the image of the diagram of options neatly laid out, and crossed off one-by-one. Also notice how, out of nowhere, he insists that changing your mind is out of the question. No – once you pick one, you aren't free to switch.
Quote 6
And then I thought how I could never be an astronaut because being an astronaut meant being hundreds of thousands of miles away from home, and my home was in London now and that was about 100 miles away which was more than 1,000 times nearer than my home would be if I was in space, and thinking about this made me hurt. (179.27)
This is a pretty crushing realization. Remember above, where we discussed how Christopher's love of small spaces would allow him to float freely in outer space with no problem? Well, here he admits that there's another kind of confinement important to him – namely, staying confined to his neighborhood. And if he can't overcome that self-confinement, he'll never reach that greater freedom.