Christopher Boone Quotes

This naturally implies that Christopher has difficulty with most other people because, well, he doesn't know what "they are meant to be doing," and that makes him nervous.

We can understand that Christopher is reassured by the fact that policemen behave in the way he expects. But this almost suggests that he considers the fictional world on TV more "real" than the world in which he actually lives and breathes.

What's wrong with this mathematical picture? We thought Christopher was all about logic and order, so shouldn't he hate prime numbers? They're just about the least-orderly things around. Even computers can't predict where they're going to show up! What makes prime numbers different, such that they don't make him uneasy like other unpredictable things?

The police are about to put Christopher into a jail cell. This doesn't bother him at all – in fact, he's quite happy there. His insistence on keeping his watch is similar – just as he's quite happy being restricted in space, he needs some sort of boundaries in time as well. He needs things to have order, and for time to be divided into neatly segmented minutes.

This once again points to Christopher's desire for stability and structure. Here, he makes the argument that not only do we all want some structure, but we all find individual (and often arbitrary) ways to do so – anything to establish some control over chaos.

On the surface, this quote points us back to Christopher's desire for order in the world around him. But, beneath that, it says something about his relationship with the people in that world as well. Here, the role of "mother" in Christopher's household is arguably reduced to cleaning the house and arranging the things in the kitchen. As long as Mrs. Shears does that, this suggests that her installment as surrogate mother is okay with Christopher. Is that a fair judgment to make?

Is Christopher using twisted logic to justify actions he very well knows are wrong? Or is he proving that although common sense suggests these actions are wrong, they're actually logically sound?

Check out the way this is expressed. Making decisions as they come up doesn't work for Christopher. Instead, he gives himself a list of instructions, and then takes a step back and follows those instructions, essentially forgetting that <em>he's</em> the author. Is this, in a sense, denying himself free will?

It might be just the way he expresses it, but once again, this quote suggests that it isn't simply that Christopher needs things to have an order to them, but that he needs to know about that order – to be a part of it, and in effect have some control over it. (We can only wonder what would happen if someone said, "Yes, Christopher, there is an order to the way this thing works. But we can't tell you what it is." If you ask us, that wouldn't really cut it.)

Wow, this is a big moment. Christopher has been totally removed from all of the structure and routines that he had back in Swindon. Now, super far away in London, he looks out at the world and sees that the rules he has placed upon things (in order to order them, you might say) don't work anymore, and all along only existed in his own mind.

Sometimes Christopher is afraid of the things we're <em>all </em>afraid of: in this case, violence. He takes it one step further, though, and includes "touch" as a scary possibility.

The literal language barrier serves as a powerful illustration of Christopher's difficulty with more subtle kinds of communication, like body language and tone of voice. And, of course, his fearfulness in France at hearing words he doesn't understand is dwarfed by the daily occasions in which people express themselves in ways he's totally unable to interpret.

Isn't it amazing how Christopher can overcome his fears and limitations seemingly at will? Surely there isn't anything intrinsically special about having seen a few red cars in a row. What is that enables him to muster courage at these otherwise random moments?

This is a rare occasion when Christopher (contrary to his claims) lets his imagination get the better of him. Usually he's scared when he doesn't know what's happening. But here, he's scared because he <em>thinks</em> he knows something bad is happening. When his mother returns, he doesn't need to know what she was doing (as long as it wasn't being eaten by a shark).

Christopher has a difficult time determining when people are joking, which makes it especially interesting to imagine him sort of putting his fear on stand-by until he decides whether or not his dad is joking (about killing Wellington the dog). When he realizes his pop's not joking, he makes an immediate (logical, in a way) connection between his dad killing a dog and the thought that his dad would be capable of hurting him as well.

It's really incredible just how quickly Christopher's father becomes a villain. This is the man who has taken care of Christopher for fifteen years, but in just one moment, he becomes someone who Christopher feels might want to do him serious harm.

We'll just take a moment to remind you that this is the same boy who on previous occasions (89.14) put his head against the wall, closed his eyes, and groaned when things didn't feel safe. The fact that he reaches this point and still perseveres through the rest of his adventure is truly extraordinary.

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.

Two things: (1) We want to emphasize not only how dependent Christopher is on his stupendous brain power, but how keenly aware of it he is at all times. (2) We have to say something about the open Swiss Army Knife. Does it represent just how intensely frightened he must be feeling to be prepared to stab (or at least threaten to stab) someone? Or does it show how incapable he is of empathy (that is, that hurting someone else would be a bad thing)?

Finally, Christopher begins to feel betrayed even by his own mind. If anything's going to scare him, it's that.