To get a better understanding

To get a better idea of the story I decided to look into a few of the characters who I found most interesting, by doing this I have a better understanding of who they are and how each character is related to one another.

From the very beginning of the play you are drawn in, with Christopher finding Wellington - who is their neighbor's dog Mrs. Shear’s, who has been stabbed to death by a garden fork. Christopher is a very imaginative, intelligent young boy and is curious to find out who killed Wellington, which leads him into all sorts of trouble throughout the play. On top of this he has Asperger’s Syndrome, which makes it hard for him to understand body language and other forms of human interaction.

My first reaction to this play is that Christopher is rather childish because of his Asperger’s Syndrome as he doesn’t know how to reaction in certain situations, communicating with people, understanding emotions, hates being touched – unless they touch by fingertips (pg. 8, 76) and constantly groans or screams. He lives alone with his father Ed Boone, because his mother had died of a heart attack prior to the time when the novel begins, which we then find out later on that she is alive and well living in London with Roger. Christopher is a genius when it comes to solving mathematical problems or science questions and spends a lot of time watching TV or playing video games. He takes pride in the fact that he will be the first person at his special school to take his Math’s A-Level at the age of 15 and feels that this is a huge achievement for him. Even thou he hates talking to strangers he goes door knocking to ask questions about Wellington’s death, he seems to get more confident talking to people as the play goes on even thou he does not realize this. The fact that he makes it to London all by himself is a massive achievement for him, as he has never travelled independently before.

Mrs. Alexander seems like a lovely, little old lady who lives across the street with her dog, but is a bit of a stalker as she says that she says “I can see you sitting at your computer in your bedroom sometimes when I look across the street”(pg. 27). Mrs. Alexander represents significant development in Christopher’s independence as he can talk to her, she also provides Christopher with information about Judy’s relationship with Mr. Shears, even thou this is a hard subject she does try and make Christopher feel comfortable by taking him to the park to tell him. When you read through their scenes it is clear that Mrs. Alexander is like a grandmother to him, helping him with his investigations and making sure that he is well looked after, but he does not trust her and is afraid that she might hurt him.

Ed Boone loves his son Christopher more than anything else but does not know how to deal with him and he can sometimes loose is patience way to quickly and escalates, which is sad because the only way Christopher can deal with it is to curl up in a ball and scream. When Ed finds out that Christopher is doing detective work on who killed Mrs. Shear’s dog he becomes angrier and starts screaming out swear words to try and get his point across to him. The audience finds out later on in the play that Ed Boone had murdered Mrs. Shear’s dog. It is clear that he cannot cope with his wife having an affair and leaving him, which pushes him over the edge to lie about Judy’s death. When Christopher stumbles on letters from his mum that Ed has kept from him, it promotes him to leave home and find his mum. Ed hates it when Christopher ends up in London because it makes him anxious because he knows he will have to see Judy and try and take Christopher back with him, as he cannot imagine living without this son in his life, even thou he does not know how to cope with Christopher’s behaviour. He does try and regain the relationship with Christopher with buying him a Golden Retriever (pg. 97), which is what he had always wanted.

Judy Boone to me does not seem to be a very good mother as she runs off to London with Mr. Roger Shears, who she has had an affaire with without saying goodbye, which makes Ed Boone lie about why she left and then having to tell Christopher that she had died of a heart attack instead of telling him the truth. She insists that she was a terrible mother and Christopher would be better off without her – or is it that she is better off without him. I do feel sympathy for her as she does try and write, but at the same time why would Ed give the letters to Christopher, as it would just make him feel broken and unloved. Sending the letters she has almost broken the relationship between Ed and Christopher because Christopher believes that Ed has been lying to him for the whole time and no longer trusts him, which makes Christopher journey up to see him mother. By the end of the novel she has moved back to Swindon and Christopher is living with her.