Nick Bridges

“The policeman said, ‘I am going to ask you once again…’ I rolled back onto the lawn and pressed my forehead to the ground again and made the noise that Father calls groaning.  I make this noise when there is too much information coming into my head from the outside world.  It is like when you are upset and you hold the radio against your ear and you tune it halfway between two stations so that all you get is white noise and then you turn up so that this is all you can hear and then you know you are safe because you cannot hear anything else.  The policeman took hold of my arm and lifted me onto my feet. I didn’t like him me like this. And this is when I hit him. (Haddon 7-8)”

Christopher sees the world in a very black-and-white manner. A situation is viewed as either right, or wrong; no in between.  There are just two examples of how Chris acts when he sees something he does not like.  Christopher does not like it when there are too many thoughts, noises, or people around him.  When something like this occurs, he breaks down and begins to “groan” to block everything else out of his head.  He does this throughout the story often, and it shows if he does not like something that is occurring in the story.  If Christopher does not like something, he is not afraid to act upon it.  Another example of this is when Christopher traveled to London to live with his mom.  There were too many people in the Train Station and he broke down and started to groan for 2 hours.  Another thing that Christopher does not like is when people touch him.  No matter how close or powerful they are, he will hit them or even stab them with his “Swiss Army Knife.”  When anybody touches him throughout the story: the policeman, his father, a stranger in London, he struck all of them.  All of these examples show how Christopher sees the world in simple manner: right or wrong.