Safety and Identity in Haddon’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” and Kline’s “Orphan Train”

Introduction

Safety does not have one specific and universal definition, as it changes gradually throughout a person’s life and is significantly factored by their experience. This phenomenon is shown in many literary works, especially those describing growing up. Therefore, coming-of-age stories can present a new perspective to the reader while challenging their self-identity. “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon and “Orphan Train” by Christina Baker Kline present some great examples of how safety can mean different things and how people choose to achieve their state of safety.

Review

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Christopher and his father are the main characters who present a definition of safety in “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon. They figuratively present opposite sides of how knowledge affects one’s sense of comfort. Christopher decides to investigate the murder of the neighbor’s dog to solve the mystery that surrounds him at that time. The strife to understand the world around him practically and reasonably brings him a sense of safety.

The investigation is a method of achieving calmness that should be felt in a neighborhood. As the story progresses, Christopher untangles new mysteries that lead him to reconnect with his mother. All of this leads the main character to find mental resources to successfully pass the school exam and set new future goals that are no longer threatened by surrounding issues. This story shows how safety can be found in addressing and solving problems to reduce stress.

Christopher’s father, Ed, has a different approach to achieving safety for him and his son. His tactic is to keep the painful truth from harming his child. This is partially explained by Christopher’s diagnosis, which sometimes includes flaws in his ability to process information about emotions. Consequently, his father believes that his family background or even contact with his mother will be detrimental to the son’s psyche and his chances of achieving his goals in the future. Thus, Ed’s point of view is that ignoring the problems and disrupting the investigation is the best tactic to achieve safety.

Orphan Train

Christina Baker Kline’s “Orphan Train” uses different characters to discuss safety: Molly Ayer and Vivian Daly. Unlike Haddon’s Christopher and Ed, these two are mainly similar in their definition of safety but differ in their details. Molly Ayer is a young person who already has a sense of security and how it is achieved through stability.

However, her rebellious spirit still lets her test the limits of her comfort zone, which happens when she steals a library book and is sentenced to community work. She still tests her worldview and expresses it through liberal speeches and subcultural style. For her, safety is about having a basis that lets her experiment like that. This is what she finds at Vivian’s house by the end of the story.

Vivian, on the other hand, is a person who has a strong sense of what safety means for her. As in Molly’s case, it is stability, but all her memories complement it. She treasures everything that happened to her as it led her to the present day, and the only issue she actively tries to solve is the loss of past connections. Luckily, she made a friend who helped her do that using modern technologies. Thus, her safety is reinforced by revisiting what she values and letting others feel the same level of stability.

Comparison

These books show how different backgrounds and personal issues affect the subjective sense of safety. The methodical and sensible Christopher finds it in exploring the world’s mysteries. Ed, a father of an autistic child, finds safety in keeping his son away from the harm that the truth may cause. Orphans Molly and Vivian both seek the comfort of stability, which is their safe space.

Molly’s definition also includes the ability to experiment, and Vivian’s—to keep the connections and memories that formed her character. Therefore, they all show how personal insecurities and the will to overcome them create one’s perception of safety. Both books successfully show the same cause-and-effect link, but do so using different social backgrounds. Thus, setting and style are the significant points of difference between the works.

Conclusion

In conclusion, safety is an incredibly personal topic that can only be adequately discussed if the person’s background is included. Both books illustrate people with issues affecting their worldview, daily habits, and approach to problems. This includes their emotional states in different conditions and their ideas of a perfect environment where they can achieve their goals. While they all want to feel safe, the basics may sound similar, but details are crucial for one’s ideal world.

As a result, the book’s lessons can be used daily to improve communication with others. It can be achieved by remembering that every person has a unique set of experiences that affected them and that their worldview may be extremely close to someone else’s, but will never be identical. This is why the constant use of empathy is so important to make others and oneself feel safe.

References