Different stories have different types of characters, usually you can choose from two options of the characters to add in your story. There are round and flat characters, a round character is complex and develops throughout the story, normally you know a lot about them. A flat character is a character that is extremely plain, stays the same, and doesn’t necessarily change. In the book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, the main character, Christopher has autism and sees places and problems differently than the average person.
You walk into a room for the first time in a while and notice it’s changed, Chris walks into a room and has to process every single change. He can notice the simplest changes since the last time he was in a certain place, he memorizes every physical detail of his environment. He lets colors predict his future and mood. For example, if he sees say four yellow cars Christopher believes something bad is going to happen and considers it black day, a bad day, he doesn’t eat or even talk. Then, if he sees five red cars in a row he thinks it’ll be a good day or something great is going to happen. In the story, Haddon creates a dramatic and thrilling plot by using imagery and characterization in order to give off Christopher as a round character.
In the beginning of the novel, Christopher has the tendency to give places and objects a different meaning which is how his characterization comes into play. Chris is a direct person, he says how he feels and always lets us know his opinion on everything. It’s not hard to figure out what’s going on or how he feels, starting off he was blunt and direct. A reader would think he is a flat character by how he would just not be afraid to always give his input on situations, he’s confident. For instance on pages 2-3 he introduces who he is, what he knows, and how he feels, “My name is Christopher John Francis Boone. I know all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,057…”
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Another example to show Christopher as a flat, blunt character is, “I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful and they do not lie because they cannot talk” Haddon 3 and 4. This shows in the beginning of the book he is straight to the point, he tells you what he likes and this helps give off how Chris is a flat character, so the reader would think.
As the book carries on the reader develops an understanding on how Christopher grows through characterization. It’s not hard to understand the author truly made Chris to be a round, distinct character. He is deep, full of emotions, interesting, brave, and independent, although most times even Christopher doesn’t realize his potential. Page 172, “And I thought, ‘I can do this,’ because I was doing really well and I was in London and I would find my mother.” From this quote it is easily shown how much Christopher has evolved through the story as a round character brought to the reader through characterization. He explains how much he has achieved as in getting to London all by himself. Just by one address he was capable of being complex enough to get to a train station, steal his father’s bank card, and make his way to his mom’s flat.
