'talking to strangers is not something I usually do'->'So talking to other people is brave. But if you are going to do detective work you have to be brave, so I had no choice.'

Chap 73 P59

' I used to have lots of Problems' ->'I'm more grown up and I can take decisions for myself and do things on my own like going out of the house and buying things at the shop at the end of the road'

Also, When Christopher was asked whether or not him and Ms. Alexander should go on a walk, he took a chance and went on the walk.

When Christopher found the dog dead in Mrs. Shears's yard, instead of screaming like the reaction Mrs. Shears had he closely examined the dog and the situation.

"The policeman took hold of my arm and lifted me onto my feet. I didn't like him touching me like. And this is when I hit him."

He challenges himself by talking to strangers. This is a big step up for him.

We see how he developed. He can even feel his development, which means that he had developed a lot.

He was brave because he doesn't like talking to strangers but he did an even more amazing thing and went on a walk with her which means that he has developed.

Him being so particular about his watch caused him to prioritize his logicness over emotion. The police officer told him multiple times in a very stern way to hand over his belongings therefore when logic goes against emotion it can cause conflict.

Logic vs emotion

logic=orderly

emotion=chaos

Character analyst- his father represents emotional aspects of a person while Christopher is very logical. Their relationship significantly demonstrates the theme of logic vs emotion, where logic is ordered like Christopher and emotion is describing chaos like his father.

Symbolism: Language, motifs (metaphors) he does not understand them therefore they do not serve a purpose. He values the order and patterns. The yellow and red cars represent the motifs of orders since it has a certain pattern.

Narrative Connector - Metaphors are used as literary devices, as well as part of the theme. Christopher thinks that metaphors are lies, and does not like them, since lies are not orderly, which goes against his logical ways of thinking.

"I said that it was probably an aneurysm."

He continues to explain two types of heart attacks and why he thinks mothers death could have been either one, instead of acting out and showing emotion. Similar to Wellington, Christopher examines the situation.

Example: Chapter 89

After Christopher was forced to promise not to detective work, he talks to Siobhan about this and told her that the book was over. In this scene, Siobhan listened to Christopher's story and encouraged him that the book was really good. Christopher realized that he could do detective work without breaking the promise with his father. He realized this while talking with Siobhan, same as he chose to start writing a murder mystery book while interacting with her. Therefore, Siobhan gives him ideas to challenge new stuffs and gives him the chance to grow up.

2. Ed Boone

   Ed Boone, Christopher's father is giving him restrictions that stops him to do his detective work and creates external conflict to Christopher. Also, Ed Boone has the opposite characterization from Christopher and seems like a static character, which emphasizes Christopher's growth.

   
   

   Example: Chapter 79

   In chapter79, Father ordered Christopher to quit his current work and restricted his actions. However, Christopher didn't stop searching about the incident, which made him grow by creating courage to choose his own actions and being independent from his father.(maybe)

3. Mrs. Alexander

   Mrs. Alexander is the person who let Christopher interact with stranger slowly overcoming the uncomfortable feelings around strangers.

   
   

   Example: Chapter 97

In chapter 97, Christopher and Mrs. Alexander met at the supermarket. They later chose to go to the park even though Christopher felt uncomfortable around people who he doesn't know. He overcame his internal conflict and took action, which made him grow up. (a little because he went home later on)

The narrator's (Christopher) tone is icy and straightforward. He grows up communicating with others by explaining the story. He starts to communicate with others and grows up knowing the truth about Wellington by communicating with his father.

"And I thought she might be ringing the police and then I'd get into much more serious trouble because of the caution." Mrs. alexander didn't have any intention of calling the police and was trying to be frienddly, but still Christopher thought out the situation in a logial way.

“Move away from her and count from 1 to 50”
“So I took deep breaths like Siobhan said I should do when I want to hit someone in school and counted 50 breaths and did cubes of the cardinal numbers as I counted..”

The number 50 is a symbol that could relate to Siobhan and how he trusts Siobhan enough to take advice from her

• Stars:

Christopher often looks up at the stars, especially in emotionally difficult situations. The stars make him feel small because the universe is so large, and they allow him to imagine that he’s out in space and there aren’t people he doesn't trust all around him to comfort himself.

• Sherlock Holmes

Christopher often refers to Sherlock Holmes during the novel. Christopher admires and trusts Sherlock Holmes because he uses logic to solve mysteries and never thinks of something to be supernatural like himself. Christopher tries to copy Sherlock Holmes’s way of investigating a murder so that Christopher can solve the mystery of Wellington’s death. 

• Siobhan 

↳Christopher trusts her because she doesn't tell lies.

↳’’Siobhan said that the book should begin with something to grab people’s attention.’’ P5

 to help him write his mystery murder novel.

↳"But you can still be very proud because what you've written so far is just, well it's great."

 She is very encouraging and tells him what he should do and what he shouldn't do.

• Policeman

↳Christopher trusts policemen because they are supposed to do the job.

↳’’They have uniforms and numbers and you know what they are meant to be doing.’’p7

• Chapter 41

↳When Mother goes to the hospital Christopher tries to bring her food.

↳Christopher trusts his father that he is going to bring mother the foods. 

↳'’We will need to take food to her,’’p29

Also shows how he prefers logic over emotion. Throughout the story, he has a situation where he has to choose between emotion and logic which allows him to overcome his struggle.

"I can't do chatting"

Ch.97 P.69-77

"What happened to you the other day..."

Ch.67 P.45

"Talking to strangers is not something I usually do. I do not like talking to strangers"

Using a simile, the reader can see how Christopher is scared and is being cautious, which shows that Christopher doesn’t trust his father any more and thinks of him as a murderer.

P.153 Imagery is used when Christopher is trying to sneak out of his house. This makes this text more realistic and helps the readers imagine how slowly and cautiously Christopher was, showing how he doesn't trust his father any more.

Siobhan has a strong effect on Christopher’s perspective by helping him to see a bigger world, and this shows his non-emotional perspective.

One final thing that shows his non-emotional perspective is when father picks Christopher up and gets mad about Christopher trying to investigate more. This shows how Christopher is trying to understand others but is not able to understand them and their thoughts.

• Language Chp - 29

↳Metaphors in the novel can be used as a plot device 

↳The concept of metaphors can also be used as a motif in the book, he uses metaphors to represent how they are hard to understand just like humans when talking to them

↳The point above also connects to language and how Christopher has a hard time communicating and relating to language

↳language and communication rely on metaphors so much he can't logically understand metaphors.

• Colour is also a symbol commonly used in the novel - Chap. 47

↳He often associates colour with good or bad 

• Maths and maps 

↳Maths and maps help him bring comfort 

↳In the chapter where he goes around the neighbourhood to investigating, he draws a map first in order to help him be calmer during the time he goes to talk to strangers which makes him uncomfortable.

• Where he gets touched by the police officer and hits him.

• Where he is in the police car and smells inside.

Narrative connection

• All of the things that he cares about are different from other people.

• He usually misunderstands things.

For Christopher, loves routines, probabilities, and safety, which he can have in his hometown. However, since he deems that staying with his father is not viable, he decides to take the journey to London alone. At the train station, he experiences crowds and an unfamiliar environment, which he does not like. However, he pushes through and he overcomes his fear. This experience allows Christopher to grow up and gain independence for the first time.

To sum up, the daring journey from his hometown to London symbolizes his personal growth and self-discovery. This experience allowed him to step out of his comfort zone and grow up as a person.

When Christopher is getting over whelmed by his emotions he finds a way to add in mathematics as a way to calm him down. This is because math puts him back in his order.

Mari

Maps always help Christopher feel more comfortable especially when he is outside of his neighborhood. It gives him a sense of control of his surroundings when he is somewhere new.

Mari

↳In this chapter, he reads the letter from mother and find out that his father was lying about mother and that he killed wellington.

↳’’Then i stopped reading the letter because I felt sick.

    Mother had not had a heart attack. Mother had not died.’’

    ↓ Its shows that he is Shocked to know the truth about his mother, he was 

       betrayed by his father.

• chapter １４９

↳ In this chapter he finds the envelope written to him in his fathers room and this is the chapter Christopher’s trust starts to break.

↳’’Which meant that the letter was posted on 16th October 1997, which was 18 months after Mother had died.’’

↳It shows that he is still believing in what father had said which he had believing for years and that this was the first letter for him to be curious about the letter from mother.

• chapter １６７

↳In this chapter Christopher will be explained what happened when his mother left Christopher and Mr. Boone and that she was not having a heart attack.

↳’’Then he held up his right hand and spread his fingers out in a fan.

    But i screamed and pushed him backwards so that he fell off the bed and onto the 

    floor’’

  ↓In this chapter it describes how much Christopher was upset of being betrayed by father because he was with him since mother left the house and he was the only  

people to trust after mother in gone.

When Christopher finds out that his mother is alive, Christopher runs away from Ed to find her. This journey becomes an important point in his growth as it forces him to confront his emotions and deal with human relationships and come out of his comfort zones .

→ We can see that Christopher gets confused, scared, and feels unsafe when there are too many things to look at and hear. This shows us Christopher’s perspective of the world, and how he tries to handle chaos, even though he’s frightened and uncomfortable.

Azusa

Yuzuki Naito

The letters from mother symbolize the

truth and betrayal. Learning that his father lied about his mother’s death brakes Christopher’s trust but also forces him to see the different sides of father.

Luca, Tomoki, Haru, Haruto, Shion

Chap 179 (Page 165)

He repeats the same word “And” and “But” in the beginning of the sentence. This shows his anxiety and stress of dealing with emotions after he has lost trust towards his father. Christopher being so desperate tells us that his trust towards his father was really important. 

↓Chap 179 (Page 161)

When he imagines the possibilities of what to do next, he crosses out all of the possibilities except "going to llive with mother". Since he was really shocked about father, he chooses to live with his mother even though he doesn’t have much trust towards his mother. This shows that the trust he had towards father was really important for him, and if he loses it, he has to find someone or a place he can trust.

-Airi (Kokoru Yurino Yuri Karen)

During the trip to England Christopher had some difficulty. For example, when CHristopher goes to the station, Christopher did not understand most things. But, he had some difficulty asking for help and explaining himself.

• Shows how Christopher’s perspective is different than normal people

• The stars represent how depending on who sees something it may not look the same. This makes it easy for the readers to understand how his perspective is different than others.

Timetable

• Shows his logicness.

• Reinforces his unique point of view.

Christopher likes timetables because they ensure you don't get lost in time. And he feels uncomfortable when he doesn't know what is going to happen throughout the day because he doesn't like the feeling of being lost.

Mari

When Ed said that “ I killed Wellington, Christopher,” Christopher couldn't trust Ed anymore. Ed was one of the people who he trusted and believed so can’t calm down so he screamed and pushed him. Also he feels some fear that killing Wellington means that he could kill him also. 

• Chap 181

He trusts policemen and answers all of the questions when policemen talk to him and ask some questions. After they finished talking and he walked into the ticket office he saw policemen and felt safe that policemen were watching him. He has some problems with his father but he could believe policemen because he loves policemen.

In this chapter, to stop thinking about the loud crowd, Christopher solves a math problem, Conway's soldiers. It shows how when Christopher is overwhelemed with things that are chaotic, he results to make them logical or orderly in his own way.

-Iroha

The letters - The letters are connected to the theme of trust, however, more about betrayal from his father

Penknife/ swiss army knife - He often grips his penknife when he talks to strangers because he doesnt trust them. So, the penknife represents his trust in strangers.

When Christopher was in an over whelming state, he did a math game called conaway soldiers in his head to sort out his mind.

Mari

The book is led by the first person of “I.” Throughout the book, he relies on logic, pattern, and routines. He communicates his actions and emotions through these patterns. In chapter 181, he has a specific routine on everything he does during the day. This is one way of communicating his thoughts and actions. 

The setting: 

When Christopher wanted to go to London, he encountered some difficulties. Riding the train alone, moving away from father has been a complete new change for Christopher. This shows that he is starting to grow up and become mature, but also at the same time he improved his communication skills. For example when the policeman came to Chrisopher, he politely replied to the policemen’s question. If we compare the beginning of the book when he hit the policemen, we can see a big change and see how he grew up. He is now able to communicate well with strangers. 

Also, he even asked the lady for a map. This also shows that he is getting better at communicating. 

(Himari)

Kai

Kohei

Azusa, Aoi

Azusa, Aoi

-Iroha

At the start of the book, he has some communication issues making it difficult for him to ask random people questions. However, during his journey to London, he was able to ask the lady from the information center about Willesden. His growth concerning his communication skills play a crucial part in this book and is also an important factor in reaching his destination.

Atalie

-Reika

-Airi

Shion

Ex. The way he feels about the police. Initially, he thought that policemen were cool because they caught bad guys. Christopher thinks that father is a criminal, so he thinks that the police are taking him back to the criminal(father). His thought process became more malleable. 

[He starts to gain confidence in himself. ]

Ex. “And I thought “I can do this”  because I was doing really well and I was in London…” This shows how Christopher’s perspective of himself changes as he gets closer. He begins to gain more confidence compared to when he first left home.  

The most significant change in Christopher’s perspective is how he grows to understand the human emotion better throughout the book. At first, he struggles to distinguish emotions and heavily relies on logic and he doesn’t understand why people do things the way they do but as he interacts with others, he learns how emotions can be a big drive or a motivator. He also learns to recognize and understand his own emotions which is a big step for him.