CHARACTERISATION
In the passage, the protagonist (Christopher) is 'brought to life through descriptions of thoughts, actions and reactions to his surrounding environment narrated in first person. Christopher holds a highly logical thinking, making careful observations and critiquing the vagueness of signs. For example, he says, "...Or you see a sign which says KEEP OFF THE GRASS but it should say KEEP OFF THE GRASS AROUND THIS SIGN or KEEP OFF ALL THE GRASS IN THIS PARK...", strongly insisting such sayings should include more detail. These suggestions usually seem unnecessary, although he thinks otherwise because he lacks the skills to use common sense and needs to be given very specific instructions to prevent confusion. Furthermore, his odd behaviour is evident in his dialogue. Without any hesitations or guilty pauses, he freely admits that he decided to go on an investigation he was told not to simply because he doesn't always do what he's told. Participating in restricted activities is usually seen as leading a bad influence or has negative implications, but the protagonist doesn't display any form of emotion as if he was just normally conversing. Thus, his character is blunt and has yet to understand values of affection or care, not empathising for his father's worries of him arriving in dangerous situations. Aside this, his monotone voice continues as he mentions his father drunk driving in absence of shame. Christopher follows up his explanation of how "...people break rules all the time" with examples of his father often driving past driving limits, not wearing a seatbelt or drinking alcohol. Being easily influenced by those around him, he likely grew up acknowledging what justifies itself to be the 'social norm', unable to feel what is wrongful until he experiences the impact on himself.