CONFLICTS
Question: - Discuss the main conflicts that drive your novel.
The conflicts present within the novel include person verses person and inner conflicts such as man vs self. The person verses person conflicts involve the protagonist, Christopher Boone, with his father as well as driving tension between his mother and father towards the end, whilst the inner conflicts surrounds Christopher with himself. The main conflict driving would be Christopher with himself and between him and his father, man verses self and person verses person respectively. Furthermore, both conflicts interconnect with each other to allow the protagonist to become more independent and change his perception of his own abilities positively. Christopher's father motivates him to do tasks or activities he would usually restrict himself from doing, facing his fears and learning to adapt to supporting himself. Having a blunt personality enforced with logic, the fights regarding the killer of a dog and lies about his 'deceased' mother reveals the emotional struggle his father owns, allowing Christopher to physically observe outbursts of crying and 'protective' anger. Nonetheless, he takes no action for signs of sympathy but creates a better understanding of his environment and resolves these issues by running away alone to his mother. Thus, he forces himself to experience going beyond his comfort zone, such as talking to strangers in public areas, and in result feels accomplishment for doing so.
Although the protagonist clearly shows signals of having mental problems (possibly being autistic) he is still capable of supporting himself and finding strategies to adjust to unknown situations. From this, themes highlighted could be to not underestimate not only your own capabilities but also viewing poorly of those disabled. The unique use of irrelevant diagrams and unusual responses Christopher displays additionally suggests to be aware that each person may have very different mindset from one another and there is no set perspective in situations. Ultimately, these ideas become gradually evident as the conflicts with the protagonist's father arrive as he constantly starts labelling more of his dislikes and leads himself to become more rebellious in an innocent manner.