Simple Things By Arko

Sometimes the simplest of things mark the newest of beginnings. Mark Haddon uses the symbol of different pets and Palacio uses the symbol of a braid. These symbols show that the simplest of things mark the newest of beginnings.

In both “ Curious Incident” and “Wonder” both authors try to show the theme of new beginnings with different things. Mark Haddon uses Chris’s dog Sandy, and Palacio uses the Padawan’s braid to show new beginnings. Another common theme of the two books is Isolation. Both of them are very different from others, and both of them are isolated. However, Chris wants to be alone almost all the time, while August wants to make friends.

However, there are many differences between the two books. As I said earlier the symbols both the authors used are different. Palacio uses hearing aids and August’s padawan braid. The hearing aids came out when they were in camp and he lost them. After he did, Amos and Henry were both trying to
help him, this marked a new beginning for August because he found new friends and slowly but surely. This was all because he lost his hearing aids and faced a few bullies from another school. After that Amos and Henry both said “ It was cool how you stood your ground, little dude ”

Another symbol in “Wonder” is the Padawan Braid. In page 57 he said, “ That night I cut off the little braid on the back of my head.” This might seem like nothing that all he wanted to do was cut it because it looked weird. However, in Star Wars, all Padawans have braids. They cut it off when they become a Jedi knight. So, metaphorically when August cut off his braid, he felt that he found his place. He felt that he could survive middle school.

Also, Palacio used allegory to show Augusts place in their family. In page 83 Via explained “ August is the sun. I and Mom and Dad are planets orbiting the Sun. The rest of our family and friends are asteroids and comets floating around the planets orbiting the Sun.” This can be portrayed in two ways in a bad way for Via that Via is completely powerless and hardly gets any attention. This can also be portrayed in a good way. August is the light of Via’s life, in fact, he is the light to the whole Pullman family. Via also said “ But this year there seems to be a shift in the cosmos. The galaxy is changing. Planets are falling out alignment” She said this because Chris is finally out of homeschooling and gone to middle school. Also, Via is in high school. Both Via and Auggie are having trouble in school. So, this is why she said this. She is telling us that chaos is coming.


There are also a few craft moves and symbols in “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.” One of them are the pets that Chris has owned. From the beginning of the book Chris was never living in comfort, he was not living at all. He was struggling to survive. This is what his rat, Toby had symbolised. Toby was a constant reminder for the readers of what Chris had gone through. This is why Haddon had chosen a rat as his first pet. He wanted to show the struggle that Chris had gone through. This is why Chris he left Toby in Swindon when he went to London. He only scattered from his father, so he got away from his old life, to get away from the terrors that lay in Swindon. He wanted to get away from his old life. So, when he went to London he left Toby with Mrs Alexander. When he came back he forgot about Toby. This is because he wanted to leave him there, he wanted to leave his old life behind. Right, when Chris gave Toby to Mrs Alexander he said: “ Can you take Toby and look after him?” He never said that he was going to take Toby back when he came back. So, this means that he doesn’t want Toby anymore he wants to leave him with Mrs Alexander. He wanted to leave his terrors with Mrs Alexander.

He also used the craft move of first person narration, to empathise with Chris. We empathised with him because we could see everything in his eyes, and we can see his opinions on things. He also used this move to show the characters motivations. This is because if the book was written in the third person we could not be able to see why he ran away, we would just know that he ran away. However, in first person narration, we can see his emotions about his father and his realisations about his father.

Also in “ The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time” another symbol is Sandy, the dog that Chris got from his father. As we know dogs symbolise loyalty and cooperation. Right before his father gave Chris Sandy he said on page 265 he said moments before he gave him Sandy “ Let’s call it a project, a project we can do together. You have to spend more time with me” Now what do we need in a project, we need cooperation. That is why he gave him a dog. Not only because Chris liked dogs, but because dogs symbolise cooperation and that is what Chris and his father need to do.

Some people might say that August only cut off his braid because it looked weird, and he wanted to be normal. While this may be true, it doesn’t explain why he did this on the first day of school, and during the school day, nobody said it looked weird. So, the only explanation of Auggie cutting off his braid is that he finally found his place with Jack and Summer. He was ready.

Sometimes the simplest of things mark the newest of beginnings. Mark Haddon uses the symbol of different pets and Palacio uses the symbol of a braid. These symbols show that the simplest of things mark the newest of beginnings. So, have you ever wished that you could start over? You should always remember that the simplest of things mark the newest of beginnings.