In this English chapter, we covered a lot about Adversity. For our final project, we were tasked with creating an online exhibit about Adversity.
Adversity is a hard or struggling time that somebody goes through in their life. It can be anything difficult ranging from the death of a loved one or the loss of a job. There are many ways that you can deal with this adversity, and there isn’t any right or wrong way as everybody adjusts to things differently.
Below is my Adversity project for English this year. It contains a blog about dealing with adversity, a song playlist with various songs dealing with adversity, a few pieces of art located around Lincoln, NE related to adversity, a video playlist containing YouTube videos that relate to dealing with adversity, and my response/reflection to the book I read for this section, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time pg. 1-44 reflection:
In the first few pages of the novel, we see that Christopher likely has some sort of mental illness that keeps him from being able to understand the feelings and words of other people. He often struggles with communication as well. Christopher is a very literal and curious person who takes everything straight as it is said or is; he enjoys math because of its literalness. He is a smart person who thinks through things logically. One of his teachers help him understand how to see what someone is feeling from their facial expressions as well, since that is an area he struggles in.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time pg. 44-88 reflection:
Christopher, in this section of the novel, learns a lot about his parents. He learns of his mother’s affair with a neighbor and shows a new side of his father that the reader didn’t know about. He continues struggling with his communication issues, and when approached about the bruise and scratch he had gotten in a fight with his father he doesn’t do that great of a job with expressing how unfazed by the event that he is. In this section, he had a lot of struggle with his expression over his new knowledge about his mother or handling his fight with his father.
Playlist Dealing with Adversity
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time pg. 88-132 reflection:
In these pages, we learn that Christopher’s mother is still alive. While he was looking for the book he was writing, he found 43 letters addressed to him from his mother. When his father gets home, instead of hitting or grabbing Christopher like he usually does in his anger, he explained and apologized to Christopher. He had a lot of struggle with the new information about his mother being alive as well as finding out about his father’s true relationship with their neighbor. He also finds out that his father had asked her to move in and replace Christopher’s mother, as well as finding out his father had been the one who killed the dog.
Video Playlist Dealing with Adversity
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time pg. 132-176 reflection:
During this, Christopher gets better with his communication. After he ran away, he asked strangers (who he doesn’t like talking to) for directions to the train station. He gets overcome by the business and decides to sit down, which is when a police officer approaches him and offers to help him with buying a train ticket. Christopher gets a ticket to London, and when there he manages to find his mother without running into any police officers, who he has recently struggled with since the one police officer grabbed him at the beginning of the book.
Artwork Dealing with Adversity
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time pg. 176-221 reflection:
In the final section, it shows how Christopher has grown from the start. At his mother’s house, Christopher and Mr. Shears don’t get along very well, and after weeks of arguing, him and his mother run away back to his father’s house. During the whole story, Christopher overcame his fear of talking to strangers, his dislike of being touched, and his fear of his father. He ended up getting a much better relationship with his mother, and they pretty much lived a happily ever after when he passed his a level maths test.
