ASSIGNMENT AFTER READING THE CURIOUS INCIDENT…
Imagine you are either Christopher’s father or mother. You want to explain why you have acted a certain way towards him. Let your answer indicate that you have read the required pages, and that you have understood them. Write between 100 and 300 words.
ASSIGNMENT AFTER READING “RIDING THE WHIP”
Explain who Jay, Natalie, Julie and Rita are, and how they know each other. Also discuss where the story takes place, and what happens that night. Then answer the following questions in more detail:
1) Why does Jay want to go on the Whip more than once?
2) What do you think happens to Jay’s sister?
Dear Christopher
SvaraRaderaI thought it was easier to write a letter to you instead of saying it. Because I don’t dare to say this in front of you. Maybe because I know that you’re going to be so angry of me again so that you won’t listen, so this is better.
So I’m going to explain why I lied to you earlier. Why I didn’t say that I killed Mrs. Shears dog. It wasn’t that I wanted to lie to you, of course not. The reason I lied to you was because the situation between me, your mother and Mr. Shears was so emotional that it was too hard to bring it up again. And I knew that if I’ve tell you the truth you would ask why I killed the dog and then I would have to say everything, even the story about that your mother isn’t dead and I couldn’t stand it.
I was so damn hurt after the situation between your mother and Mr. Shears that I knew that if I’ve tell you the truth I would freak out. And I know that you have to feel safe and that everything around you should be in the same way all the time and trust me, If I’ve tell you the truth nothing would be the same.
And it’s not just the situation between Mr. Shears and your mother. I’ve had an affair with Mrs. Shears after the happening and I thought that we two could go through this together. But the only thing she cared about was that damn dog. So I was tired of it, hurt and freaked out.
And I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I lied and I would never forgive myself. But I’ve learn something, and that is that I will never lie to you again, I promise.
I love you
Your father
Dear Christopher,
SvaraRaderaHere I am writing a letter to you, I’m feeling sick of what I did to you, but I hope you will understand me.
I am so sorry that I’d lie to you my son, but I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t stand that your mother left me for Mr. Shears.
I’m so sorry Christopher. I didn’t know what to say to you. I hated your mother for giving up our family and I know that you would not ever understand if I told you the truth. You would ask me questions that I didn’t have the answer to and remind me about what your mother did to me, and to you. It was easier to say that she was dead because it didn’t hurt me as much.
I know that I didn’t have the right to lie to you, but I promise you that it was the best thing for both of us. And I’m sorry that you found out about the letters the way you did, I had actually meant to give you them when you become older, because maybe you would understand me better then.
I know that I did a very huge mistake, and you have all the right in the world to be angry with me. But I am begging you ones in for all please forgive me Christopher?
A lots of love, your father.
Dear Christopher.
SvaraRaderaThere are no words that can describe how sorry I am. But I know you have many question in your head right now so I will try to explain my behaviour in this letter.
If I only could turn back the time, I would tell you immediately. I have noticed that it´s harder to tell the truth, as time passed. From now on I will tell you the truth straight away. It´s like I´ve imagined all the things I said were true, but it´s wasn´t.
You have to know that when mother had left us, it truly hurt me and I didn´t want you to feel the feelings that I had felt. It´s was so much easier to lie about it in the moment and there are many times when I have tried to tell you the truth, but in somehow it has never come out of my mouth.
When you start looking for the man who killed the dog, I knew straight away that it wasn´t good. I began to understand that the truth will come up, but I wasn´t ready for it.
Now that I know you know the truth I feel very awful. I understand that you will see your mother and that you not feel comfortable with me right now, but you have to understand we are only human.
I hope you can forgive me sometime.
I Love you Christopher, I really do and I hope you will come home soon because I miss you very much.
Love Father.
Hello my son. How are you? I hope dad takes care of you and that you feed Toby everyday and give him new fresh water. I’m going to dedicate this letter to try explaining why and how I acted when I left you and dad in Swindon. To start with me and you father didn’t get along a I became unhappy. You can never think that I left you two because of you and your problems with the social behaving. When your dad and I had a fight it made me feel alone. Both he and I changed. We weren’t the same couple as when we met. So I started to meet our neighbor Mr. Shears. We started to hang out more and more and I got the same feeling as your father gave me when we first met. This feeling made me feel safe and it made me happy. When Mr. Shears got a job in London he asked me if I wanted to come with him. So I started to search for a job and I got one that suited me well. I felt sad to have to leave you. I still love you very much but this was the best decision for me and my future. I hope we still can get along and be friends despite this. Even if you don’t answer my letters I hope you’re reading them and know where and what I’m doing. If you don’t write back you can always give me a call. I hope you forgive me.
SvaraRaderaLove and Kisses,
Your Mother
Hi my son.
SvaraRaderaI’m very sorry I haven’t been completely honest to you. I was going to tell you that your mother wasn’t dead when you were a little bit older so you would have understand, It was not meant to be this way that you should find out that she was living in London with Mr. shears because of the letters she had sent and that she just had left us. The reason that I told you that your mother had died in a heart attack was that I didn’t thought you were mature to handle a clearance like that, that our loving mother and wife had left us and moved a several miles away from us.
I was down at the police station, and there I met a police officer who told me that he had seen you at the train station and that you were on your way to London and were going to live with her after you had expired the gymnasium. I really hope that it is not true, because I really miss you boy. You are my everything and I can’t live without you. So I’m sending this letter to you mothers address and hope that coming through safely.
I Love you my son. Greetings your loving father.
Dear Christopher.
SvaraRaderaI know that I haven’t been the best father for you. I regret that I kept the letters away from you. But I have had a hard time lately. I am really sorry and you may think I’m selfish but I did what I thought was the best for us. Now I realize that it was all wrong by me. Once again, I am really sorry. I hope you can come home soon and we can fix all this. I thought that Roger and your mother was just a problem in your life. The thing that your mother did against me was very hard to take. I hated it! I know it shouldn’t affect you in the future but I didn’t know what to do back then. And telling you that your mother was dead was a really bad choice. Know, I look back and realize that I should have told you the truth.
I can’t do this undone and I really hope you can forgive. I miss you, so please come home!
Lots of love, your father!
Kristoffer Kristensson
Dear Christopher,
SvaraRaderaI hope you’re alright. I’m fine but I’m not so glad over how I’ve acted against you. It’s not acceptable and I know that… but I overreacted. First I just want to say that I’m realy sorry. Secondly I want to explain why. I think that your father is a bit more patient than me. Sometimes in special situations I get stressed and I’ve also got a very short fuse which means that I react and get a bit angry on things much faster. I couldn’t take it anymore, I just couldn’t. Then I thought you and your father were a better match together than you and me. That’s why I left, and Mr. Shears have always been there for me. He could talk to me and I could talk to him. So we didn’t felt lonely anymore.
I miss you a lot and I hope that you’ll answer my letters one day and maybe come and see me. I can’t tell you how much you mean to me just by just writing letters but I hope you know that I beyond doubts love you, from the bottom of my heart. Trust me.
Love and kisses,
Your mum
x x x x x x
Dear Christopher,
SvaraRaderaI can understand why you escaped to live with your mother, but I hope in the end you will understand why I acted the way I did.
After your mother left us, I didn’t stop loving her and looked after someone else to give all that love to. Because of Mrs Shears lived nearby us and she came and visit us almost everyday after your mother left us, I start to love her. When I found out that she wouldn’t come and live with us just because of Wellington, it hurt me really bad because I thought that a dog couldn’t mean more then a person for Mrs Sears. I think that I overreacted when I stabbed Wellington.
Your mother’s acting hurt me very much. That was also why I came up with the lie about she’s being dead. I might have killed the dog because I didn’t like what your mother did to me and then after a little while Mrs Shears tells me that she doesn’t like us more then Wellington. All the sadness i have got from your mother and Mrs Shears became anger. I took the anger out on Wellington and I understand now that it was very wrong of me to do that and an animal can mean a lot for a person, like your pet rat, Toby.
I acted wrong and hope that you won’t be afraid of me and want to live with me. I have nobody else then you, Cristopher. I don’t want to live alone, I want to live with you because you are all I have got left.
I hope to see you at home, Christopher!
Love your Father
Dear Christopher,
SvaraRaderaI’m writing this letter because I want to explain some things for you. Since you just run off last night I didn’t have the chance to tell you the truth about your mother and the incident whit Wallington.
I am going to explain all the letters from your mother now. When I said that she was in hospital she had actually just left a note. I was such a mess that I just came up whit the idea that she had had a heart attack so I didn’t have to tell the truth until you got older and could handle the truth. She just left us, Christopher! I didn’t know what to do…
And then Mrs. Shears came and wanted to help us whit the laundry and cooking and things like that and I started to think that she was looking for something more. I wanted to start a new life whit her, and I thought that she wanted the same. But she didn’t. We started to argue and then she just slams the door right in front of me. I was so upset and when I turned around the bloody dog just stand there and bit me in the leg! I didn’t know what to do so I stabbed it whit a fork and it just collapsed in the garden. I’m so sorry Christopher… I didn’t know why I did it.
Please Christopher, can’t you just come home? I need to talk whit you and I need you to make me feel good again. Write to me or call me when you get this letter.
Love father
The thing is my son, I don’t know how to begin this letter. But when I sent you the letter last time and told you why I and your dad broke up it was all a lie. I’m sorry my son, I was just looking after because I didn’t want to impair the good relationship you and your dad hadNow I have deiced to tell you the truth and I will take everything from the beginning to the end.It was a cold winter day your father was at work and you were with your grandmother house. When I came home from the supermarket. I suddenly received a phone call It was Mr.Shears the women who is the neighbor of yours. When I heard her a voice choked by tears . I did know that something was wrong and when I asked her what the problem was, she was quit for a minute and then said ‘’ I have had a sexual affair with your husband. I couldn’t believe that he could do something so cruelly against me. We who had it so good how could it turn out this way. I’m cried day after day and finally I deiced to broke up…
SvaraRaderaDear Christopher
SvaraRaderaIt’s been a while since we meet now. By now you probably have changed a lot and you have certainly outgrown your old mother. I remember when you were little and couldn’t even raise up to my waist. You were such a little rascal and every time I got mad at you, you could never really understand what you had done wrong. Now we both know why.
You were a very special child and you still are, Christopher. It has not been a bed of red roses to educate you. We had both bad and good days and when it was a bad day I would prefer to stay under the covers and not talk to anyone just like you want to do sometimes. You see, we are still quite similar even though you can’t believe it. We both have such a strong personality but we show it differently. We are like Jing and Jang, completely different, but yet so similar.
During all these years have you been daddy’s boy and you still are. It’s amazing what a patience he has. Its just patience I lack and that is one of the reasons I went off. When I was with you and your dad, I felt that I really never fit in among you, it was always two against one but with Roger it is totally different. With him I have no requirements on how I should be and not be and I have no longer a heavy stone in my stomach.
I know it sounds silly but I think my decisions were for the common best. One day you’ll understand but until then I want you to know that you have a big place in my heart and least as much space here in London. So please come and visit us!
See you soon my son!
Love Mum