Amar Aiyaar: King of Tricksters by Sulaiman Ahmad

Amar Aiyaar: King of Tricksters is a small section of Dastaan-e-Ameer Hamza retold by Sulaiman
Ahmad.

The folklore culture and the oral tradition of storytelling is a way of resurrecting diminishing
traditions.

to recreate the story of Hamza’s close confidante and faithful friend, Amar.

As mentioned earlier, Aiyaari means trickery and Amar was famously known as ‘Amar Aiyaar’: the
king of tricksters. Sulaiman Ahmad hence focuses his reading on the Aiyaari element of the dastans.

The art of oral tradition is as old as civilisation and every culture has its specific way of gifting this
tradition to the next generation.

The tradition of storytelling is ages old and encourages people to imagine situations, introduce
characters and weave magic around existing stories. Since listening and narrating are as old as
human civilization, the stories too evolve along with the societies. They become glorified and the
characters keep on getting refined as per the narrator.

In the Eastern world,’ a story is a dastan and go means to narrate, thus the storyteller is called a
Dastango and the tradition is known as Dastangoi.

Shahenshah Naushervan, the emperor of Persia, has his terrain far and wide. His palace and courts
were magnificent and were designed intricately. He had two wazirs or ministers, Buzurjmehr and
Bakhtak, who’d help him govern his empire. Buzurjmehr was a good advisor and made continuous
attempts to guide the king faithfully and honourably. Bakhtak, on the other hand, was a true villain.
He was selfish and scheming and always gave wrong advice to the king. Buzurjmehr was aware of
Bakhtak’s nature and therefore tried his best to encourage the emperor to work positively for his
subjects (in ‘The transformation of Shahenshah Naushervan’).

It was prophesized that a ‘raider called Hashsham will attack the capital city and will take over the
throne and the crown.’ But, a great warrior from Mecca named Hamza will come to the king’s rescue
and restore the throne and crown to Naushervan.

After intense astrological calculations, it was foretold that on the day Hamza was born, two other
boys too would be born. Those two would remain faithful and loyal to Hamza forever and would
protect him on his adventures. Hamza was born to the family of Khwaja Abdul Mutallib, chief of the
tribes of Mecca. The second boy was born to a close attendant of Khwaja Mutallib and Buzurjmehr
named him Muqbil Wafadar. He would grow up to become 15 the finest archer of his time. The third
boy was born to a poor camel driver whose wife died during childbirth. When Buzurjmehr saw the
poor motherless boy, his happiness knew no bounds.

No Guns at My Son’s Funeral by Paro Anand

The story is set in Kashmir and predominantly addresses the issue of terrorism. Baramulla, a
northern Kashmiri town forms the centre of the story. Apart from Muslims, the quaint townhouses
have a significant population of Sikhs and Kashmiri Pandits. The story revolves around a teenaged
boy, Aftab when militancy was spreading its roots in the region. Aftab belongs to a middle-class
Kashmiri family with his parents, elder sister – Shazia and a younger brother Amir. His father is a
school teacher in the same school where Aftab studies. Aftab is a member of a secret group where
they call themselves freedom fighters, while others label them as Atankvadis (terrorists). The secret
group comprises Akram, the leader and a firangi, an Afghan, Feroze (another Firangi), Javed and
Imram (both Kashmiris). All 19 the members undergo physical training, are narrated stories of
freedom and plan strategies to disrupt the functioning of the state. To attend these training and
planning sessions, little Aftab sneaks out of his house in the late hours and misses his school.

Paro Anand aptly points out that the terrorists mislead the young children by glorifying the concept
of the holy war against the nonbelievers and anti-nationals. The constant political imbalance in the
valley further pushes these children into believing such stories. We notice Aftab arguing and
snapping at his mother when she blames the firangis for turning their beautiful, safe and heaven-like
Kashmir into the valley of death. He says, “they are not firangis, they are our own. They are our real
brothers. They are helping us...” (17)

Aftab’s Ammi and Abbu disapprove of his sudden disappearances as, like many other parents, they
too are aware of the dangers lurking in the valley. The inhabitants of the town are fully aware of the
vulnerable lives they live.

The Firangis would lure the young boys to become terrorists, and young girls to become their brides.
Like many others, Aftab too is tempted by the freedom and revolutionary tales narrated by Akram
and other members of the secret group. These terrorist groups strategically cajole young minds by
letting them know that they were the chosen ones and the freedom of their homeland lies on their
young but trustworthy shoulders. Once when Aftab asked about Feroze’s shaky hands, Akram very
tactfully tells Aftab that he (Akram) needs someone to depend on in the time of need and that only
Aftab is the sensible one. This assertion and trust in a child’s mind cement the concept of holy war
for the child.

If Hamzah stands for the unachievable ideal of Islamic values, Amar stands for the messiness of lived
experiences.

Amar's status is neither heroic nor villainous in the narrative, but he is predestined to succeed. Right
from the beginning, the readers know that Amar will defeat the magicians and conquer Hoshruba.

Amar employs these powers not only to subjugate his enemies but also to entertain his admirers. His
sharp wit and keen intelligence establishes him as the most articulate ayyar allowing him to
converse, negotiate and, at times, intimidate his enemies.

‘Building the Emotional Content of Pictures’ Molly Bang

Red is seen as a flashy, bold, and warm colour; one feels fervour, liveliness, and danger. How can a
single colour invoke in people such a wide range of incongruent and contradictory emotions?

Red colour is typically associated with fire and blood. Ever since humans have existed, blood and fire
have only been associated with red, and as a result one links these things with the colour red. The
emotions invoked by red are thus a mix of one’s emotions about fire and blood.
The illustration then evokes the following feelings in a person: danger, boldness, vitality, strength,
warmth, alertness, balance, and stability. If one takes that triangle to be Little Red Riding Hood, its
colour and shape correlate with her clothes.

When she makes the heroine proportionately smaller, the woods feel scarier to the reader because
they are larger in comparison: One feels more frightened when they are smaller because they are
less able to physically control the danger. One is weaker and unable to defend themselves physically
against a bigger attacker.

Firstly, diagonal lines like the tilted trees add a feeling of tension and movement to the picture.

Finally, shapes tilted away from the protagonist seem to be opening up a way ahead for them,
whereas shapes tilted towards them give the impression of blocking movement.

Pictures are connected to emotions because one sees them as an extension of the real world.
Emotionally moving pictures are structured around the way people behave and react in the real
world. Therefore, an understanding of these behavioural principles would help one to grasp why
visual representations have such specific emotional impacts and how they function.

Raschka has enclosed the heads of the little black girls in coloured squares with rounded-off corners,
which immediately draws attention to the hair. “Nappy” has been used a racial slur for centuries to
refer to the vastly different shapes, colours, textures, and styles of African people’s hair. Black women
especially spend millions of dollars every year on chemical straighteners and relaxers to make their
hair more like that of white women – straight and smooth. Raschka and hooks are thus delving into
the racial and gender politics surrounding black women’s hair. Raschka depicts the rest of the body in
white, blending it with the white background of the page, so that the reader’s attention remains on
the hair of the little girls. While Bang uses only four colours in her story, Raschka uses a variety of
colours in her illustrations to symbolise the infinite shapes and varieties of African hair. The use of
colours can also be seen as a protest against racism. The rudimentary language, bright colours, and
playful expressions on the faces of the little girls would make it easily relatable to children. Raschka
and hooks thus attempt to reclaim the slur “nappy” in this book by infusing it with childlike positivity
through their use of bright colours and shapes.

1. Flat, horizontal shapes are perceived as more stable; it follows then that horizontal pictures are
generally perceived as more stable, and small horizontal areas within a picture can be an “island of
calm” (42).

2. In contrast, vertical shapes seem more active, conveying a sense of strength and excitement. (44)
3. Diagonal shapes and lines suggest movement and tension. Most readers, at least in Western
cultures, interpret diagonals from left to right, determining whether a slope ascends or descends by
its direction (46-52).

4. Objects in the upper half of a picture appear relatively more free and happier; they may also
convey a sense of spirituality. Conversely, figures in the bottom half of a picture are more likely to
appear sad or heavy, possibly under threat (54-56).

5. The eye tends to go to the center of the page, “the point of greatest attraction”; illustrators can
induce the reader to “explore” the picture by keeping the focus away from the center. Figures at the
edge of the picture, breaking out of the frame, imply additional space and/or action outside of the
picture and create added tension (62-66).
6. Light-colored backgrounds feel “safer”; she relates this to human vision, which functions well
during the daytime but is more limited at night. (68)

7. Pointed shapes are relatively frightening; rounded shapes and curves are comparatively
comfortable. (70) Consider then, e.g., the mix of rounded shapes and pointy teeth and claws in
Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are.

8. Larger objects tend to seem stronger; an object or a figure can be made more vulnerable by
making it smaller (72).

9. The human mind tends to associate objects by color more than by shape; other things being
equal, similarly colored items will be seen as related to one another even if the picture contains
other objects that are similar or identical in shape but colored differently (76).

10. Contrasts (of color, or of light and dark) guide our ability to see images (80)

11. Spatial relations can be used to isolate figures or to show tension; either very wide spaces or tiny
slivers of space between two objects can create tension (89-90).

John Holt, ‘Escape from Childhood’

The Problem of Childhood

Holt considers himself to be an advocate for children because he has closely observed children by
being close to them as a teacher and a friend. Since children have very few people who speak for
their welfare, he could raise his voice for them; and people who are even remotely interested in
children’s welfare might listen and agree with him.

The author seek to change the state of modern childhood and examine how elders treat children as
they are seen nothing less than nuisance creating, submissive, dependent little people. Holt, then,
goes on to propose the idea that children or young people should get the rights, duties,
responsibilities as same as adult people. These include various rights such as privacy, earning,
financial independence (in all sectors), education, right to vote, right to equal treatment at the hands
of law and indulge in political discourse of the country, and so on. Since, many of these rights are
intertwined, young people should be left with the choice to select whatever right they feel right for
themselves.

Holt does not want to create a utopic world because with every change comes a new problem that
requires new solution. The society and its affair are never going to be perfect but we must learn to
adapt to these changes and look for solutions and ways to make it better.

I can’t plant this vision in their minds; everyone makes his own model of reality. But the light I throw
on experience may help some of them to see things somewhat differently and to make a new vision
of their own.

The Institution Of Childhood

OF COURSE, in one sense childhood is not an institution but a fact of human life. At birth we depend
for our lives on others to take care of us, keep us warm and clean and protect us from harm. In this
we are like other animals. But unlike most animals, we do not outgrow our helplessness and
dependency in a few months - it takes years.

We might think of human life as a sort of curve, starting at birth, rising to various peaks of physical,
mental and social power, continuing for some time on a kind of plateau, and then slowly declining to
old age and death. This curve of life is different for all human beings. Sometimes it is cut abruptly
short by death. But for every human being, that curve is a single curve, a wholeness. It is, of course, a
curve of continual growth and change. To some degree we are different every day from what we
were the day before. But this growth and change are continuous. There are no breaks or gaps in it.
We do not, like some insects, suddenly turn from one kind of creature into another that is very
different.

Here the fact of childhood ends and the institution of childhood begins. Childhood as we now know
it has divided that curve of life, that wholeness, into two parts - one called Childhood, the other
called Adulthood, or Maturity. It has made a Great Divide in human life, and made us think that the
people on opposite sides of this divide, the Children and the Adults, are very different. Thus we act
as if the differences between any sixteen-yearold and any twenty-two-year-old were far greater and
more important than the differences between someone aged two and someone aged sixteen, or
between someone aged twentytwo and someone aged seventy. For with respect to the kind of
control he has over his own life, the ability to make important choices, the sixteen-year-old is much
closer to the two-year-old than he is to someone of twenty-two.

For a while I thought of calling this book The prison of childhood or, as other friends suggested, using
the word ‘Liberation’ in the title.

I agreed and gave up both ‘Prison’ and ‘Liberation’, both of which imply letting children out of a bad
place that bad people have locked them into. The word ‘escape’ need not imply this. If we are in a
house that catches fire, or on a boat that begins to sink, we want to escape - but this does not mean
that we think someone lured or put us into that house or boat. Also, ‘escape’ is a word of action. To
escape from a danger, you must first decide that it is a danger and then act to get away from it. I
want to leave to the young the right to make that decision and to choose and take that action.

Most people who believe in the institution of childhood as we know it see it as a kind of walled
garden in which children, being small and weak, are protected from the harshness of the world
outside until they become strong and clever enough to cope with it. Some children experience
childhood in just that way. I do not want to destroy their garden or kick them out of it. If they like it,
by all means let them stay in it. But I believe that most young people, and at earlier and earlier ages,
begin to experience childhood not as a garden but as a prison. What I want to do is put a gate, or
gates, into the wall of the garden, so that those who find it no longer protective or helpful, but
instead confining and humiliating, can move out of it and, for a while, try living in a larger space. If
that proves too much for them, they can always come back into the garden. Indeed, perhaps we all
ought to have walled gardens to take refuge in when we feel we must.

A sign in a Boston subway says NO ONE EVER RUNS AWAY FROM A HAPPY HOME. But the happiest
homes may give to the children just that extra confidence, curiosity and energy that makes them
want to test their strength and skill against a larger world. If they are then not allowed to do it -
that’s when the unhappiness starts.

Some might say that the young people only wanted to get away from home and the nay-saying
parents so that they could enjoy forbidden adult pleasures - smoking, drinking, sex - but though this
may be part of what those young people were saying, I think that they were also saying that they
want to live, at least for a while, among other people who might see them and deal with them as
people, not as children.

During childhood, which is more a phase of life than an institution, we depend on other even for
minute and basic needs. According to Holt, human are like animals but unlike them it takes far more
years for humans to grow independent. It is quite possible for humans to surpass the dependency
sooner than they expect and think.

Holt decided on escape for this book’s name because it refers to an action which means getting away
from any sort of danger. And the decision whether to escape a danger or not would be subjective.
Mostly, for people, childhood mean taking care of children by protecting them from the hostility and
dangers of the outside world. For some, childhood with its protection is not as much a safe space as
it is for others, like children who have no families or toxic environment at their houses. So, Holt
wants to enable them to grow out of it and be a part of the larger space; however, if they do not feel
comfortable, they can always come back in those protected boundaries. Many a times, children who
have had loving and protected childhood feel distant with their parents when they become
teenagers and the feeling becomes mutual for parents as well and this causes more harm and pain.
This could be due to too much affection that children at one point start to feel they are being
restricted, instead if parents give them a little more push and confidence, that might add to their
strength and ability to face the world.

Childhood in History
Experiment in International living : instance of dinner sequence
The institution of childhood is not as fascinating as it has been made to believe and to justify that a
glorifying and idealised picture of family is created. As Shaulmith Firestone observes in The Dialectics
of Sex, the concept of childhood and modern family began to evolve in the seventeenth century and
it was not until then that children’s toys began to appear but only for toddlers. Girls were not really
considered ‘child’ as they were made to learn sewing and other activities just like an adult woman,
also they were married as soon as they hit puberty.

In The Dialectics of Sex, Shulamith Firestone points out: After the fourteenth century, with the
development of the bourgeoisie and empirical science, this situation slowly began to evolve. The
concept of childhood developed as an adjunct to the modern family ... ‘childrenese’ became
fashionable during the seventeenth century. Children’s toys did not appear until 1600 and even then
were not used beyond the age of three or four ... But by the late seventeenth century special
artefacts for children were common. Also in die late seventeenth century we find the introduction of
special children’s games... childhood did not apply to women. The female child went from swaddling
clothes right into adult female dress. She did not go to school which, as we shall see, was the
institution that structured child-hood. At the age of nine or ten she acted, literally, like a ‘little lady’;
her activity did not differ from that of adult women. As soon as she reached puberty, as early as ten
or twelve, she was married off to a much older male.

As suggested by Elizabth Janeway, in modern times, the idea of a family has also changed as it is not
just parents and their children living together in a ‘nuclear’ family but earlier (before the eighteenth
century) the scenario was different. There were either mansion like houses, mainly for elite, and
small houses. In both these type of houses, children were well aware of what is going on inside and
were ‘partly’ a part of adult life. Moreover, motherhood as a concept has recently been much
revered as earlier instead of mothers, other 20 ladies in the house would take care of the children.
Schools were for boys and those from lower class learned at home with parents who were not
always very affectionate or learned manners and skills while working and living with ‘well-placed
notables.

With the changing nature of the work, children were removed from adult world. But with
industrialisation and centralisation, people started working mechanically and preferred children to
stay away from it. As per the view of Ms. Janeway, those women who cannot control their own lives,
try to control the lives of their children. Furthermore, Van Den Berg notes that the prime reason for
distance between adult and child, adult and world is because of the way of perception. Earlier
everything had a purpose and now everything has been reduced to a mechanical motion with people
working like little machines in it interested only in the cause of why things are happening rather than
the meaning or purpose for which they are happening.

The Family and its Purposes

SOME FEAR THAT giving or offering children the right to greater independence will threaten or
weaken or destroy ‘the institution of the family’. But the family of which most people speak now -
Mom, Pop, and the kids - is a modern invention.

People with genuinely strong religious beliefs are not threatened by talk that God does not exist or is
dead. Happily married couples who after many years get great strength and joy from each other’s
company simply smile and go on with their life when they hear that marriage is nothing but a device
for the exploitation of women, or whatever it may be. Their experience tells them better.

This may disappoint us, but it should not surprise or horrify us. The family was not invented, nor has
it evolved, to make children happy or to provide a secure emotional and psychological background to
grow up in. Mankind evolved the family to meet a very basic need in small and precarious societies -
to make sure that as many children as possible were born and, once born, physically taken care of
until they could take care of themselves.

What they did was to harness the sexual drives of young men to the begetting and nurturing of
young children. The rules boiled down to this. You can’t have sex except to make a baby; you have to
take care of the woman who will be the baby’s mother; and when the baby is born you have to take
care of it as well. This was a burden, heavy then as now, which most young men would have avoided
if they could. But loopholes were tightly closed, the rules strictly forbade getting sexual release or
pleasure in any other way. And society sweetened the deal a little bit. In return for the trouble of
taking care of this woman and her child or children, society gave them to the man as his property.
They had to work for him and do what he told them. Since human energy was both a scarce resource
and a valuable form of capital, a man with a large family was generally felt to be rich and fortunate.
The invention worked, and the people multiplied. How they did multiply! In short, the family was an
institution in which some people were owned by others. Men owned women, and male and female
children learned to own and be owned.

Most of those people who talk angrily about saving the family or bringing back the virtues of the
family do not see it as an instrument of growth and freedom but of dominance and slavery, a
miniature dictatorship (sometimes justified by ‘love’) in which the child learns to live under and
submit to absolute and unquestionable power. It is a training for slavery.

Others, more kindly, insist that only in the family can children grow up healthy. Elizabeth Janeway
puts it thus: ... Children do, indeed, need to be brought up, and brought up in intimate surroundings.
They need love, stability, consistent and unequivocal care and lasting relationships with people who
are profoundly enough interested in them to look after them with warmth, gaiety and patience. This
notion that a child cannot grow up healthy unless he is at every moment under the eye of some adult
who has nothing to do but watch over him is very modern,

Another modern idea is that children get from the family their models of grown-up life, their ideas of
what it is to be a man or a woman. Ms Janeway quotes the sociologist Talcott Parsons as saying that
“children learn about the world and the culture in which they live by growing up in the subdivision of
that culture which we call the nuclear family ... Later he learns that the members of his family
represent social relationships that are common to the rest of the world he lives in.”

And what kind of model of adult life does the modern child get, who sees his father come home in
the evening, sit down, perhaps read the paper, and spend the rest of the evening and much of the
weekend watching television, or who sees the mother doing household chores? Is this, then, all that
men and women do? Not only is the modern nuclear family a very bad model of adult and social life,
because so incomplete and distorted, but it is its isolation from the world that creates the need for
models.

I occasionally say no to a seven-year-old friend of mine (as she occasionally says it to me). When I do,
I say it without having to think, how will she feel about me tomorrow, or have I been saying no too
often, or will this hurt our friendship. Because I don’t worry, she doesn’t have to worry. The no is a
thing of the moment, connected only with the act of the moment. It is not part of a larger yes or no
about her as a person. So she takes the no for what it is, and life moves on. We continue to know
each other as growing and changing people, getting and giving what knowledge or pleasure we can
but not wholly dependent on each other and, hence, not wholly vulnerable.

A pat phrase of our time is ‘sibling rivalry’. We take as healthy and right what is only ‘normal’ in the
sense that it is all too common - that the children in a family should actively dislike each other and
compete frantically and ruthlessly for the too scarce attention and ‘love’ of their parents. Why should
the competition be so frantic? Because the wanted and needed attention, concern, advice,
companionship and protection are so scarce. Why so scarce? Because there is no one but the parents
to give it. Children need many more adult friends, people with whom they may have more easy
relationships that they can easily move out of or away from whenever they need to or feel like it.
Perhaps they found many of these in extended families, among various grandparents, aunts, uncles,
cousins, in-laws and so on. Perhaps they found them living in smaller communities, villages or towns,
or neighbourhoods in larger cities. But these communities, in which people have a sense of place and
mutual concern, are more rare all the time, disappearing from country as well as city. The extended
family has been scattered by the automobile and the airplane. There is no way to bring it together so
that children may live close to numbers of older people who will in some degree have an interest in
them and care about them.

Robert Frost, in his poem “Death of the Hired Man”, put it very well. The hired man, now too old and
ill to work, is sitting exhausted in the kitchen of a younger farm couple. The husband, not quite
knowing what to do about him or with him, wonders why he has come to their house, since he has
other relatives nearby. For answer his wife says to him - it could not be said better - “Home is where,
when you have to go there, they have to let you in.”

Just so. Children need many such homes. Perhaps we all do. But I think many adults, much more
than children, have a sense of having many homes, places where in time of bad need or trouble we
could go and be sure of getting help, or at least shelter. But the making and finding of these homes is
not, on the whole, something that society can do for people. Each person as he lives must find and
make his own. This is what I want to allow and help children to do.

Some are of the view that giving children freedom will be a threat to the institution of family. If the
familial ties are strong and people share a healthy relationship then there is no need to worry.
However, as mentioned earlier, all the families are not healthy and some even create an unhealthy
atmosphere for children. The concept of family is at very essence of the patriarchal structure
because family as a concept started just to carry on the lineage be it of a community or a society.
Women were bearers of children and men were assigned the duty to take care of them as the head.
Thus, family as an institution came into existence with some who owned others and some who were
owned by others. Love and affection were just additional benefits. For some who talk of bringing
back the family values, in reality they are favouring the dominance in the family and not growth. For
them ‘love’ is just a pretence to get children to submit to them. Furthermore, the idea of children
getting their role models by watching their parents is also quite modern. Since they watch a
monotonous routine of their parents: their fathers working outside and coming back home and
mothers being busy with household chores, what good will it be for them? The idea of nuclear
families is somewhat destructive as emotional dependency grows too much between parents and
children making them vulnerable which later leads to quarrels. Thus, children need a broader
network. ‘Sibling rivalry’ is another reason for this. Since, there are only limited members in the
house, children seek validation from their parents because there is no one else. hence end up with
aggressive behaviours. There is a need to revive the concept of extended family. It does not have to
be blood-related but children should be allowed to create family and friends of their own. So that
they can learn and get some things from one and other things from another.

3.5 On the Loss of Authority of the Old

There have always been concerns about older generation losing its control authority over younger
generation by being too soft and giving them more freedom than they need. But it 21 has been
observed that children who are raised in strict and harsh environments grow up to become violent.
Aftermath of World Wars not only includes wreckage but a change in ideology as well; people now
do not expect a longer life or wish too ahead in future. But, in a world where there is no assurance
about the future the transfer of loss of authority is bound to happen. However, it was different in
earlier times as young people believed the elderly and knew what they were doing was for their
improvement but now there is a struggle from both the sides to push the other. Humans believe in
advancements in technology and it is a false narrative that they have constructed for themselves. The
false progress has not added up to a good life leading to despair.

ON USE OF CHILDHOOD

Though institution of childhood is a nuisance for adults, it still gives them some comfort as adults can
show their superiority and authority over someone. Since ages children have been 22 on the
subservient side, so even the poor or a slave has authority over someone, and that is, their children.
Home, which is supposed to be a safe space for children ironically becomes the dreaded place
because it is here that the adults can be ‘harsher, more cruel, more contemptuous and insulting’
than anywhere else

Sapna Desai

the world of reality where the suffrage of the masses residing in terror prone areas is depicted.

The constant tensions between the armed forces and militants has left the population of Kashmir
alienated and torn with uncertain futures. The disoriented youth, being the most vulnerable section
of the society is being exploited by the terror forces. Terrorism as an issue in children’s literature may
be bemusing but we cannot deny the fact that today we live in a world where terrorism has become
a global phenomenon with bomb blasts in crowded areas and ISIS as a part of everyday life.
The fictional yet realistic narratives No Guns at My Son’s Funeral and Weed by Paro Anand record
those essential aspects of terrorism and its impact which the historians cannot record. The study of
these narratives help to understand the phenomenon of terrorism in its totality as we witness not
only the physical loss of life and property due to terrorism, but also get a glimpse of psychological
trauma experienced into the minds of the masses as a result of terrorism. The story highlights how
the life of a child exposed to situations of terror and violence result in traumatic experiences that
may leave enduring psychological impacts and change in life trajectory.

Children of today are growing up in a world in which terrorism in its many aspects has become a
salient cultural phenomenon. Teens nowadays are open to talks and they want to understand and
learn about the society and the truth of the world around us.

Children tend to know about terrorism from the news channels on television and the talks of adults
around them. So it is important that children of today be informed and the blissful ignorance about
terrorism be removed from their minds.

In these two novels concerning terrorism, Anand does not glorify the scenic beauty of the Kashmir
valley but she dwells into the everyday life of people residing in the valley to bring out their fear and
insecurities. She goes on to portray the atmosphere of violence in the valley and the impact of it on
the 77 mindset of youth. Set up in the land of beauty and conflict, these narratives make us realize
about how the world around us is. Thus children‟s literature in not confined to the boundaries of
fantasy and fairy tales but can be studied independently to analyze the various socio political issues
prevalent in the society and the effect of it on the lives of children.

This narrative can be read as important social documents that provide us with an insight into the life
of Kashmiri people and their struggles.

1. The Forms of Victimization due to Terrorism and its Devastating Effects

2. Socio-economic Inequality- A Cause for Terrorism

3. Angst and Anxieties of Adolescence Exploited

4. Woman: For and Against Terrorism

5. The Plight of Kashmiri Parenthood

6. Notes of Optimism and Hope

The young boys in the narrative undergoes victimization due to terrorism in different ways. Aftab, a
young teenager bubbling with energy and adventure in No Guns at My Son’s Funeral is lured to
become a terrorist. He is indoctrinated with the ideas of martyrdom and sacrifice by the terrorist
Akram and thus falls prey to suicide bombing.

Umer in Weed, too becomes a victim of terrorism, as being the son of a terrorist, he facessocial
stigma and the neglect of the society which does not let him lead a dignified lifeor attain his basic
right to education. He undergoes victimization by the society as he is subjected to unfair judgments
of the society. He is neglected and despised by the society for no fault of his own.

In No Guns at My Son’s Funeral the terrorist Akram gains trust, establishes rapport and fulfills the
emotional needs of Aftab, in such a way that he cannot stand to listen a single word against Akram
from his mother‟s mouth. When disturbed Aftab, complains to Akram about the behavior of his
parents‟, Akram reveals his soft side and exchanges an emotional dialogue with Aftab to gain his
confidence. He eventually succeeds in shifting Aftab‟s moral viewpoint to gain a complete control
over him. Aftab is so much influenced by Akram that he uses the tactics taught by Akram to gain the
trust of his mother and fool her. Thus, the brainwashing by the terrorist leads the child to scoff at his
parents ideas of peace and security in the valley and consider anyone against the „cause‟ as his
enemy.

Umer in Weed, who loses his father due to terrorism, finds the event very traumatic and struggles
emotionally. He undergoes stress and is worried about his future after his father‟s departure. He is
forced to face the predicaments and adversities of life 81 independently, assuming the role of an
adult. Such children are subjected to many mental and emotional problems such as loss of meaning
in their construction of themselves, low self-esteem, indifference from the surrounding world,
alienation, withdrawal and sometimes violent behaviour. Due to his terrorist father, Umer is teased
by children at school and he retaliates with anger and strikes back by actually frightening, scaring and
physically assaulting those who reject him and his brother. Later he becomes distressed and a pinch
of gloom always surrounds him. He is wrapped up in grief and anguish and the agony of separation
from his father is tormenting. He mourns the loss of his father who previously was ever present to
take care of him and look after the financial matters which were now burdened on Umer. He suffers
on a psychological level after his father‟s departure and finds his life mundane and meaningless.

Also this psychological complexity and emotional tumult is experienced by Aftab in No Guns at My
Son’s Funeral. Due to his connections with the terrorists, Aftab loses the innocence of childhood and
remains in a world surrounded by worries and violence. He experiences an emotional breakdown
and the inner turmoil within him reaches its peak in the final scene. He is so much traumatized on
seeing the dead body of his heroic mentor Akram, that without any second thoughts, in a fit of rage
and emotions, he presses the button to explode the bomb in his bag killing hundreds of people in the
market place including himself.

This issue of socio-economic inequality being one of the root cause of terrorism is highlighted in both
the narratives. In No Guns at My Son’s Funeral, we find that the terrorist Feroze had taken to this
deadly path only at the age of nine. He along with the male members of his family had gone to the
other side of the border to earn more money by joining some terrorist group and had intended to
return back to normal life after earning enough to support their family. But little did these innocent
people realize that once this deadly path was chosen there could never be a family life nor a
returning back to normalcy.

the narrative also explore the emotional and psychological workings of teenage children.
Adolescence is a phase marked by number of crisis and dilemmas. The wavering and impressionable
mind of a child does not know to take right decisions and so is often surrounded by ambiguities.

Aftab in No Guns at My Son’s Funeral is all the time surrounded by confusion and is uncertain about
the role he‟s playing. There is a clash of ideologies in the mind of Aftab and he is unable to decide
the right from the wrong. He is unsure about the path he has chosen and is perplexed to the core
about taking away the 83 lives of innocent people. But his uncertainties are exploited by his mentor
Akram, who makes him believe that all the Kashmiri Pandits and the people on the other side were
their enemies who needed to be killed and driven out from the valley. Also, Aftab is perplexed about
his sister‟s relationship with a terrorist whom he worships as his ideal and hero and initially cannot
tolerate his sister being with a man whose life was so unstable and risky, but later his wavering mind
gladly approves their relationship. Once again we find the dilemmas of adolescence, as on one side
Aftab wants to live an exciting life of a terrorist but is taken aback at the thought of being separated
from his family. But here too, Akram is able to sway the mind of Aftab by painting a glorious picture
of thrilling and exciting life of training camps away from the monotony and boredom of day to day
activities. Adolescents are especially susceptible because of the life style changes they are going
through. They look for coherence and clarity and a clear-cut ideology is of great appeal to them. In
the narrative, too Aftab is highly intoxicated under Akram‟s spellthat he becomes firm in his
conviction that peace and freedom in the valley can be only achieved through violence and one has
to fight the tyranny of the armies to bring change.

He is clearly perplexed and unable to accept his mother‟s view point who wants him to see clearly
that firangi’s activities are not that of a freedom fighter or hero but are something that the society
dreads and finds deplorable.

Both the narratives also go on to portray the immense strength and strong roles played by the
women as against the perceived stereotypes, fighting for and against terrorism. The homely girl
Shazia in No Guns at My Son’s Funeral, whom the readers take to be quiet, innocent and plain turns
out to be more mature, scheming, cunning, bold and commanding than she appears to her family.
She is portrayed to be courageous and daring, playing an important role in the terrorist gang.
However her courage is misguided and she is actually victimized and emotionally fooled by the
terrorist Akram. Though women are considered to be the weaker sex they display strong
resoluteness and extra ordinary capabilities when exposed to adversities.

We get an insight of the fear in the mind of Aftab‟s mother in No Guns at My Son’s Funeral, who is
suspicious and anxious about his long disappearances and escapes from home. Also, his father deals
with him sternly to put a restraint on him. But this harsh treatment by his father leaves their relation
to become estranged.

Despite their grey shades with serious implications, both the narratives render a ray of hope. Though
No Guns at My Son’s Funeral is darker and ends with young teenage boys Aftab, Angad and many
others losing their lives to terrorism, but still there is an anticipation that time will heal the wounds
of hatred. Both Aftab‟s and Angad‟s mothers are engulfed in grief and sorrow which is the common
factor binding them. The pain of mothers who have lost their child due to whatsoever reasons is
universal. Also Anand in the Afterword portrays the realization of Shazia who now understands the
consequences of violence and hatred. After the episode of darkness, there is light as Shazia gives
birth to Akram‟s baby and firmly resolves that her child would stay away from the world of violence
and terrorism and would not follow his father‟s footsteps. A strong positive message is also
conveyed as Anand ends her narrative with a voice from an anonymous girl from Baramullah praying,
“Whatever else happens let there be peace.

Adults are anxious that these narratives badly influence the impressionable minds. They worry that
these intense stories may damage the delicate minds as they are unfit to handle grave subject
matters. They bemoan that these dark issues dealing violence may provoke unacceptable copycat
behavior in children and spoil their habits as they will tend to become what they read.

These narratives with dark themes not just provide the readers with the experiences of anguish,
melancholy and loss but on the contrary prepare the children to face the traumatic events boldly. It
renders hope and optimism to face life troubles triumphantly. In fact the serious themes about 88
Addressing Violence: Country Case studies and Cross-Cutting Topics terrorism addressed in children‟s
literature, brings focus on these grave issues prevalent in our society.
These narratives serve to be an eye opener as they portray the harsh realities of many young
Kashmiri youths who suffer the devastating effects of terrorism.

The dilemmas and anxieties of youth, the influence of media on youth, the false romantic notions
regarding the „exciting‟ terrorists‟ life, the luring of children towards terrorism, the psychological
conflicts and emotional turmoil experienced by children to differentiate between the right and
wrong, the agony of parents of these young and vulnerable boys, the stigmatization of a terrorist‟s
son are the crucial issues concerning young boys which surface in these narratives. Further, the
various perspectives and treatment of the society in dealing with terrorism is laid out through the
means of these narratives. The societal pressures and problems that a terrorist‟s wife has to
undergo, the workings of the army and their limitations, the role of social organizations such as
Human Rights and the NGOs, the attitude of media towards terrorism are the different social issues
which are embodied in these narratives. Thus, the study of these fictional narratives explore
terrorism in and bring to surface the emotional and sensitive workings of the child psyche along with
the attitude and treatment of society in dealing with terrorism.

In this chapter, I shall, therefore, focus on a few striking and culturally significant aspects of
contemporary YA fiction which indicate a broader change in our understanding of human identity, in
the context of rapid technological and scientific development and increased globalization.

YA fiction as a genre was once dismissed as it was thought to be ephemeral but now it has become as
much a culturally significant phenomenon since it indulges in the questions about the meaning of
being a human in contemporary times.

Defining Children’s Literature

Nodelman observes certain shared characteristics in these texts, such as children and young adults
being the implied readers, the texts having an inherent doubleness, the focalization being childlike,
innocence versus knowledge, colonialist ideologies, inherent conservatism, questions of desire and
knowledge, the safety of home, rootedness in fables and fairy tales, and so on.

In the second chapter “Exploring Assumptions,” Nodelman narrows down three qualities of children’s
literature: thinking about children’s literature is an act performed by adult readers, the very existence
of the genre implies a level of censorship, and it has a dual audience (of children who cannot see it as
a distinct genre and of adults who can distinguish children’s literature from adult literature).

LITTLE PRINCE by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon is a murder mystery novel, which
falls under the umbrella of detective fiction and coming-of-age novel. unlike classic detective fiction,
Christopher is extremely involved in the mystery. In fact, it leads him into unravelling the mystery of
his own life. Christopher Boone is devoid of emotional bias. He deduces human behaviour based on
facts rather than emotions.

When words fail, images win.

A detective should not be prone to emotional distractions otherwise they would be led astray from
their mission to solve the crime. Classic detectives like Holmes, Hercule Poirot, and Miss Marple
never had anything in their lives like a marriage or serious affair that would emotionally distract
them. According to Schmid these detectives have a certain idiosyncratic individualism, which is really
close to living in isolation. They view this isolation as something that is required to do their job
effectively. Now, Christopher is someone who does not exhibit any serious emotions and lacks the
means to express empathy and sympathy. But he is volatile when it comes to social interactions. This
proves harmful for him as a detective.

. Everyone around him, including his father, dissuades him from probing further but he still carries
on. And then we discover that his father had an ulterior motive for discouraging him as he is the one
who has killed the dog out of anger towards Mrs Shears. From this point on, the story changes from
being a typical murder mystery to one of suspense, in terms of Christopher’s journey and growth as
an individual and his place in society. Interestingly, no one seems to care about finding the murderer
more than Christopher.

Most mystery, thriller and crime novels reveal this crucial aspect later on and keep dropping clues all
along the way, like breadcrumbs, to keep the audience hooked. Instead of keeping the suspense
alive, this novel deals with emotional pitfalls of the revelations for Christopher and his mental
journey when it comes to his relationship with his parents.

For Armisead, crossover fiction is “books that appeal to both adults and children”.

“crossover fiction blurs the borderline between two traditionally separate readerships - children and
adults.”

This novel incorporates some major traits found in crossover fiction - such as blending of genres,
interesting storytelling, innovative illustrations and a coming-of-age character.

Children’s literature is usually based on fantasy but this novel shows how realism can also be a
successful genre when it comes to children’s literature.

There is “a great sense of defamiliarization” when one encounters the 25 protagonist because of his
disability. It is unlikely one can find a protagonist like him in conventional fiction. Haddon also
employs some metafictional devices which make his work a prime example of crossover fiction.
Christopher declares that he is writing a murder mystery novel in the second chapter itself. This
makes the readers aware of the metafictional framework of the novel (of a story within a story).

As a first-person narrator, Christopher is on a journey of discovery, both about himself and the world
he resides in. By establishing the differential and unexpected aspect of the narrator Haddon forces
the readers, be it children, young adults or adults to perceive the novel’s world through Christopher’s
perspective only.

ROSEMARIE GARLAND-THOMSON: The analysis of disability looks at how people have labeled and
treated differences in the way female bodies look or function.

It questions the idea that not fitting the "norm" is automatically bad and shows that both women
and people with disabilities have been unfairly given certain labels. Essentially, it prompts a closer
look at how gender and disability connect, uncovering historical practices that have treated both
groups poorly, often degrading or treating them as exotic.

By studying disability, we learn more about how society has treated women and people with
disabilities, challenging unfair assumptions and historical mistreatment. It helps us see the
connections between gender and disability more clearly.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (2003) is Haddon’s first adult mystery novel. It
received significant critical acclaim and popularity among the public. The peculiar title of the novel is
borrowed from “Silver Blaze,” a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring the famous detective
Sherlock Holmes. The novel is told from the point of view of a fifteen-year-old autistic boy named
Christopher John Francis Boone. By writing a story from the perspective of an autistic boy, Haddon
has successfully created a unique narrative voice. His depiction of the autistic child’s struggle with
day-to-day existence, his thought processes, and his peculiar problems provides a fresh perspective
on disability and the way it is depicted in mainstream literature.

Christopher Boone, its protagonist and narrator is a fifteen-year-old boy with autism (previously
known as Asperger’s syndrome), who exhibits behaviour that seems peculiar to people around him,
because of his “emotionally dissociated mind.” Though Asperger’s syndrome is not mentioned
directly in the novel, there are frequent references to the fact that Christopher goes to a special
school, has meetings with counsellors, and his parents treat him accordingly. Christopher himself
explains his different mode of perceiving and relating to the world around him.

For instance, in his mind, Christopher has neatly categorised his days into “Super Good Days” and
“Black Days,” based on the number of red and yellow cars he sees on the street on that particular
day. He does not like to be touched or embraced by anyone, including his parents. When there are
too many people talking around him, or he goes to an unknown place, he is unable to process the
humongous amount of information and starts to scream.

Interestingly, though he is a mathematical genius he cannot read people. His social intelligence is
negligible and most people don’t know how to behave around him, other than a teacher called
Siobhan. Christopher likes order to things; even the tiniest details in his daily routine are noted down
in his diary. Anything that disrupts his routine bothers him. He is extremely logical and has an
aversion towards conceits and metaphors as the meaning is often implied and/or different from what
is ‘literally’ said.

When Wellington is killed, he decides to become a detective to figure out the culprit and is writing
this book towards that end. He is a fan of detective fiction and it is the only kind of fiction he likes,
maybe because it is mostly ordered, logical, rational and structured like a puzzle. In his endeavour, he
uncovers secrets about his family and neighbours that he never knew before. Christopher is a victim
of deceit and betrayal and the emotional turmoil of the adults in his life ultimately affects him.

He reveals his love for detective fiction by frequently talking about Sherlock Holmes; talking at length
about the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles and the red herrings Holmes encounters there: “I like
Sherlock Holmes and I think that if I were a proper detective he is the kind of detective I would be” (p
75). Like Holmes, he also does not believe in the supernatural but he is not as good at deductions
based on observing people’s behaviour or reactions.

He explained about the unconventional manner of numbering in chapter 19, the numbering of
chapters using a sequence of prime numbers, reflects his love for mathematics.

The novel opens in the town of Swindon in England, with Christopher discovering the body of
Wellington, his neighbour, Mrs Shear’s dog.
Christopher likes dogs as they are honest creatures, unlike human beings who lie whenever it suits
them.

He doesn’t like people shouting at him so he keeps his hands on his ears to close them and rolls into
a ball-like position.

He is not fond of any other genre of fiction as it is not based on reality or facts. Detective fiction is
particularly appealing to him because it is based on solving something, just like puzzles.

He also tells us that his favourite detective story is The Hound of the Baskervilles.

He declares that this book will not be funny and how jokes are beyond his understanding because 4
they use elaborate metaphors. Christopher feels overwhelmed by words that have multiple
meanings and cannot decipher them.

On his way to the station, Christopher starts star gazing and explains that the Milky Way is a disc-
shaped galaxy, with the solar system at its edge. He further says that although the universe is
expanding, it will ultimately collapse back and death is certain. Science and its factual accuracies are
comforting for Christopher.

In Christopher’s words: “Chapters in books are usually given the cardinal numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and
so on. But I have decided to give my chapters prime numbers 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13 and so on because I
like prime numbers” (p. 15).

Christopher is a genius when it comes to mathematics as it is governed by logic and reason, which he
is comfortable with. He likes prime numbers for another reason as well. They are extremely logical
but don’t follow a pattern, very much like life itself.

Christopher finds people very confusing, mainly because they communicate without using words. He
finds it nearly impossible to decode non-verbal communication, especially facial expressions.
Another reason he gets confused by people is because they use metaphors in their conversation. For
him, figurative language is untruthful and he gets perturbed when he hears it. His points out that his
own name is a metaphor that means “carrying Christ” (St Christopher had carried Christ across a
river).

Christopher then talks about his inability to lie or distort the truth. His mother used to think it was
because he was a good person but the truth is that he can’t lie. He affirms that his novel is based on
true events.

Christopher has devised a system through which the cars he sees on the road predict what kind of
day he will have. If he spots four red cars one after the other, it is a “Good Day.” If there are four
yellow cars in a row it is a “Black Day,” where he doesn’t speak with anyone.

Christopher then describes all kinds of heart attacks that could have killed his thirty-eight-year-old
mother.

Christopher recalls seemingly irrelevant things like the logo on Mrs Shear’s t-shirt and the total points
he made in a game of Scrabble with her but doesn’t dwell on the trauma of his mother’s death.

In this chapter, Christopher dissects the arbitrariness of instructions. When someone asks us not to
do something, like saying “Be Quiet,” what are the specificities about this rule? Christopher wonders
how long one should remain quiet after being told to be quiet. Siobhan is the only person who
understands this problem and always gives him precise instructions. He applies this arbitrariness to
his father’s instruction to “Stay out of other people’s business”
According to him, death means that a person is now a part of the earth, as happened when his pet
rabbit had died. As his mother is cremated, he imagines her ashes floating all over the world, in the
form of “molecules of Mother.”

Christopher wonders why certain people are described as “Special Needs,” when almost everyone
has special needs. He gives the example of his father, who needs artificial sweetener and his teacher
Siobhan, who needs special glasses to see. Christopher’s innocent comments, with their unintended
irony, force us to think in depth about the labels we apply to 7 people who are different from the
majority.

He knows it is a white lie but he also knows that his father doesn’t like him playing detective.

Christopher talks about his dream of becoming an astronaut. He is confident that he has the
necessary qualities a good astronaut should possess - intelligence, knowledge of machines, and love
of solitude. He dreams of being away from all human contact, with his pet rat Toby, surrounded by
outer space and how he would love it. Note that though Christopher struggles with many things, like
other adolescents, he nourishes dreams of going to space someday.

Mr Jeavons suggests that Christopher likes maths because it always has a “straightforward answer at
the end.” Christopher knows that it is not always so and talks about a popular statistical puzzle,
known as the Monty Hall Problem, which demonstrates that even though governed by logic, maths
can be very complicated and not always straightforward.

In this chapter, Christopher talks about how his mind functions like a DVD player, where he can
rewind, go fast forward or pause to look for information. His accuracy at remembering little details is
impressive. For instance, he can recall what his mother was doing on a particular day when he was
nine years old. Christopher knows that other people also have pictures of events in their heads but
the crucial difference is that he only has pictures of things that actually happened whereas other
people have pictures of imaginary scenarios.

Christopher dislikes brown and yellow colours and he lists out the reasons. He understands that not
liking certain colours seems silly but he does so regardless, because making decisions becomes
simpler.

We learn that although Christopher likes Sherlock Holmes, he does not like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
the author, as he believed in the supernatural. For Christopher, believing in the supernatural is
“stupid.”

Timetables keep Christopher calm as he feels like he has control over time. Referencing theoretical
physics, Christopher draws our attention to the fact that time is nothing but “the relationship
between the way different things change” and it is not fixed. Timetables give him a sense of security
and certainty.

Christopher talks about the theory of evolution and reasons that everyone who believes that God
created them and put them on earth is stupid. He believes that evolution is a continuous process and
that, in the future, the human race will eventually be destroyed by a species, superior in intelligence.

While sleeping, Christopher sees a dream where every person with a ‘normal’ mind is dead, infected
by a virtual virus, while people like him who are labelled special are the only ones to survive. This is
his version of utopia where he is not bothered by people, their questions or their unwarranted touch
and he can do all those things he wants to – like driving a car or simply standing at the edge of the
sea. He feels happy.
Haddon uses typographical variation – a variety of typefaces, graphs, logos, and drawings to not just
describe but also illustrate how Christopher’s mind works. It is a realistic novel but Haddon doesn’t
limit himself to traditional mimesis. Language alone cannot adequately convey the meanings of
Christopher’s world and Haddon uses visual elements to familiarize us with it. For example, when
Christopher is frightened and sitting at the train station on his way from Swindon to London, Haddon
uses different typefaces to show us what Christopher is looking at:

When he starts to get more anxious this image gives concrete form to his anxiety:

The way his mind processes and observes is starkly different from what our society dictates as
‘normal.’ The way adults around him respond to him showcases the level of invisibilisation that has
taken place when it comes to people like Christopher.

So, when he writes about how he likes time-tables he includes one in the text. By looking at his
elaborate timetable, we can figure out his need to have a fixed routine with exact timings. For him, it
is very easy to lose oneself in time and timetables make sure that you are not lost in the mystery of
time.

e he seemingly digresses, Christopher uses images to give shape to what he sees - things such as an
alien robot, the 16 shape of a cloud, the dinosaur shaped constellation, and the seats of the tube
train.
The exploitation of letter writing and chapter labeling as well as the introduction of footnotes,
pictorial devices, and scientific and academic discourses in TCI are some of those semiotic resources
which visually contribute to the narrative and to character development in unique and vital ways.

the arrangement of Mrs. Boone’s letters as presented to readers requires readers’ attention because
the expected convention, that of chronological order, is broken. Once they find out that the order of
the presentation of the letters corresponds to the particular order in which Christopher finds them
and reads them, it seems the most adequate move considering his obsessive need for accuracy in
recounting events. His criterion is quickly naturalized, and readers engage in his game as if they were
reading pieces of a puzzle they must put together to make sense of what happened in the story,
while they are at the same time reminded of the book being an artifact (McHale, 1987: 190-3) as
they have to go back and forth through the letters. Their dates and the two different addresses
provided in them work as hints to solve a puzzle, as clues that help readers navigate them.

Because of his obsession with truthfulness, Christopher also exercises his power as a narrator in the
delay of the revelation of the content of the letters. He hides the letters after reading (and presenting
readers with) the first one in order not to be discovered by his father, and readers have to wait for
him (and performatively “with him”) to present them with the other letters only after he recounts
what activities he does during the days he has to wait before he has the chance to read them. What
is more, suspense is enhanced by Semiotic Resources in The Curious Incident 103 placing a chapter
on mysteries and mathematical explanations between the inclusion of the first letter and the
presentation of the others.

In fact, the letters are an attempt to explain to him why she could not cope with living with a child
with Asperger’s, and to ask for his forgiveness. The letters also reveal she is unaware of the fact that
Christopher’s father has lied to him about her death. When the other four letters are finally
disclosed, they are presented one after the other, and he does not react until the end of the fifth
one, when he finally gets sick at the truth not of his mother being alive, which does not seem to
affect him, but of his father having lied to him about it. Then his father also admits to having killed
the neighbor’s dog, and thus Christopher decides to run away to live with his mum not because he
misses her but because he is afraid of the fact that his father can lie again and kill him as he has killed
the dog. It is the exploitation of the letters as a graphic device, in their performative fashion, which
contributes to readers’ understanding of his obsession with truthfulness and his reaction after
finding out he has been lied to.

Prime numbers is what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are
like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time
thinking about them. (14)

His concern with sharing them with readers together with their subject matter and the reason why
he draws them in the first place reveal the fact that he is just a boy: his drawings include cars drawn
on a hand-made card for his mom (35), an alien he had painted in his art class (95), or a bus “in
perspective” he had drawn in his mother’s house in order not to think about the stressful situation
he was going through (256). His simple drawings would probably be easily associated with a younger
boy even, one who has not entered puberty yet, and not with a fifteen-year-old like Christopher. His
pictures, then, operate as character developing strategies which contribute to readers’
understanding of the narrator as a complex protagonist. Although he is capable of solving complex
math equations and devising statistical graphs, he is also interested in showing readers the basic
pictures of cars, buses, or aliens he draws. He might resemble an adult in some of his abilities, but he
can also think and conceive the world as a child in many ways. The striking combination of
seriousness and naivety he presents helps shape him as a unique character, and the vast array of
nonverbal resources the novel portrays contributes to character-building in ways that verbal
resources would probably not be able to.

From this perspective, the smileys he introduces constitute a particularly interesting pictorial
resource to analyze. In Chapter 3, he introduces the simplified pictorial representation of faces
expressing a number of feelings which Siobhan, his teacher, has shown him.

he tells readers that one of his favorite dreams consists of dreaming that the only people surviving
on Earth are those who do not understand “these pictures,” introducing this time the four faces he
had not been able to comprehend when his teacher had shown them to him.

. Likewise, graphic devices in TCI as a whole contribute to give tangibility to Christopher’s mental
structure and vision of the world.

The import from academic discourses of the footnote convention in its verbal/navigational mode,
with the resulting exploitation of its narrative potential, for instance, is an example in question
analyzed above. Indeed, the novel presents readers with innumerable instances where academic and
scientific discourses are often woven into the novel in a multimodal way: not only verbally but also
by means of other modes, namely through diagrammatic, notational and numerical, spatial, and
visual metadiscursive/navigational resources. Christopher resorts to maps and plans, concept maps,3
scientific diagrams, and the visual display of certain mathematical calculations. Christopher also
introduces instances of number sequences, calculations, and mathematical notations applied in
equations and formulas. Moreover, enumerations and lists also permeate the novel, exploiting page
layout and navigation while challenging expected generic conventions. Combined, such resources
contribute to the unique graphic surface the novel presents while they account for the ease with
which the protagonist switches from one mode to the other. As meaning-making modes in their own
right, they make the narrative unfold in unique ways, and also help shape the character in his
peculiar frame of mind. As Hallet asserts, they “constitute visual or graphic representations of the
narrator’s mental models or cognitive perceptions”.

Christopher’s diagrammatic resources are sometimes external, for instance when he reproduces a
zoo map (110), or a page from a London atlas (231). Some other times, instead, he draws inspiration
from his own mind, or, more accurately, he reproduces on paper “the pictures he makes in his head”
(162, 163, 235), like the two concept maps where he considers all the options he can choose from
when escaping from his father (163). In fact it is the same concept map appearing twice, once with
all possible choices, and the other one with all the choices crossed out but one. The map features a
box reading “Now” in the center, with arrows aiming at similar boxes around it with the different
options inscribed: “Living with Mrs. Shears,” “Going Home,” “Staying in the Garden,” “Going to Live
with Uncle Terry,” and “Going to Live with Mother.” The selected option is going with his mother,
which is what he finally decides to do. By means of this graphic device, thus, he highlights both his
need to visualize his thinking and to reproduce it in his story. The fact that he also makes use of a
concept map when explaining the Monty Hall problem (81), a complex logic puzzle, highlights the
fact that this kind of diagrammatic resource is useful for him to refer to options and choices, as the
two instances where they appear show.

The way he introduces the map of England from his classroom as he remembers it (205) is another
especially interesting case. When he tells readers about his experience on the train on his way to
London, he says he tried to figure out how far he was from his destination by recalling the map of
England on his classroom wall, and then he introduces a sketch of the English map with the Southern
tip pointing to the left and the Northern heading to the right.

His tendency to show rather than tell is also present in the visual display of certain mathematical
calculations or problems. By means of simple tables, he demonstrates how to work out prime
numbers (14) and how to solve a math puzzle called Conway’s soldiers’ problem (181). In the first
example, the table contains all the positive numbers of the world and one has to take away all the
numbers which are a multiple of two, then those which are a multiple of three, and so on until the
only numbers left are prime numbers.

However, the reason why Christopher likes Math is not its straightforwardness, and he explicitly does
away with this assumption, which many people, like Mr. Jeavons, the psychologist at school, might
tend to infer from his behavior:

Mr. Jeavons said that I liked maths because it was safe. He said I liked maths because it meant solving
problems, and these problems were difficult and interesting but there was always a straightforward
answer at the end. And what he meant was that maths wasn't like life because in life there are no
straightforward answers at the end… This is because Mr. Jeavons doesn't understand numbers. (78)

Both the Monty Hall problem and his statistical explanation for the fluctuation of the frogs
population in the school pond aim at pointing out that numbers are more complicated than readers
might think, and that they might not provide a straightforward answer:

[S]ometimes things are so complicated that it is impossible to predict what they are going to do next,
but they are only obeying really simple rules. And it means that sometimes a whole population of
frogs, or worms, or people, can die for no reason whatsoever, just because that is the way the
numbers work.

Just like the way in which he cannot predict what the frogs in the pond will do next, he is not able to
anticipate how people might react in social interaction. To be immersed in society, to have to interact
with people, and to actually and effectively understand them in their emotional dimension is
something Christopher finds extremely difficult. Thus, this interest in Math accounts for his need to
grasp complexity, and highlights the fact that for him, Math and reality—“real life” as Mr. Jeavons
would put it—are not so different after all. In fact, Math as a motif in the story could be viewed as a
metaphor for everyday life in Christopher’s world: reality “obeying simple rules,” yet impossible to be
figured out.

And I was going to write out how I answered the question except Siobhan said it wasn't very
interesting, but I said it was. And she said people wouldn't want to read the answers to a maths
question in a book, and she said I could put the answer in an Appendix, which is an extra chapter at
the end of a book which people can read if they want to. (260)