Christopher versus his father
with his father. The conflict between them can be seen from the conversation between Christopher and his father below.
then he said,” Christopher you have to stay out of trouble, OK?” I said, “I didn’t know I was going to get into trouble. I liked Wellington
and I went to say hello to him, but I didn’t that some one had killed him.” Father said” just try and keep your nose out of other people business.” I
thought for little and said,” I am going to find out who killed Wellington.” And father said were you listening to what I was saying Christopher?”
I said,” yes, I was listening to what you were saying but, when some one gets murdered you have to find out who did it so that they can be
punished.” It’s a bloody dog, Christopher, a bloody dog”
I replied,” I think dog are important too” He said, “Leave it”
and I said,” I wonder if the police will find out who killed him and punish the person.”
then father banged the steering wheel with his fist and the car weaved a little bit across the dotted line in the middle of the road and he shouted,” I
said leave it, for god’s sake” I could tell that he was angry because he was shouting so I didn’t say
anything else until we got home. 20-21
Knowing that his father is angry, Christopher decides not to say anything until they get home. It can be seen that what Christopher does is to avoid a worse
situation between him and his father. So, it can be concluded, avoidance is the conflict resolution that Christopher chooses in this conflict. He knows if he keeps
continuing the debate between him and his father, the situation will be worse. Therefore, he does not say anything to reduce the tension between them.
The conflict between Christopher and his father continues. Christopher decides to continue his investigation about the murder of the dog. His father
knows that Christopher keeps investigating in Mrs. Shears’s garden and it makes his father angry because he has warned him to stay out of other people’s business.
Moreover, Christopher says that he suspects Mr. Shears as a person who kills Wellington. This statement makes his father angrier.
Byrna Siegel states that an autistic child has lack of social and emotional reciprocity. It can be seen when a child is uninterested in doing things to please
his parents or others. He is uninterested in learning a new thing to earn attention or approval of other people, an autistic child tends to has low desire to please
other people and low response to social praise. 91. Christopher who is autistic also has this characteristic. It can be seen when he
ignores his father’s message to stay away from other people business. Christopher’s decision to keep investigating the murder of the dog shows that he
has lack of social and emotional reciprocity. He seems not interested in earning approval from his father. Based on this case, it can be interpreted that
Christopher’s lack of social and emotional reciprocity plays a role in the conflict between Christopher and his father.
Father banged the table with his fist really hard so that the plate and his knife and his fork jumped around and my ham jump side ways so that it
touched the broccoli, so I could not the ham or the broccoli anymore. Then he shouted “I will not have that man’s name mentioned in my house
I asked,” why not?” And he said that man is evil
and I said,” Does that man might have killed Wellington?” Father put his head in his hands and said,” Jesus wept.”49
His father gets angrier because he knows that Mr. Shears has a love affair with Christopher’s mother. Christopher’s mother leaves Christopher and his
husband. She goes to London and lives with Mr. Shears. Therefore, this fact makes his father angrier when Christopher mentions Mr. Shears’s name in front of
him. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
I could see that father was angry with me, so I said,” I know you told me not to get involved in other people business but Mrs. Shears is our friend.”
and father said,” well, she’s not a friend anymore.” and I asked,” why not”
And father said,” OK Christopher. I’m going to say this for the last time. I will not tell you again. Look at me when I’m talking to you. You are not to
go asking Mrs. Shears about who killed that bloody dog 50.
Christopher tries to reduce the tension between him and his father by opening a discussion about Mrs. Shears. He says that Mrs. Shears is their friend but his
father says that she is not a friend anymore. He warns Christopher once again not to investigate the murder of the dog. Then, his father asks Christopher to make a
promise to stop his investigation about the murder of the dog. Father said,” I’m going to make you promise and you know what it means
when I make you promise.” Father said promise me you will stop doing these things. Promise that you
will give up the ridiculous game right now, OK?” I said, “I promise” 50
Christopher finally promises that he will stop the investigation. It also ends the conflict between him and his father at that time. It can be concluded that
Christopher and his father apply informal problem-solving discussion as the conflict resolution in order to solve the conflict that they face.
According to Moore, informal problem-solving discussion is applied when avoidance is no longer possible and the pressure of the conflict grows stronger
that the parties cannot let the disagreement continue, they usually apply the informal problem-solving discussion to resolve their differences. The result of
these discussions are either the conflicts are resolved more or less to the satisfaction of the people involved or the conflicts are dropped because they are
unable and do not have the capacity to make the resolution for it Moore 24. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
This conflict resolution is applied by Christopher and his father because Christopher agrees with his father to promise that he will not do the detective
work again. It means that both of them are successful in making an agreement to end the conflict between them for a while by discussing their conflict.
The conflict between Christopher and his father still continues since Christopher promises to stop his investigation of the murder of the dog. To his
surprise his father finds Christopher’s diary. …
then father repeated the question,” what else did I say, Christopher?” I said, “I do not know”
and he said,” come on you are the fucking memory man.” But I couldn’t think.
And father said not to go around sticking into other people business. 82
The diary tells Christopher’s father that Christopher keeps continuing his investigation after he promises to stop the investigation. This fact makes his father
angrier with him. Christopher tries to explain to his father, but his father can not tolerate Christopher’s explanation. It is because he has warned Christopher
several times. However, Christopher still breaks his warning. But father interrupted me and grabbed hold of my arm really hard.
Father had never grabbed hold of me like that before. So I was very surprised when he grabbed me.
… I don’t like it when people grab me. And I don’t like being surprised
either. So I hit him, like I hit the policeman when he took hold of my arms and lifted me onto my feet. But, father didn’t let go, and he was shouting.
And I hit him again. And then I didn’t know what I was doing anymore 82-83
The situation is getting worse when the father grabs Christopher. Both of them can not control themselves. At the moment, Christopher decides to hit his father
because he does not like being touched. They are involved in a fighting and the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
result is Christopher looses his consciousness. According to Moore this conflict is solved by the violence approach. In this approach, the party who possesses more
power will be able to force the result of the resolution. It often happens that the means of forcing the decision is a physical coercion Moore 37- 38. And, in this
case Christopher’s father is the party who has more power. Another conflict between Christopher and his father happens because
Christopher finally knows that his mother is still alive. His father tells him that his mother has died because of heart attack. However, the fact is that his mother is
still alive. Incidentally, he reads several letters from his mother which are kept secretly by his father. His father also makes a confession that he has murdered
Mrs Shears’s dog. Christopher is really surprised when he knows this fact. His father tries to explain the reason why he tells lies to Christopher but Christopher
still can not accept any explanation from his father. Father said,” we all make mistake, Christopher. You, me, your mum, and
everyone sometimes they are really big mistake.” Then he held up his right hand and spread his fingers out in a fan
But I screamed and pushed him backward so that he fell off the bed and onto the floor.
He sat up and said, “Ok Christopher. I’m sorry. Let’s leave it for to night, Ok? I’m going to go downstairs and you get some sleep and we will talk in
the morning.” Then he said,” it’s going to be all right. Honestly. Trust me. ”122
Knowing that Christopher is really upset, the father chooses to leave Christopher. It can be said that what the father does is a conflict resolution which
is called avoidance. According to Moore, avoidance is applied because people like to keep inside their feeling in order to avoid conflicts. This happens because of the
lack of their motivation to face the potential conflict and its resolution. They tend PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
to see a relation based on the potential conflicts than the value of the relation itself. They often leave the situation totally when they see that it might cause
conflicts Moore 23-24. It is also applied by Christopher when he decides to leave his House. He
chooses to live with his mother because he is afraid of his father who has killed the dog.
I had to get out of the house father had murdered Wellington. That meant he could murder me, because I couldn’t trust him, even though he said,”
trust me,” because he had told a lie about a big thing. 122
Christopher finally leaves his father and goes to London to live with his mother. In this case, avoidance is the best conflict resolution that Christopher chooses, in
order to avoid another conflict which may happen between him his father