Faces, People, and Emotion

Page thirty-six begins Christopher’s investigation, and is the point in the novel where Christopher has the most interaction with the people around, at least as far as talking to them is concerned. He speaks with four of his neighbors, and tellingly, never describes their faces. We learn early on that Christopher has trouble deciphering facial expressions, and as a result, we are left to guess at their reaction to Christopher’s questioning based solely on their dialogue. The nuance that accompanies facial expression is lost on him. In fact, emotion is something that does not often appear in the novel, unless they are Christopher’s emotions. Page forty-nine gives us an example of how Christopher notices the emotional state of others. He says “I could see that Father was angry with me.” The words he uses are important, but all the words he does not use are more so. He does not describe the mouth we can imagine was twisted with anger. He doesn’t describe the tone of voice, or the furrowed brow. His description of the dialogue is similarly lifeless.