Mark Haddon’s 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time': Coping With Loss and Control

Christopher has major conflictions with his father throughout the novel. He was lead to believe that his mother was dead, when in reality; his father had been keeping a major secret and had been lying to his son the entire novel about his mother’s wellbeing. Christopher’s mother had been writing him letters a couple times every week for a couple of years. Conversely, Christopher’s father had been hiding the letters after he told his son that his mother had died from a heart attack. His mother had actually just been having an affair with a neighbor, and his father couldn’t figure out a way to explain that to Christopher. “Mother had not had a heart attack. Mother had not died. Mother had been alive all the time. And father had lied about this”(112). While his father may have had good intentions by lying to Christopher, to him it seems as if his father had been keeping secrets from his because he believed he was incapable of understanding them. Christopher’s father has lost his son’s trust, and Christopher felt betrayed. He couldn’t believe that his own father, his parent who had been nurturing him ever since his mother had been gone was capable of lying to his face about something that big. In addition, another external conflict was between Wellington and whoever killed him. The story began with the dog’s murder, and after a sequence of events it was

“A Curious Incident" by Haddon, is a novel about a boy named Christopher. This boy has autism, and because of this, he thinks very differently than other people. This story gives Christopher a goal to solve the mystery of how Wellington the dog died. His father soon revealed that he killed the dog, which surprised him Haddon uses diction and details to craft Christopher's reactions by showing his immediate distrust of his father and becoming scared of him. This was first shown from how Christopher reacted when he knew his dad wasn't joking. His dad started to explain that he killed Wellington and that everyone makes mistakes. Then he “held up his right hand and spread his finger out in a fan. But I screamed and pushed him back so that he fell

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon is a novel introduced by Christopher Boone, the protagonist who changes from the beginning to the end of the novel. In the beginning of novel, Christopher’s emotions are not developed which indicates how he is not matured. Christopher is dependent on other people several times which shows that Christopher is an immature character. However, later on in the novel Christopher becomes more mature as he responds more emotionally to events. In addition, Christopher develops into a more mature character as he becomes independent. Christopher Boone develops from an immature character to a mature character.

In the The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the main character, Christopher Boone, struggles with a multitude of challenges relating to his dysfunctional family matters, while also enduring Asperger Syndrome. It is evident, however, that the author, Mark Haddon did not intend for the novel's central purpose to be about exploring Christopher’s condition. Throughout the novel, Christopher’s condition helps forward the plot in an interesting manner as it motivates him to make decisions that a character without Asperger Syndrome would not usually make. For example, when Christopher finds out that his father murdered Wellington, he decides that his father might murder him too and that he needs “to go to London to live with [his] Mother”

The curious incident of a dog in the night time is an adult novel which tells the story of a fifteen-year-old boy called Christopher Boone, who discovers that his neighbour’s dog is dead. He did some detective work to solve the mystery of who killed the dog, as he was a fan of Sherlock homes stories, as the story unfolds he finds out a lot more than he thought, regarding himself and parts of the world he did not know existed. Mark Haddon gained influence from Jane Austen who wrote about dull lives of individuals with empathy that seemed somewhat intriguing, he mentions that he was trying to do this exactly with the novel the curious incident of the dog. By taking a life which seemed unpleasantly guarded, and to write about it in a book, where the male protagonist would read a mystery murder and show that if you looked at life with enough imagination it would seem endless (Haddon,

This essay will be an analytical essay where the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon will be analyzed and interpreted. The focus will be on the language of the novel and the themes and messages.

The Curious incident of the dog in the night-time is a great novel, that gives a special perception of how an autistic boys views and interprets the world. By critical analyzing the story's theme, symbols, motifs, characters, and conflicts it gives a much more prevalent idea of the logical thinking and ideas of Christopher and his family. Also while reading the novel through a psychoanalytic theory, Christopher follows what seems to be the most logical actions to please his needs.

In the novel, The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, Mark Haddon uses a range of techniques such as short sentences, dialogue and repetition, that contribute to the making of a characters readers can relate and sympathise with. All these characters are struggling with the loss of loved ones, which most readers will have experienced in their life. This therefore leads to a strong connection between the reader and the characters, making it easy to sympathise with the struggles that the characters are

In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon uses Christopher’s unique voice to show the importance of human connection and communication within our world. In doing so, Haddon is able to communicate the importance of order and stability in Christopher’s life. This creates a unique perspective of an aspergus sufferer, enabling an exploration of the difficulties inherent in raising an autistic child and thus alters the perceptions of the reader concerning the complex connection between disability and dependence.

experiences a realization about life when there is an incident with a dog. The narrator then expresses his

Christopher lives with his father as his mother had died two years ago. It was midnight, and Christopher was in his house. He looked out the window, and noticed the dog named Wellington seemed to be lying down on the ground. So he decided to go out and check on his neighbor Mrs. Spears’s dog, after all he liked dogs. But when he got to the dog, he could see a garden fork sticking out of the dog.

Unlike Ed, her “hot tempered” nature and her inability to empathise with her son, has meant that she is unable to adapt to the demands of Christopher’s social barriers. This is evident in a letter in chapter 157 where she states “ Maybe if things had been differant, maybe if you'd been differant i might have been better at it. But thats just the way things turned out”. The repetition of ‘maybe’ demonstrates the initial complexity of human communication which in Christophers case, was further complicated by his social demands. Through Mark Haddon’s incorporation of a letter in this chapter, the difficulties in human communication is shown as his mother has resorted to indirect communication in explaining her reasoning for his abandonment. Although Judy lovingly and diligently cares for Christopher she struggles with the frustration she feels as a result of not always being able to understand her son’s behaviour. This ideology is further reiterated through the comparison in the letter between Ed and Judy seen in “Your father is a much more pacient person. He just gets on with things.. But that’s not the way i am…” Haddon’s characterisation of Christopher’s parents presents to the responder the conflicting side of love, the multi-faceted and complicated nature of human interaction, and the opposing approaches of both parents in communicating and dealing with Christopher’s condition, as part of their

In Stephen Crane’s short story of “A Dark Brown Dog”, he writes about a young boy who finds, neglects, and befriends a ragged puppy, with a rope dragging the ground, when they meet. The boy takes fun in abusing the puppy, but when he tires of this he makes his way home. The puppy, even though the boy was not nice, starts to follows the boy home. When arriving home the boy defends the puppy to claiming him as his own. The boy’s father agrees to allow the boy to keep the puppy. The boy and the puppy grow very fond of each other. The puppy was abused but always showing his love even after his abuse. Then the story takes a very sad, gruesome turn for the young dog.

Every individual faces obstacles that are necessary to overcome, whether it be for equity, justice or honesty. Throughout The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, the main character, Christopher tells his story as a socially awkward teenage boy who has a supposedly deceased mother and lives with his father. Being an adolescent, Christopher faces obstacles throughout the novel that he has to overcome in order to grow. The only thing is, Christopher is not like everyone else. While discovering the truth and embarking on certain adventures, Christopher is in search of a form of justice that he truly deserves.

In the text "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time", Christopher Boone suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism (QUOTE). This means he can be sometimes a handful for his parents. It is because of his condition that his mother leaves and his relationship with his father breaks down. But its not just Christopher's fault his parents are having a hard time. They them selves make some bad decisions that lead to each of them feeling frustrated and even forcing themselves to do some morally bad things (QUOTE). It is these things that Christopher parents do that we, the readers, cannot accept, despite Christopher's