The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Analysis

In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon does not illustrate the life of an average teenage boy. He shows us Christopher Boone, a 15-year old boy who lies on the autistic spectrum. Christopher experiences many of the everyday activities most people his age do; he goes to school (where he relishes math), watches TV, and plays with his pet. However, his home life is fraught with conflict, causing readers to think Christopher may be better off without the frightening presence of his father, or the unreliability of his mother. Although Christopher may have the determination to live on his own, his unusual tendencies can be detrimental and outweigh the positives.

After all, Christopher’s father didn’t just kill dog, he killed Christopher’s friend: an entity he now values above his father because dogs don’t lie. Christopher encounters irony again when his father tries to bribe him for forgiveness with a dog, the very thing that he killed to lose Christopher’s trust. He only tolerates his father in his life again is because he sees the dog as his friend just like Wellington. Before the dog, Christopher wouldn’t talk to his father even going to extreme lengths to avoid facing him, “I had to go to Father’s house between 3:49 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., because I wasn’t allowed to be on my

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

This world is made up of so many secrets that each of us has. Sometimes we have some secrets that we don't share especially with our loved ones as we don't know how they will take it or if it will have an affect on them.Throughout the story, we are given hints to understand Christopher and his uniqueness. He knows all the countries of the world and their capitals, every prime number until seven-thousand, fifty-seven. He also hates the colors yellow and brown, that he won't even eat anything with those colors. He is described as being “unique” and very different from others.Christopher finds out some family secrets but what he finds out isn’t a secret because a secret isn’t a secret if it will affect someone else and a lie, isn’t a lie if no harm is being done.

“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 reader is able to observe how Christopher interprets others actions when people call him “Special” and autistic. “Sometimes the children from the school down the road see us in the street when we’re getting off the bus and they shout, “Special Needs! Special Needs!” But I don’t take any notice because I don’t listen to what other people say and only sticks and stones can break my bones and I have my Swiss Army knife if they hit me and if I kill them it will be self-defense and I won’t go to prison” (Haddon 44). Christopher does not care what other people call him and interpret it as annoying. He goes as far to say he is willing to kill them if they act aggressively showing Christopher’s actions based on other people’s actions. Additionally, Christopher’s interpretation of how people do things leads him to be surprised by what they do instead. Christopher having autism allows him to think uniquely and in ways other people might not understand. When Mrs. Shears told Christopher to put down the dog, “She bent down. I thought she was going to pick the dog up herself, but she didn’t. Perhaps she noticed how much blood there was and didn’t want to get dirty. Instead she started screaming again” (Haddon 4). Christopher thought that because Mrs.Shears bent down, she would pick up the dog. However, he thought wrong and screamed to Christopher’s surprise.Therefore, Christopher’s interpretation of others actions affects the overall narrative, as having autism allows him to see things differently than other

Christopher is very different to normal people as he has Asperger’s Syndrome, a mental illness which deprives him of his social abilities and emotional interpretation. Christopher changes from an innocent unknowing boy to one of newfound truths and knowledge. At the start of the book he is very shy and protective of himself, only talking to those that he trusts. The author writes “It takes me a long time to get used to people I do not know. For example, when there is a new member of staff at school I do not talk to them for weeks and weeks. I just watch until I know that they are safe”.

Attention Grabber: In the “Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” we see a young adult, Christopher, traveling through life and overcoming obstacles he never thought he could.

Christopher has Asperger's which is considered a disability, even with his disability Christopher manages to solves a murder, figures out that his supposedly dead mother is still alive and uncovered the lies his father told him, yet he still proves to be strong in the end and deals with it better than a average person would have. While going through all this, Christopher manages to study and pass his A level math exam. For a average person whose Christopher's age would have had a very hard time but Christopher stayed focused and had minimal breakdown. I believe Christopher did so well emotionally was due to his inability to experience emotion and his analytical way of solving problems. Christopher’s understanding of things from a different perspective caused me to rethink how i perceived many issues and scenarios.

Christopher’s father and mother, Ed and Judy Boone, are two main characters in “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time”. Although they despise each other, they share certain aspects and traits. One trait that they both have in common is that they both care and want to protect Christopher. Ed takes care of Christopher as much as he can. He prepares him food the way Christopher likes it.

Christopher was born with Asperger’s Syndrome, which limits his communication skills, interaction with others and his ability to read emotions that other characters portray. In addition to dealing with this, Christopher also struggles to come to terms that his mother “died of a heart attack and it wasn’t expected”. (P. 36) This dialogue between Christopher and his father

Christopher is a very special child because he hates being touched, even by his family and closest friends. To many people, this may look like he hates everyone, or isn't able to experience emotions, but I think different. I believe Christopher can experience very simple emotions, like hapiness, sadness, and fear. This is the reason Christopher can not experience love for human beings, because love is far too complex.

Shears wasn't any of these things. (56).” Haddon asserts his point here that it is not enough to acknowledge Christopher has autism. One must truly understand where Christopher is coming from and how he interprets the people around him. As Vincent states in an article about literary recovery, “Christopher's inability to comprehend emotional nuance conspires with his position as a child straining to make sense of the adult world to ensure that his explanations of other people's actions may be logical and believable, and are certainly true in the sense that Christopher believes them, but are never entirely accurate (107).” Since Christopher's father did not clearly outline what Christopher must not do, Christopher was able to manipulate what his father said to fit his own logic. Haddon further characterizes the father's inability to get through to his son when Christopher finds his mother's letters and realizes his father has been keeping his mother from him the entire time, making him think she was dead. Even after the father explains in detail why he hid the letters and killed the dog, Christopher's thought process is purely “I had to get out of the

I went to school every time he got into a fight. And you? What? You wrote him some… letters,” was the phrase that Christopher’s father said to the mother in a fight. (197). Though the novel does not explain why Christopher’s mother left, it is easy to conclude that she left because she fell in love with Mr. Shears. However, after analysing the events that occurred in the book, Christopher’s mother not only left his father but left Christopher because she was frustrated. Writing letters only skims the surface of true motherhood. No matter where Christopher’s mother is living, there is no reason for her to not see her son; unless she did not want to see him. It is a huge responsibility to take care of an autistic child, and under this pressure, Christopher’s mother bailed and left with Mr. Shears. As a result, the reader is dumbfounded and is in complete disbelief when thinking about someone abandoning their child. However, after reflecting, the reader is compelled to think about when they distanced themselves from someone because they were frustrated with them.

First, Christopher and his father were angry at each other and lost their temper. The novel says, “And they switched me back on again I was sitting on the carpet with my back against the wall and there was blood on my right hand and the side of my head was hurting… there was a scratch on his neck and a big rip in the sleeve...” (Haddon, 83). Christopher reveals that there was a brutal fight between his father and him while he was attempting to get his book back, which he described as slightly damaged.